Free range alternatives to broiler pens, tractors, and coops

[loanwizard]

Thanks Beekissed. Now, does it take your Cornish longer free ranged than tractored to meet weight requirements regardless of feed costs?

 

[Buster52]

Lots of poultry netting~ or just use your dogs...you have a good plenty! I bet you wouldn't lose one bird, Buster.

Tarping for shade and cover areas is easy to do with push in stakes and a tarp~ like the one in the far right of this pic.

You could have several of these for rain or sun shields and to shelter your feeds and water.

That would be great, but for these Oklahoma prairie winds. I once staked down a heavy duty canvas and it ripped the huge stakes right out of the ground.

I have been getting some excellent feedback from a listserv on pastured poultry from some large scale growers, some of whom have 1,000+ birds on pasture at any one time. I'll share more later, but the answer looks like it is going to be big, heavy range shelters on skids (in or out of netting) that we drag to a new location every week or so. Most use the feeder to control actual ranging. Which is good, because then I can get some of the advantage of the Salatin system by targeting their foraging and their droppings, without the confinement. It won't be as pinpoint and controlled as a broiler pen, but at least it isn't willy nilly all over the place.

 

[jdc]

This is my third batch of CornishX and I got sick of moving the tractor and having the birds shut in. I ordered the new premier poultry plus netting and couldn't be happier. I have 30 birds inside of 200' of netting and they use their tractor that I set up on cinder blocks for them to get underneath when they want. I feed about twice a day about 3 gallons of feed per feeding. The chickens look cleaner, happier and don't seem to be growing that much slower. I also do not have the accidental leg injuries from moving the shelter 3 times a day. When it rains, I put some straw or hay into the tractor for them to get onto dry bedding. I have 4 laying hen chicks in with the meaties and they seem to take their chicken cues from them.

 

[Beekissed]

Thanks Beekissed. Now, does it take your Cornish longer free ranged than tractored to meet weight requirements regardless of feed costs?

I wouldn't know that...I've never tractored any CX. I've only ever free ranged and I don't even consider the length of time it takes to get them to a processing weight. I guess if I were trying to fill a quota or something that would be a consideration and it would probably take some time using this method to determine what the perimeters were so as to be able to calculate your times.

 

[shadowmane]

Have you checked into the Poulet Rouge commercial method? I know there is a company in Winston-Salem, NC that raises nakked necked broilers by that method. It'd be a niche market, but you can charge a better price for your birds. From what I read, you still have the poultry houses, but you put pop doors every so many feet, and you open them to let the birds out during the day to free range. I believe Sasso and Hubbard provide the birds for it in France.

Beekissed is actually practicing this on a smaller scale with Cornish Cross.

 

[Buster52]

This is my third batch of CornishX and I got sick of moving the tractor and having the birds shut in.  I ordered the new premier poultry plus netting and couldn't be happier.  I have 30 birds inside of 200' of netting and they use their tractor that I set up on cinder blocks for them to get underneath when they want.  I feed about twice a day about 3 gallons of feed per feeding.  The chickens look cleaner, happier and don't seem to be growing that much slower.  I also do not have the accidental leg injuries from moving the shelter 3 times a day.  When it rains, I put some straw or hay into the tractor for them to get onto dry bedding.  I have 4 laying hen chicks in with the meaties and they seem to take their chicken cues from them.

Well, there you go, then. An excellent way to try out alternatives without going through the expense and trouble of building range shelters. I can test it and learn now, the develop my system in the fall.

I set this up last night, then spent the evening watching flying bowling balls.

 

[Buster52]

Let me see if I can get this to work...

[VIDEO]

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[Beekissed]

Can't watch the video...states it is private.

 

[Buster52]

Oops... My first YouTube vid. Can you tell?

I think it will work now.

 

[Beekissed]

It did! How old are those birds, Buster? I wish I had gotten the poultry netting with the squares such as yours....darn birds are 7 wks and can STILL go through mine.

I took it down from where I had it to use for them and just placed it around the garden to try and keep them out...didn't work keeping them out any better than it did keeping them in.

Darn sheep netting!!!!

Your chooks look as if they really like the freedom, don't they?