Newbie, lots of questions. egglayers and meatbirds

[barefootinthewoods]

Im up-cycling an old camper into a "coop" for the egg layers, and was just going to make Salatin style boxes for the meat birds.

The camper when complete will have about 260 sq feet of floor space, and the "run" is 1500sq feet of fenced in pasture.

I only want to start with 30 egg layers and 100 meat birds. Am I setting myself up for disappointment? I wanted the camper to be mobile, ( salatin's eggmobile style) but with the way our field is set up, and the other livestock, it just doesn't seem easy. Seems much better to move it once a year or every few years? Then dh wants to know why we dont just put them all together. Is this a bad idea? Ive read mixed opinions. I read him Salatin's book where it says the meat birds wont go the length of the "run" they will stay toward one side and turn it to mud? the rule of thumb seems to be 4-5sqfeet per bird and with 130 birds, we 'll have double that.

What about hoophouses vs boxes for meatbirds? Ive seen lots for egglayers, but like i said, I already have an intended home for them. What do you seasoned pros think?

 

[CrimsonRose]

I'm not a pro by any means... I raise my batches of birds in very small groups... but I still wouldn't put meat birds with egg layers... if you are buying them as chicks the meat birds will be double the size of the egg birds in about a week... and if they get much bigger they start bullying the egg birds...

to get the meaties to walk around a bit... try putting the water on one side of the pen and the food on the other... then they at least need to walk from one side to the other a few times a day!

 

[weekend farmer]

I raise meat birds as well as layers....I raised 25 cornish cross last year and plan on doing 50-75 this year. Do it seperate the cornish cross are disgusting. They eat all day and with that comes pooping all day. It makes a total mess, not to mention your birds need different diets as they mature.