Cleaning up behind Jumbo Cornish Cross

[marmarjake]

I have 25 Jumbo Cornish Cross from Schlects Hatchery that are 3 weeks old. I have them in a tractor moved daily. However, the mess that is left daily leaves something to be desired. My husband, reluctantly, agreed to not complain as I raise the "mutant birds" so I need to be on top of minimizing the waste.

What can I do to the previous days patch of grass to insure it does not die, become a matted mess of feed and poo, or a fly convention. I have DE, but it is raining alot here which makes it useless.

Help a first time meaty mom out PLEASE!


They are in their awkward stage...but I still appreciate their potential.

 

[Lexiluke]

I am new to this game also but am at 6 1/2 weeks (20 birds). I found that I had a similar problem until I started to make their day area much bigger. My tractor is small (4x8) but I let them out every day in a wire fenced-in area that is roughly 30'x20'. Yes, there is still a mess but it gets spread out more evenly and you don't have to move the run daily, just the tractor. As long as you move the coop regularly, the grass will grow back. The area that I had sectioned off 2 weeks ago is already growing back. I also run a rake through the mess just to break things up a little. Add a little rain and things will be fine. Don't forget to tell the hubby that it is fertilizer also! Keep in mind, I am a beginner too but this way has worked out so far for me. I am processing this weekend because mine are just too big. I don't want to lose any more. I just don't have the time to pick it up and compost it.

 

[Darin115]

It will grow back eventually. And it will be the greenest grass you ever seen. You can't buy fetlizer than good.

Darin

 

[marmarjake]

We have a good sized garden too. The tomatoes are loving the chicken litter from the hens and he is loving that. I think I will get a rake and try that route. It is hard to let mine free range right now as our yard is chain linked and they can still get through. The neighbor's Jack Russell would love it!

I have been wetting it since it has been raining to dilute it some more. Unfortunately, my boxer (who is chicken friendly) is facinated with the previous day's location and the waterhose. Yuck!

I guess I may think about trying to modify a temp solution of a moveable free rage area for a little green time. It will have to be when I am out though cause the neighbor's cats are not scared of my son's BB gun. It is an adventure, but I love it.

 

[Sundown_Farmer]

I tried soaking it up with sawdust after each move. I put 60 birds in an 8x10 tractor and put down a 5-gallon bucket of fine oak sawdust after each move. It doesn't make a huge immediate impact but it seems to hold in the smell which means it's holding in more nutrients. The grass comes back like Darin115 says...stronger and greener than ever.

Don't return birds to the same patch of grass more than once/year though. Too much nitrogen.

 

[marmarjake]

I am moving them twice a day to keep them on green grass and new bugs ect. Once around 6pm and once at lunch is my routine. We are on the edge of the corn in my garden now. Hopefully, the silver queen will shoot up due to the nitrogen. They are in an area now that has really lush grass. See I am not on a farm.

I am in a neighborhood and only have a bit over an acre- but I make the most of it.

 

[myhubbycallsmechickeemama]

I had my CX in a tractor on my lawn last year and every morning we would move it and I would take the hose and spray all the poop down into the grass....sometimes this could take me close to an hour. I never had them kill my grass as a matter of fact, just the opposite. Within 2 days of moving the tractor that spot would be the most plush green grass!! It's kind of funny but you could see exactly where the tractor sat each time and where it didn't. We had a nice 12x8 pattern in our lawn.

This year I have an electric poultry net around the back part of my lawn and they free range. I have been feeding fermented feed and the poop output on this batch compared to the last is less than half. LOVE IT!!! Oh, and with the fermented feed...they don't stink!! Hubby is very impressed.