Tag Archives: turkeys

Start of a Turkey Coop and End of a Deck

1 Reply

We had wavered a little on whether or not to build a turkey coop. After all, we have a pretty kickass chicken coop that is about 70 square feet. A few turkeys should be able to fit pretty well, right?

Turkey face
Hey, where’s my coop?

Well, we have learned a lot more about raising birds and we have found that they are rather territorial and since these birds weren’t raised together, it could be quite the task to try and cohabitate them. Plus, there are some diseases that chickens can transmit to turkeys, so we decided to go ahead and build them a coop.

Another factor in our wavering was the cost. To build a coop similar to the chickens’ from new wood would probably cost a good thousand dollars. We didn’t have another deck bathroom to remove so what should we do? We talked about bamboo, a hoop house, just a covered run until they were bigger and could sleep in the trees…None of these choices sounded like the right one.

House before

Then one day as we were discussing it, I looked up at the wood house and said, “Well, aren’t we planning on removing the deck and building a new one anyway? If we are going to spend $1000+ on wood shouldn’t it be on OUR structure instead of the turkeys?” And so that is when the turkey coop decision was finally made.

Britton started by removing the bars from the window on the part of the deck that he would be dismantling. From the inside it is pretty hard to get at because it is right over the stairwell. There is a little hatch that folds over to stand on over the stairs in order to reach the window. Sometimes we feel like the house is more a big boat than a house!

Window board over stair

Next, he started to take apart the deck itself. This process took a bit of time, but wasn’t too complicated.

BK on Deck
Removing the deck on a gorgeous day

Once the wood was on the ground we were able to sort out which pieces would work and which were too far gone. Some of them are aesthetically worn down, but will still function in a coop. It is pretty amazing, actually how well this deck has stood up to the time and weather. It is probably about 25 years old and hasn’t had any maintenance done on it in at least 15! And yet, here it still stood! At least until we got our hands on it!

Britton and pile o wood
Cleaning and powerwashing the boards

The next phase was choosing a site and starting the base once more. The turkey coop will be similar in style and construction to the chicken coop, but just down the hill a ways more.

Cassie at the coop site 1At the coop site!

Another end brings yet another beginning. We are looking forward to saying, “So long, deck and hello, turkey coop!”

House without a deck
The house with half its deck removed

What do you think of this post?
  • WOW (1)
  • Awesome (6)
  • Interesting (2)
  • Useful (0)
  • Bummer (0)
  • Whoa (0)

Leaving the Compound AKA Our Trip to Mayaguez

2 Replies

We enjoy people and like to get out and be social occasionally, but are perfectly content hanging out with each other on the property much of the time. We have plenty to do and enough space to stretch our legs and go for a walk even if it is just a hike through the lower jungle.

When our friends stayed with us a few weeks ago they remarked as we did all our farm chores we would need to do in order to leave like loading up the turkeys, locking up everything, feeding and checking on the chickens, watering the gardens and grabbing something to eat, “You really don’t leave very much do you?” And we replied, “Nope…I guess not!”

From fire pit up at house
View from halfway down the hill looking up

It’s pretty cool just hanging out on the property what with all that we have set in motion with the plants, animals and projects, but sometimes we do have to go out and face society/civilization again. Usually it is to restock on some supplies. As the list grows and grows, it finally comes to a point where we need to “go in to town.”

For instance today’s list for the trip to Mayaguez looked a little like this:

Walkie-talkies
Golf Balls
Bags of Cement
Toilet Paper
Posts
Screws
Nails
Screen doors
Fishing Line
Watch battery
Gear Shift Boot
Binoculars

Some of these are not for what you might think. The walkie-talkies are for communicating with each other when one of us is in one part of the property and the other is somewhere else, though we had a lot of fun messing with them while we were in the Mayaguez Mall sending out random “Código Rojo” calls.

Kitty and walkies
Kitty and the walkie-talkies

The golf balls were the hardest of all to find! We went to three stores looking for them! And we did not go on this crazy scavenger hunt because we are huge golf fans. (We in fact are laughably horrible at golf, but we have fun trying.) It is because we needed to use them as egg decoys to encourage the chickens to use the new nesting boxes.

golf ball
Golf ball in the nesting box!

The fishing line, similarly, is not for fishing but rather to keep the hawks away. Apparently from what we have read, hawks are reticent to enter any area that seems like a trap and so stringing fishing line is a deterrent. The binoculars are also to keep an eye out for hawks and iguanas in the trees as well as to bird watch. We have seen a little pitirre nest in the algarroba tree right above the chicken coop which is great because these little birds have been dive bombing the hawks left and right! Another great deterrent!

