We have an egg business now with 125 hens and a handful or roos. We bought it set up but I am thinking it may need some changes to fit the farm.
They are free range on our property and this won't change (there is a 40x40 electric fence in front of the door to keep the fox away from the chicken door), but we do lock them up between 7 and 10 PM (depends on time of year) and open the door again around 7 AM.
They live in a Green house that is aprox 14 x 24, it has 16 nest boxes, and 8 long roost bars. They have a 4x4 sandbath inside for rainy days and water inside, food is outside unless a bad winter storm comes through (we get those less than 10 days a year.
I would like to scale back to less than 100 including roos as the waste is too much for the space, also I HATE the layout.
If they stay in it I want 2" gravel, with patio stones on top than their hay, the only other building I have is a 10 x 10 mini barn I intend to put together for my goats.
Also we raise 100-200 hundred meat birds, 50 at a time on pasture and build them shelters every year, I would like to work on that scenario too.
If we kicked the layers out of the hoop it could be a green house or for meat birds but they would have smaller digs, I would rather leave them and just mod what they have, and come up with something for the meat birds.
So after all this long rambling, I guess I'm asking what would you do??? I included a pic so you could see the layout they came with. I want to replace those roost bars ASAP.
They are free range on our property and this won't change (there is a 40x40 electric fence in front of the door to keep the fox away from the chicken door), but we do lock them up between 7 and 10 PM (depends on time of year) and open the door again around 7 AM.
They live in a Green house that is aprox 14 x 24, it has 16 nest boxes, and 8 long roost bars. They have a 4x4 sandbath inside for rainy days and water inside, food is outside unless a bad winter storm comes through (we get those less than 10 days a year.
I would like to scale back to less than 100 including roos as the waste is too much for the space, also I HATE the layout.
If they stay in it I want 2" gravel, with patio stones on top than their hay, the only other building I have is a 10 x 10 mini barn I intend to put together for my goats.
Also we raise 100-200 hundred meat birds, 50 at a time on pasture and build them shelters every year, I would like to work on that scenario too.
If we kicked the layers out of the hoop it could be a green house or for meat birds but they would have smaller digs, I would rather leave them and just mod what they have, and come up with something for the meat birds.
So after all this long rambling, I guess I'm asking what would you do??? I included a pic so you could see the layout they came with. I want to replace those roost bars ASAP.
