Turkey Daze! Field Trip 1

WELCOME TO OUR BROODER COOP!

*Please note that I am a school teacher so if I sound like I am taking a group elementary students to a tour of our farm, I come by it honestly.*

Today I am going to take you on a field trip to the brooder coop!  I hope you don't mind my friends from Mali, Africa are going to join us! The broader coop is a large barn that we first start raising the turkeys in!

Let me first give you a little background on the farm.  We buy our turkeys when they are one day old, and raise them until they are ready for market.

There is so much to do to prepare for the little turkeys to come!  The brooder coop needs to be cleaned, sanitized, repairs need to be made, new turkey bedding is put down (this is soft wood shavings), feeders and the waters need to be cleaned, the temperature needs to be nice and warm for the turkeys, etc., etc.

My kids like to  help clean the feeders,  then put them on our four wheeler trailer, and then we put them strategically around the brooder coop.

We fill the little feeders with feed, which is a big job when you are feeding 15,000 turkeys!

My kids will help fill the buckets for their mom and dad to carry and go feed... until they get bored, then they usually just play with the Tonka trucks we bring in the shed for them to play with! 

New feed is put in the manual feeders every day the first week, after that the automatic feeders are used. The red things you see in the pictures are where turkeys get water. 

We are now ready for baby turkeys or poults! If a turkey has a 'cute' age, the first week would be it!  When you enter the broader coop, which holds around 15,000 turkeys the first thing you will notice is it is HOT!  For the baby turkeys or poults, they need it nice and warm.  So the temperature in this barn is around 90 degrees, and fairly humid.

I go in the barn and it feels hot, but my husband and father-in-law can go in the turkey coop and can sense if the temperature and air flow are right.  By observing the turkeys and feeling the air they can tell what levels need to be adjusted, etc.  This sense comes from years of experience.  The turkeys in the brooder coop are checked 3-4 times per day.

Additionally, the broader coop has a computer that lets you know the temperature, humidity levels, etc. We have an alarm on the brooder coops and every barn on our farm that lets us know if they run out of feed, if the water stops for some reason, if it gets to hot, etc. We can also see the controllers on our computer at home, or any computer in the world! Nothing is better then checking the barn in person, but this helps us know they are Ok, when we are other places, or if there is a potential problem.

The brooder coop is a very safe and clean environment.  My kids love playing with the turkeys, they learn how to hold them carefully and be very gentle.  You also have to be quiet in the brooder coop you scare the turkeys if you are loud or scream.

If you notice in some of the pictures, the brooder coop has three sections.  Each section is a different flock. The turkeys will stay in the brooder coop for five weeks, and then we move them to three different grow out barns, according to flocks.  The turkeys grow so fast they could not possibly stay in the brooder coop for more than five weeks, they have out grown it!
 
This is one of my favorite family pictures in the baby turkeys!

I feel like I need to add a note that says, our kids are very little.  We by no means force them to work and help us, they are still at the age where they love to help.  We find jobs that they are able to do.  They usually like to help for about half hour to an hour, and then they just play.  I love that they have the opportunity to learn to work along side their mom and dad.
Thanks for visiting our farm!
To learn about the history of our farm, and see all of the fun Turkey Daze Recipes/Crafts go HERE!