Update

Progress on the Big Pen!

The Ideal:

As mentioned in the last post, we are building a large (for us) pen to house both the chickens and the turkeys. We will be separating the flock by type, and by variety in the case of the turkeys. We are going to be selling the turkeys as purebreds and that means no mingling for the Bourbon Reds with the Royal Palms. We are also separating the turkeys from the chickens in order to monitor feed consumption better. 

The size of the pen is going to be a total of 20' x 50' with a common run of 10' x 50' for an 'exercise yard.'  We have decided that while the chickens will have access all day every day, but to allow for the turkeys to also enjoy this area, and continue to be separated, the Reds and the Royals will have access on alternate days.

Because we anticipate that the turkeys will return to their own space for the night we will be training them by not allowing exercise yard time for the first three weeks for any bird, chicken or turkey. That way they know where to come back to for roosting. One of the many down sides of alternating the days the turkeys will be allowed access means that we will either be having to go back at dark thirty to manually close the turkey door to the yard, OR come up with a mechanical gate that can be operated remotely or better, automatically. I like the clock timer methods over a sensor unit since the dusty nature of the fowl can lead to breakdowns or missed closings. 

So, progress:

The initial project was to find a used greenhouse and up-cycle it into as fowl Shangri-La. We found a lightly rusty but smooth arched roof  greenhouse on Craig's List that was 100 feet long. We had to do the tear down, haul off, and reassembly, but hey, that made for a fun few  days. Who doesn't like good old fashioned hard work in their DIY project? 

To set the vertical pipes that made up the walls, I borrowed a generator and jackhammer from a good friend and hammered a 6" diameter hole 24" into the lava field we call home. It took 2-3 days per hole since the lava rock was hard (Hawaiian blue rock). It also took that long because I am an old fat man with little endurance for jack hammering. John Henry, I am not.

Once the holes were done we set the 3" pipes for the sides into the holes and cemented them in. Once the concrete cured for a few days, we leveled the pipes to final height using a water level. Man those Egyptians had it going on- Marking the 12 outer pipes and the 6 inner pipes once the initial bucket was leveled and secure took only minutes! Cutting the tops to height was dicey, as I used an angle grinder on a ladder. Remember to use a face shield! Hot sparks in your eyeballs is not a fun way to finish off a hot day. 

Setting the arches was a tough job. This took two of us a week because neither of us had the free time to do it in a day so we got them done as we could. Purlins or cross bracing running the length of the pen acted as stabilizers and helped tightened the whole thing. Racking, or the shaking movement end to end of the building was dramatically decreased once the purlins were in.. In fact, as I am finishing up the interior fencing, it is getting stiffer every day.

The humidity here in Hawaii is in the 70-90 % and better range every day when not raining so to keep as much of the rain out and still allow for as much ventilation as possible, we opted for a Greenhouse or shade house type of fabric for the end and back walls. With a 50% occlusion of sunlight, it provides shade and rain protection yet still allows the breeze to waft through it.

More next time!