Broilers and rabbits?

[hereford_girl_01]

Hi everyone! I’m gonna show broilers in our state fair. The fair ships 25 of them out and they are to arrive this August. I’ve heard a lot of talk about rabbits helping the chickens stay up and eating. Do any of you know about this? What’s the best breed? Best sex? Best age? Etc? Thank you all for your feedback!

 

[SunHwaKwon]

My rabbits eat all my chicken food. That's the only info I can contribute lol

 

[Mvan42]

My rabbits live with my chickens in the same coop, they also eat the chicken food.

 

[Eggscaping]

Hi everyone! I’m gonna show broilers in our state fair. The fair ships 25 of them out and they are to arrive this August. I’ve heard a lot of talk about rabbits helping the chickens stay up and eating. Do any of you know about this? What’s the best breed? Best sex? Best age? Etc? Thank you all for your feedback!

Rabbits help them 'stay up and eating'? What exactly does that mean? I can't get a mental picture here...other than a rabbit forcefully slapping a chicken: "Eat, damnit! EAT!"....

 

[cassie]

Hi everyone! I’m gonna show broilers in our state fair. The fair ships 25 of them out and they are to arrive this August. I’ve heard a lot of talk about rabbits helping the chickens stay up and eating. Do any of you know about this? What’s the best breed? Best sex? Best age? Etc? Thank you all for your feedback!

My broilers never needed any help staying up and eating. If anything, they ate too much, or tried to. I have no idea where that came from. It sounds like nonsense to me.

 

[123RedBeard]

If your wanting your broilers to get up and move around ... your better off getting some Standard Large Fowl Chicks at the same time ... the will help teach the broilers how to scratch and run around ... if this is what your asking about ...

 

[CindyinSD]

If you have a 24-7 light, the broilers ( CX I assume?) will eat. If you allow/stimulate them to eat as much as they can, they may die. I’m guessing that the biggest, healthiest broiler wins? This is going to be a balancing act for you—to give enough feed to grow rapidly but not enough to kill the broilers. They’ll eat themselves literally to death if you let them, no bunnies required.

 

[cassie]

Here is how I managed my broilers and I had good success with them, too. They only had access to feed from seven in the morning until seven at night. I had the feeders and waterers on chains that hung from the rafters so the height could be adjusted as the chickens grew. I had them low enough so the chickens could reach them but high enough so they had to stand tall to do so. The feeders were on one side of the pen and the waterers were on the other. That way the chickens had to walk several feet to get from one to the other. Worked for me.

 

[hereford_girl_01]

Rabbits help them 'stay up and eating'? What exactly does that mean? I can't get a mental picture here...other than a rabbit forcefully slapping a chicken: "Eat, damnit! EAT!"....

Well you gave me a laugh, , but no I’ve heard that when they hop around they keep them from getting too inactive when they get big and fat.

 

[hereford_girl_01]

Here is how I managed my broilers and I had good success with them, too. They only had access to feed from seven in the morning until seven at night. I had the feeders and waterers on chains that hung from the rafters so the height could be adjusted as the chickens grew. I had them low enough so the chickens could reach them but high enough so they had to stand tall to do so. The feeders were on one side of the pen and the waterers were on the other. That way the chickens had to walk several feet to get from one to the other. Worked for me.

I don’t have a coop for them, I just intend to keep them in a tub in a temperature controlled environment until they outgrow it, and then put them in a chicken tractor.