Cage or Coop & Run???

[Nsampsel]

I'm considering getting some meat birds but already have 18 other birds in my coop (banties, standard & 2 Mallards) & 4 tiny Banties in my brooder. I'm building 2 additional coops with runs for the Banties & Mallards, but don't have room for a 4th for meaties. Should I cage them for the few weeks I need for them to grow or toss them in with my standard birds? My oldest standard chicks are about 8-10 wks old with the youngest at about 1 1/2 weeks, Mallards are 1/2 grown at about 4-6 weeks, and my Banties are mixed from 1 1/2 weeks to 8-10 wks old. I'm trying for the best outcome for ALL of my birds.

 

[Nsampsel]

Does anyone have any advice on this please???

 

[Life is Good!]

What kind of meat birds are you considering?

 

[SmallFarmChick]

How about one of those LARGE tractors?
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/omelays-chicken-coop-tractor
This one above is cool.

 

[Nsampsel]

I'm in town so the tractor idea is out because my yard isn't big enuf to move it around (we have to stay 50 ft away from everything with the birds).

As for the type...probably Cornish Cross...it's all my local TSC carries.

 

[Beekissed]

I wouldn't put them in the pens with your other birds. They have different needs than your other breeds...they eat differently and they poop lots and lots of stinking, liquidy stools. They can't defend themselves like the other breeds either...too slow moving after they get some age on them.

It all depends on what kind of life you want these CX to have during their time with you...if you don't mind their lives being like it is in the big agribiz places, you can confine them to a pen/cage and feed and water them. If you want them to have some freedom and normalcy before they are food, you will want to give them some room in which to be a chicken.

Maybe you could have a friend with more space raise some for you?

 

[Raen]

It kind of sounds like you simply don't have room for more birds, which sucks, and I know the feeling (says the girl who REALLY wants a horse, but doesn't live on acreage right now). Personally, I wouldn't get meat chickens unless I had enough room to tractor them, period. From everything I've read, keeping them enclosed is a giant, stinky mess, and who needs that? Good luck!

 

[Kaitie09]

I don't know how much room you have, but we kept 28 Cornish X in a 10x4' plywood box coop with a 10x16' dog kennel run and it worked fine. I kept them in the coop until they started to feather out (about 2-3 weeks) and then they had access to the run. I was cleaning the coop every other day, and the run built up some mud around the food and water, but other than that they were pretty clean.

 

[Nsampsel]

I was really only looking to get 5-10 meaties...and with 3 areas available was thinking maybe I could just add a couple to each coop/run?

My run for my 2 mallards is 32 sq ft with a 3x3 "duck box".
My large fowl run is 96 sq ft with a 4x5 coop & 6 nest boxes attached to outside wall of coop (making total area about 5x5 or so)
The bantum pen which is in progress of being built will be about 48 sq ft & a planned 4x4 coop with 4-6 nest boxes attached.

The ducks just moved to their new pen 2 days ago & currently, my large fowl coop is housing all of my chicks (now ranging from about 2 1/2 weeks old to 10 weeks) including 12 standard chickens (at least 10 are pullets, the Columbian Rock is still too young to tell) and 4 Bantum pullets. 4 additional Bantums (sex yet unknown) are still in the brooder in the house because they are so small they can slip right thru the chicken wire & 2x3 hardware cloth around the bottom of my standard run. The Bantum coop is being built with 1 inch hardware cloth. The ducks ended up with (i think) 1.5 x 2 hardware cloth just because I picked it up by accident. I didn't put the extra barrier of chicken wire around the bottom 2 ft on it like I did the standard run. All runs have/will have sand bottoms & all coops/boxes are filled with straw.

 

[Beekissed]

The meaties have different eating habits than do regular fowl...any feed left out free choice will be eaten continuously, resulting in birds that grow too quickly and then cannot move well. They suffer from leg problems, heart attacks and gangrenous breasts, wings, etc. when they cannot get up off the ground. If you are feeding a lower protein feed and you don't offer free choice, you may get by with it and they may do fine amongst the other birds.

Others report the CX in penned situations with other breeds getting picked upon and even killed~particularly in small pens. Their skin is very tender and bald patches are exposed when they grow quickly..it seems like a red flag to other birds and they will pick at these places and even disembowel the CX.