First time w/meat birds Help!

[HeyHey]

Help! I ordered 50 meat birds and this is my first time. How long are they on heat? Do they need a shelter other than a tractor and if so at what age?
I have raised regular egg chickens for years.
They are coming this week... I'm an idiot

 

[NatJ]

Help! I ordered 50 meat birds and this is my first time. How long are they on heat? Do they need a shelter other than a tractor and if so at what age?
I have raised regular egg chickens for years.
They are coming this week... I'm an idiot

First few days: just like any other chicks (for heat, shelter, etc.) So think of what you would do for egg layer-type chicks, and make sure it is big enough for 50 of them.

How soon they are off heat will mostly depend on the temperature in your area. Because of how fast they grow, they can often be off heat before they are fully feathered.

If you give them a great big space, with heat near one corner, you can watch their behavior: chicks that sleep away from the heat are chicks that no longer need heat. That works for pretty much all chicks, in all climates.

Most tractors are designed to provide enough shelter, except that the chicks might need more at the very beginning. For extra shelter at first, it sometimes works to use tarps, or pieces of cardboard, or empty feed bags, or anything else that can be attached to the tractor and block wind & rain for a few days or weeks.

Very young chicks might have trouble if you move the tractor onto fresh ground that is wet or cold. As they get older, that becomes less of an issue, and of course it depends on what your weather is at which point: just-shipped chicks are much more fragile than month-old chicks. You might consider keeping the tractor in one place for at least the first few days, while the chicks recover from shipping and learn how to eat, drink, get warm, etc.

If you butcher them at 8-10 weeks, they are still basically babies, and act like most other chicks of that age except for being obese and having enormous appetites.

 

[HeyHey]

First few days: just like any other chicks (for heat, shelter, etc.) So think of what you would do for egg layer-type chicks, and make sure it is big enough for 50 of them.

How soon they are off heat will mostly depend on the temperature in your area. Because of how fast they grow, they can often be off heat before they are fully feathered.

If you give them a great big space, with heat near one corner, you can watch their behavior: chicks that sleep away from the heat are chicks that no longer need heat. That works for pretty much all chicks, in all climates.

Most tractors are designed to provide enough shelter, except that the chicks might need more at the very beginning. For extra shelter at first, it sometimes works to use tarps, or pieces of cardboard, or empty feed bags, or anything else that can be attached to the tractor and block wind & rain for a few days or weeks.

Very young chicks might have trouble if you move the tractor onto fresh ground that is wet or cold. As they get older, that becomes less of an issue, and of course it depends on what your weather is at which point: just-shipped chicks are much more fragile than month-old chicks. You might consider keeping the tractor in one place for at least the first few days, while the chicks recover from shipping and learn how to eat, drink, get warm, etc.

If you butcher them at 8-10 weeks, they are still basically babies, and act like most other chicks of that age except for being obese and having enormous appetites.

Thank you very much! Any suggestions for easy brooder for 50 at first?

 

[Morrigan]

Echoing the above comment. For the first 2 weeks treat them as you would any chick.

Beyond that, tt would be helpful to know if your meat birds are Cornish X, or a slow broiler (red rangers, etc.). I have raised both, and although the routine is similar, there are some differences.

Also, what are the temps, both day and night were are you?

\

 

[Morrigan]

Thank you very much! Any suggestions for easy brooder for 50 at first?

For my first batch of meaties, I used an old shed. Cut some windows for ventilation and put a heat lamp at one end, food and water at the other. Just remember, in a couple of weeks your meat chicks will be roughly twice the size of a hertiage chick, so you brooder needs to be big enough to accommodate that.

 

[NatJ]

Thank you very much! Any suggestions for easy brooder for 50 at first?

If you have a tractor already, maybe put it in a convenient place, use tarps or equivalent to provide extra shelter from wind & rain (but remember to leave some ventilation), and run an extension cord for a heat lamp.

I'm thinking of something like what this article shows:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/run-to-outdoor-brooder-conversion.76634/

Edit to add: they will need at least 2 square feet of space per bird by the time they are a month old or so. For 50 chicks, that would be 100 square feet of space, or about 10 feet by 10 feet. For the first week or so, a quarter of that much would be fine, so maybe a 5 by 5 foot brooder, or 4 x 6 feet. But I would not go much smaller than that for 50 chicks, even in the first days.

 

[CNJ]

You could process half of them early at 2lbs for cornish hen gourmet meals. This would free up space if you are worried about living space.

 

[FunClucks]

For 25 CX, I took two of these XXL dog crates, removed the door on the end from each crate, and zip tied them together, to make a crate that was 8 ft long and 30" wide. I made a cardboard ramp over the middle doorway and put shelf liner on it so the chickens wouldn't slip. I used house wrap/feed bags to cover the inside of the crates 2/3" of the way up the sides. I put the plastic tray in the bottom of the crates and filled them with shavings a few inches deep. I used a dust pan to change out the shavings every day. I hung a heat lamp from the ceiling of the crate to one side of the middle, and put the water on one end and the food on the other end. Made my garage super dusty.

https://www.ruralking.com/precision-pet-products-2-door-dog-crate-48-inch-10006460

This worked until the chickens were 3 weeks old, then they started getting too big. I kept mine in it until they were 4 weeks because I was slow finishing the coop - get them out at 3 weeks if you possibly can. They transitioned to the outside covered open air run which was 150 sq feet with 4-5" wood chips, and lived happily until butcher day. I used deep litter and will not keep 25 chickens in less than 150 square feet, because if I do I won't be able to keep up with the poop. Every day I'd stir the wood chips. After the CX were done at 9 weeks, I watered the run and it took about a month for everything to compost down.