Hatching Turkeys at School

[adriapaladin]

Hi All,

I'm teaching Agriculture at a high school, and we want to raise organic-fed turkeys and sell them, butchered, for Thanksgiving. This is my first time raising turkeys, and the problem is this:

We have brooder boxes to keep inside the school, made from horse troughs and 50-gallon storage bins, but when the chicks hit about 4-weeks old, we will need to move them to their outdoor pen. We have plenty of heat lamps at our disposal.

Will it work to move approximately 12 4-week old chicks into a standard chicken coop + pen with heat lamps in May in Kentucky (avg. high = 75, low = 54)? What can we do to fix this if not? Keeping indoors once they are bigger than basketballs is not an option.

Thanks,
Cyndi

 

[R2elk]

Will it work to move approximately 12 4-week old chicks into a standard chicken coop + pen with heat lamps in May in Kentucky (avg. high = 75, low = 54)? What can we do to fix this if not? Keeping indoors once they are bigger than basketballs is not an option.

I start my turkey poults at 90°F measured at the bedding level. I reduce the temperature by 5°F once a week until they are down to the ambient temperature. By the time the poults are 4 weeks old they should already be acclimated to 75°F and ready for the temperature to be reduced to 70°F.

Theoretically your poults will be able to tolerate the 75°F daytime temperatures but will still require heat to get them through the night. Of course this all theoretical because actual temperatures are very frequently different from seasonal averages.

What you do also depends on whether you are raising broad breasted turkeys or heritage turkeys. For optimal results, the turkeys will need lots of room. I would give them a bare minimum of 10 sq. ft. per turkey in the "coop" and lots more room outside of the coop.