Coop for meat birds is it needed?

[Jo Anne]

Newbie here, I want meat birds. Do the need to be in a coop at night? We live in town have not had any trouble with predators, maybe cuz we have dogs. But my laying hens are in a portable chicken tractor at night. I have a totally enclosed fenced yard.
Do my meat birds need the same set up? being they will only be around for about 9 weeks?trying to do this inexpensive

 

[Highland Hens]

It's up to you. You know your risk. I would try to give them as much shelter as you can tho. And covering. Our hens have a coop but are free to run around our fenced in acre. We lock them in there run, if we are going to be gon for awhile. We have been lucky and never had a chicken killed by any predators, been here ten years. But they could get attacked tomorrow for all we know. They love running free and it's a joy having them forage and keeping bug population down. It's your risk, your decision. At least try to get them some sort of coverage from from possible severe weather changes. Having a plan B is always nice. good luck.

 

[Mingming]

I think you have to look at what happens if you have losses, and what you're willing to lose in exchange for the price of raising them. How much is your time worth taking care of them if you happen to lose 1/2 your flock when they're 4 weeks old? Maybe you can afford that loss, in exchange for not having shelter for them? or maybe minimal shelther? or protection? I think it depends on how much money they cost you, too. It seems no matter where I get them from, it costs (with shipping and all) about $2.00/chick. I've done about 30 in each of my two batches so far - and this time I think I can get the total cost of (organic) feed for them to about $200. total. I'm only doing a small number, so the shelter for just a few was worth it for me when I annualized it out over the 10 years I except that coop to last. for instance, it cost $450 to have someone make the coop for me, but if I run 3 batches a year then the coop is costing me about $15.00 / batch. For me, for those 8 - 10 weeks that I'm feeding the chickens, that $15.00 is worth it for me not to lose my investment. just imo!

 

[Highland Hens]

It can take time to make a coop but if your thrifty you can put something together for free. We made our chicken coop for free. It is an A frame eight foot tall by twelve foot wide by sixteen foot deep. Six foot is covered with metal roof and other ten is caged in run. There are two doors a roost and community nest box inside. All the material we got for free. The wood was old barn wood from out off a ranch along with recycled nails. The metal was free scrap sheets from home depot and the fencing was free on craigslist. We will be putting a coat of Brown paint on it that cost us five dollars this summer, the paint is oops paint from the home depot. I will try to post a pic.

So if you plan on running meat birds more than one time then maybe something like this simple and free would work.

I can't find the picture i took. I will have to take another one tomorrow when it is light out. but we are very happy with it.

 

[Elke Beck]

I did my first batch of meaties this year, and one the 5 Cornish X and 9 red rangers were ready to leave the brooder I put them in my fenced garden in a exercise pen with shade cloth over the top and an old shower curtain covering half the pen so they would have shelter from the rain. We do not get a lot of predators here - in the city and 3 dogs on duty - so I was pretty confident that they would be okay, and so far, so good. I have processed all but three Red Ranger pullet, and they are just hanging around plumping up before I do them. It worked well for me. But as others have said, you have to be okay with the risk level. I have once had an opossum get into my layer cage, so I know it could happen.

 

[Highland Hens]

We got some red rangers this year.
We have had laying hens for along time but this is our first year for meat birds.
So far they seem to be rockin.
I got the Rangers when i had some layer chicks (RR BO BR) that were 4 weeks old and the Rangers have surpassed them in size.
It wont be long now. I have about 20 of them.

Do you know what breeds make up the Red Ranger meat birds?
I am thinking that they are RR, BO, CX ? Thats my guess.

 

[anorwood]

The CX don't roost but they do like some shelter at night and for shade. We built a very simple mini-hoop that cost very little, and was easy to move around the yard each day. I'm having trouble loading in a pic, but search back to the post "Cheap cheep hoop house" in early April. We leaned scavenged pallets against each end so they felt safe but they could walk in and out at the corners easily. You don't need the shelter to be secure as you have a good perimeter fence. Feed and water them out of the shelter or it will turn into a poop house.