We ended up going to so many stores in order to get these and other items: Wal-Mart, Marshall’s, a watch repair kiosk, a fruit stand (inside the mall), a papa asada lunch cart, Radio Shack, Home Depot, Sports Connection, Triangle Motors, K-Mart, and Sam’s. After about 5 hours of running all around we were totally worn out by the time we got home.

We should be good now for a couple of weeks before we need to go back to Mayaguez for a supply run. We are in the early stages of building a turkey coop, so we needed some materials for that as well. We are going to re-use as much material as possible including some wood from the deck.

The turkeys are growing a lot and we know they will need a coop soon. They are so sweet and a lot different from chickens in how they respond to us. They like to sit in our laps and just be pet. They also just follow us around everywhere and always want to be near us when we take them on walks.  Something we could not have done with chickens at this age.

Britton Turkey walk
Taking the turkeys on a walk

All the running around in town with traffic, lines and people is such a drastic contrast to what we do most of the time, but it is fun in its own way. We are reminded of the larger area in which we live and all the vibrant characters all around and we are able to bring back supplies to keep our favorite things going and growing back at the finca.

chicken and pineapple These are a few of our favorite things!

 

What do you think of this post?
  • WOW (1)
  • Awesome (7)
  • Interesting (2)
  • Useful (0)
  • Bummer (0)
  • Whoa (0)

Challenges of Jungle Lite: Termite Swarms and Rat Attacks

3 Replies

When we arrived to Puerto Rico and were talking about all the challenges of living in a tropical environment, someone remarked that in comparison to some areas, the Puerto Rico jungle is “Jungle Lite”. This is because in other parts of the world, such as the Amazon or even Central America, you might find big cats like panthers or howling monkeys and venomous snakes and spiders, none of which we have on this island.

Still, I would say that adjusting to the tropics, even “jungle lite” tropics like Puerto Rico takes some getting used to. Coming from Colorado, we were not used to the humidity or the ocean or the flora and fauna. We have mostly come to a balance with these things, but then we are hit with a new challenge to sort out. Like the ones we had last night and today.

Termites
Termite season!

Yesterday we had a pretty good afternoon rain. We let the chickens out around 5pm and did a free range supervision like we do until they put themselves back into the coop when the sky darkens (around 7pm). Then we went into the house to make dinner. We noticed one then another “moth” flying around the light. We ignored it because we often see the occasional moth. Then we saw a few more. Then they started landing on us and it became a little annoying until we knew we had to do something! Britton swatted one and its wings fell off. That’s when we knew they weren’t moths but rather…termites! Agh!

They call termites both polilla and comejen here. I asked someone once what the difference was and he said that polilla fly and comejen don’t. So I guess we had the flight of the polilla last night.

IMG_6296Candlelight to keep the termites away

We had been paying attention to what people had said years before about the termite swarms, so we shut all the windows and turned out the lights since they are attracted to the light. We lit a citronella candle and finished cooking dinner while enjoying a glass of wine. In the morning there were termite wings all over the floor, but not nearly as many as there could have been had we not acted quickly.

The most recent encounter with jungle lite was this morning. Britton had gone out and worked on chopping some of the trees into smaller more manageable pieces, but knew it was starting to get a little too hot to continue working. So, we decided to hang out in the cool cabana for a while and watch a movie.

TurkeysTurkeys in the tractor

Suddenly I hear the baby turkeys just outside our cabana door in the turkey tractor making a bunch of chirping racket. I ran out the door and see a rat pulling a turkey by its wing underneath the tractor side walls. I yelled at it hoping it would drop the bird but it just kept scurrying and went through the chain link fence link with the turkey! Britton ran out and we both jumped around trying to throw on some clothes and shoes so we could try and chase the rat and find the turkey. Britton scaled the fence and I ran all the way around down the steep embankment and climbed my way through the thicket of vines and sansevieria plants. We hacked away for a good 45 minutes calling for the bird and looking for a trail of feathers or anything that would give us a lead, but found nothing.

Apparently turkeys and chickens are not only tasty birds to us humans, but also to most of the jungle life out here. These birds are pretty vulnerable at such a young and small age, but we didn’t think anything would attack them in broad daylight with us just 5 feet away.

Britton and I remarked that we feel like we are in a nature show and we are just one of the many creatures here. It is difficult to remember that when we are so used to being in our own separate humanland of cities and walls instead of jungle and wildlife. Even if it is jungle lite, the jungle still knows way more than we do about living here and gives us some lessons nearly every day.

What do you think of this post?
  • WOW (5)
  • Awesome (1)
  • Interesting (0)
  • Useful (1)
  • Bummer (0)
  • Whoa (0)