Cornish X broilers and sand in the coop

[Chick Li]

Hi all,
Last November we butchered 10 Cornish X from Meyers Hatchery. This was our first try at broilers. Meyers was out of male birds so I ordered females. They grew great and not one of them died. A couple of the birds did get more sedentar ymore close to the end. My DH could walk in the backyard when we let them out of the tractor and they would follow him like he was the pied piper. That is when he had food in his hands. Yes we tried to feed them worms and bugs and they just spit it out. Ha-ha They were raised with 2 RIR's and a Deleware. To this day the Deleware honks like the broilers. We will do it again. We went to 10 weeks couldn't do it at nine we were out of town. They were about 8lbs then. They very little water retention around the heart and other organs. The fat content wasn't bad either. We'll do it again for sure. In fact DS is doing a broiler meat pen for the fair this year.

Well last year we went and got sand box sand and used it with the broilers. It didn't drain well. Man I couldn't believe how much the birds pooped. We did get rid of the watery poop by fermenting their food. They took to it and we had less waste. Now all of my birds are on wet food.

Well my question is, what kind of sand do you have your broilers on? Is it all sand or sand and pebble mix. What kind is it. Construction sand, coarse paver sand etc..

Thanks
Happy Backyard Chickens on the Central Coast of California

 

[astantz]

I get my sand at Lowe's. It by the bags of quik-crete. Its actually quik-crete brand and it's in a clear bag and says play sand on the front of it!

 

[Chick Li]

We did that last year and it didn't drain well for us. The sand stayed moist. Did you add any pebbles to your sand. I think that is what we might do.