Chicken tractor "density"

[max13077]

That was the only way I could think to say it. Is it 1 square foot per bird for tractors?

 

[patandchickens]

(the following is edited because I did not originally notice that this was posted under Meat Birds Etc

)

If you want to be raising broilers under commercial broiler farm type conditions.

The space requirement for chickens in a tractor is no different, really, than in a fixed coop.

Most people seem to give broilers 2-3 sq ft per chicken in a tractor, more if you like them to be cleaner and happier and more active.

Good luck,

Pat

 

[willheveland]

I put about 15 in my 6x8 so about 3.2sq.ft per bird and about 25 in my 8x8 so about 2.56 sq.ft per bird.So thats pretty close to
patandchickens formula.Not sure why but seems my bigger ones always come out of the more crowded coop. Will

 

[Wildsky]

Quote:
That would be very squished up with no room to move around. More is much better.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

In Joel Salatin's book, Pastured Poultry Profits, he started by raising 100 birds in a 10x12 tractor. If I recall correctly, he said that he tried different stocking densities and when he got down to 75 in those size pens, he found that the birds were not growing out as fast, too much running around. I think he finally settled on around 90 per pen.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

I start out with 100 in my pens and they are 8 x 16. I use 16 foot planks for the front and 2x4x8 for the sides.

If you put too many in your not going to get good gains. If you put too little in your not going to get fast gains but your going to get more pasture and bugs / bird so you will get a lower feed to pasture ratio.

 

[patandchickens]

Partly it depends how high a priority you place on maximal weight gain.


Pat

 

[Bossroo]

Quote:
The best and brightest among us are figuring out that more is not always better.

 

[Bossroo]

Quote:
Another bight one put their mind to figure out that more space is not always better to give you more yield of meat for the table.

 

[Bossroo]

Quote:
...and another bright one is comming to the same conclusion . The way that the chickens hunt down and devour bugs... all the bugs in any given space will have gone down the tubes in a mater of minuts to hours time depending on the size of the tractor or free range and all that is left in the pasture is vegetation that is devoured in short order and then what is left is less palatable older and not as nutritous cellulose parts of the plant and weeds that are not consumed. Not to mention concentrated poop that covers all remaining vegetation that the chicken will not eat. That in turn forces the chickens to run around more and expend their energy searching for anything edible instead of producing meat. Ideal world and real world just don't always align.