How many cornish cross

[Sweethorizons]

Hi I'm relatively new to meat birds and after raising a few Cornish cross in my barn I was wondering how many I would be able to raise in a roughly 30ft by 30 ft pen (also have access to a 15 by 15 pen beside it) with minimal poop scooping (once weekly or so? Got a bad back)

 

[Ruby Rogue]

They eat and poop a lot.... You could fit loads in there if they have outdoor access to free range or a large run. If you plan on keeping them always enclosed, plan on cleaning the pen more frequently and keeping as few birds as your time (and back) allows. As far as how many will fit in your barn, it depends on whether or not they will be allowed outside.

ETA: or...do you mean, a 30x30 outdoor run?

 

[Sweethorizons]

It's 30 by 30 outdoors, gotta figure something for a coop still haha

 

[Ruby Rogue]

So 30x30 outdoors is a 900 sq foot run which could handle about 90 birds. You don't have to shovel poop in your outdoor run, but 90 birds would need quite a large indoor space and they will poop...lots.

 

[Sweethorizons]

So 30x30 outdoors is a 900 sq foot run which could handle about 90 birds. You don't have to shovel poop in your outdoor run, but 90 birds would need quite a large indoor space and they will poop...lots.

I planned to do 50 or so with a moving trough for feeding, and a 8x6 coop or so for them would it be big enough?

 

[SBFChickenGirl]

Also think about how many birds you're going to butcher! How are you going to transport them to the processor? Or are you butchering at home 90 CX is a LOT!

 

[Ruby Rogue]

8x6 is small, they get quite large, will probably spend most of their time outside depending on your climate, but inside they should have 3-4 sq feet per bird so a minimum of 150 sq feet inside, so something like a 15 x 10 foot coop.

 

[Ruby Rogue]

And they will poop...a lot. You may be able to go a week without shoveling if you keep adding new shavings on top every couple of days and they spend the majority of their time outside.

 

[Sweethorizons]

Also think about how many birds you're going to butcher! How are you going to transport them to the processor? Or are you butchering at home 90 CX is a LOT!

I plan to start slaughtering at about 6 weeks and my sister and I plan to process them ourselves we can do about a bird every 20 mins skinning or so, so we should be able to do 10 a time 2 times a week

 

[Ruby Rogue]

I might get some slack for recommending this but from personal experience with Cornish x, they can probably stand a smaller enclosure only because they only live for 6-10 weeks, I still wouldn't go smaller than a 10x10 for 50.