Co housing meat birds and layers????

[majiklady]

Well we are about to take flight into the world of chickens... right now we are designing the coop and want to keep 20 layers and I would love to have about 25 meat birds as well. What are the rules about sharing housing and runs with these two ?
Thanks so much!

 

[Garden Gal]

Assuming you aren't talking about housing cornish x with egg layers, I don't see a problem. My understanding is that cornish x's have very specific needs which are better met if they are housed alone.
I've had both hens and extra roos together until the roos got large enough to cull and we didn't have any problems. I can't think of any issues, but I'm sure someone with more experience will chime in if there is a problem I'm not thinking of!

 

[Bantimna]

You could design your coop that the meaties are on one side and the layers on the other.

 

[CARS]

Quote:
You have that completely backwards bantimna.

1st, meaties love light, everyone does, but after a couple weeks you feed 12 hours on/12 hours off so they don't out grow their structure (leg problems, fat, heart attack).

Layers do need a steady supply of light. I give mine 14 hours 365 days a year via sun (when available) and lights on a timer. I feed my layers 24 hrs a day.

You could split the coop but be prepared to clean the meat side 6x as often.

(maybe on the other side of the equator it is different. I have heard the toilet water spins the other direction from ours

)

 

[Bantimna]

Quote:
You have that completely backwards bantimna.

1st, meaties love light, everyone does, but after a couple weeks you feed 12 hours on/12 hours off so they don't out grow their structure (leg problems, fat, heart attack).

Layers do need a steady supply of light. I give mine 14 hours 365 days a year via sun (when available) and lights on a timer. I feed my layers 24 hrs a day.

You could split the coop but be prepared to clean the meat side 6x as often.

(maybe on the other side of the equator it is different. I have heard the toilet water spins the other direction from ours

)

oops

 

[greenpeeps]

I'm designing a coop for just that purpose. I currently have an 8x10 shed that would house 8 laying hens and around 12 broilers at any given time. I'm trying to design the coop so that it can be split in two sections and then open up into one large area. I'll post the drawing as soon as it's done.

 

[majiklady]

Thanks so much...

What about sharing the run area? Any problems with that? Splitting the coop would be fairly easy I think.

 

[CARS]

Quote:
Are you going to train the broilers to go in their door and the layers in theirs??

They will be fine on the same ground if you don't let the meaties poo in one concentrated place. I don't know what it would do to the hens???

 

[patandchickens]

You *can* keep meaties and layers under the same roof, but if you have the option of NOT doing it, that'd be better. Reason: meaties, as normally kept, create QUITE an enormous amount of moisture and ammonia, which is hard enough to control on their own behalf let alone wanting your layers to be affected by it. The ideal situation in most cases would be a very open coop for the meaties, e.g. a 2- or 3-sided shed, with mesh on the other sides and the ability to put a heat lamp or heated hover in the back-most corner of it for when the chicks are young (in conjunction with an additional windbreak or draft-guard for that period)... and to have this be either a totally separate building from your layers, or to have it as a lean-to extension off your layer coop that does not share any ventilation with the layer coop.

As for a run, if these are typical CornishX meat chicks you are wanting to raise, it is really better to give them their own run. (A lot of people do not give them a run at all, but I think they are much better off with it... more exercise, healthier, more muscles, lower death rate, happier birds). First, because they will make the same horrible crappy stinking wet mess of the run as they do in the coop; but also because, after the first few weeks, they tend to become extremely couch-potato-y and fair game for pecking by more active chickens. Also it will be easier to ensure that everyone gets an adequate amount of the proper food if you separate the two flocks.

Of course there are other ways to do it too, but the above is probably the most effective for most situations IMO.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat