250 Chicks

[KatyTheChickenLady]

wow, glad you have some experience . . . keep us posted I know we allwould like to hear of both your trials and your tribulations, How big are the tractors and how many birds will they contain? what crop are you using them to fertilize? . . . just curious

 

[barrybro]

They will be fertilizing a small pasture.

Barry

 

[AVizcaya]

Here is a question that has been nagging me, how do you deal with pasty butt when you have 250 chicks? I have yet to get one shipped batch of chicks that doesn't get pasty butt, can't imagine having to deal with 250 dirty little butts. Just curious.

 

[barrybro]

I don't know, I haven't had it yet.

 

[chicks4kids]

Out of my 50 here, we haven't had any issues with pasty butt either...knock on wood...

 

[Sundown_Farmer]

I can't imagine it. Wife and I can kill and chill15 birds/hour. Maybe 20 when we get more organized. It would take nearly 17 hours to get through 250 birds plus another couple of hours of cleanup. Good for the mobile processing unit you hired. A man's got to know his limitations.

 

[Cindysid]

My 19 cornish x rocks will be ready for slaughter this weekend. They range in weight from 4 lbs to 6lbs right now. I kept them and 30 other assorted chicks in a 2x5 homemade brooder for the first 2 weeks. I originally had 21 but lost 2 due to "pasty butt" the first week. I moved them all over to an 8x10 shed after week 2 and haven't had any losses since. I kept the heat lamp on at night up until this week. They have been allowed to "free range" in my large yard since the 3rd week and seem to love it. It cuts down on the poop in the pen and my husband faithfully washes down the little messes in the yard with the water hose. My grandson named all of them "Bob". We are going to arrange for him to be elsewhere when "Bob" meets his/their demise. I have 20 cochins and 10 silkies to keep him company afterwards. I am using pine shavings and straw for bedding and I am not real happy with either. I hope to find stove pellets to use for the next batch!

 

[jaku]

Quote:
You really don't have to worry about it. Consider this- do you think anyone but backyard poultry folks are holding wet towels on chicken butts? Haha, no way! I can't picture an old crusty farmer checking 1000 chicken butts every day. I did it obscessively when I was doing batches of 25, but they really will figure it out on their own. I would say that most dead birds with pasty butt died from something else, and ALSO had a pasty butt.

 

[barrybro]

Picture update -

The birda have been out on the pasture since week 3. They are doing great.

Thanks Barry

 

[Dogfish]

Dang. I went 4, then 6, then 25. You really know how to bring it up a notch.