Birds on Pasture vs a stationary building....

[95yj]

i raised ten cx's this spring in a tractor, i can't imagine doing three hundred, with just ten i thought the mess they made was nuts... but anyways, i finaly got sick of them sitting around in my basement and threw them out, i didn't bother to write down how old they were and have since forgotten but they were pretty young, probably too young to go outside. especialy outside into a new england spring. i think it was around mid-late may and the day i put them out it was 65 and sunny, that night it dropped to 45 and started pouring, didn't stop for 5 days straight, literaly. and i never lost any. as for tractoring them on snow, doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose since all of the vegetation will be covered up and bugs will be gone, also cx's just don't strike me as a winter hardy breed, maybe another breed.

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

At about 5 weeks the 300ish were in a 40 x 15 area, so they had lots of room for that age, but by the end (I was probably down to 275 at 7 weeks) they were too close by my standards for sure. It was a mess and the worst looking birds in terms of feather and lack of on the bottom that I had ever produced.

I don't have the grass for them to be out of that you see in Jeff's pictures, but even movement to clean natural range is huge for these birds. We have water restrictions here, a well that is 1.5 gallons a minute and a cistern for holding that has to run the house too so I just can not irrigate grass.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Quote:
Oh, man... I'm living your set up all over again. It is absolutely horrible! I have a metal roof... it seems the bedding only last a day maybe two and I find myself putting more in. They are blowing through feed at the current moment as I'm going through about 300 lbs a day now. I think the total so far is well over a ton at 5 weeks. I believe I will go through at least 3-4 thousand more before they are ready. I'm hoping to stay under 3 ton with this batch but with the weather it's tough.

I have the ventilation kind of under control. The problem is, that when the wind and very cold sets in... you can't keep the windows wide open. It's hard, and like you said very tough to manage the overall production of the flock and to try and justify raising them this late just doesn't pan out. If I do it early or late again, the prices will just have to go up as I can't take a hit as it's just too much labor to keep everyone happy.

I'm keeping close tabs on my cost to see exactly what it cost to raise them... will keep ya updated... see if our numbers match at all.

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

Add the dolomite to the straw and it seems to help keep things drier, but still, ya, it's a nightmare. I feel your pain.

 

[jaku]

Good information- doing them indoors sounds like hell. I don't even like brooding them in my barn. I can't fathom the people who keep 25 of them in their house. My wife would never even let me do it in our attached garage!