How many Cornish X will fit comfortably in a 12'x12' stall?

[bigredfeather]

Quote:
I would agree 100%. I had only 25 inside an area in my coop. Never again. It smells like turkey poo from a large turkey operation. I drive by one everyday, so I'm quite familiar with the smell. I'm building two 4'x10' tractors for the fifty I am getting in a few months. I think it will make it much easier and get a higher quality bird with less work.

If you try it once inside, it will probably be the last time.

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

Honestly if you have to drive 4 hours to a processor you need to look into other options. What I see here is right, 25 is the max that can be done in a 12x12 at the end, but to start you could have a hundred in there. If I was to have to drive 4 hours I would not go for under a hundred. How about finding some knowledgeable help closer and setting up to do them yourself with that help? Otherwise I'd start in one stall and expand as needed, or build an outside pen or tractor as suggested and go for a number of birds that makes the trip worthwhile. Consider too however how your going to transport them, I use my horse trailer and can take 100 full grown easy. It is a 2 horse angle haul. They are tight in there so they can stay warm, but they have enough ventilation (open stock windows) if it's hot.

 

[CovenantCreek]

Quote:
I had thought about starting with 100 last year, this year I'm being more reasonable -- starting with only a few more than my daughter and I could probably eat in 6 months. Just in case I have trouble finding buyers and/or storage space. I'm not sure I could fit 100 birds in my freezer.

I've tried to find someone around here that I could ask to do the processing, but the guy from the co-op (who took my extra cockerels last year) doesn't know of anyone in the county, or even in the state, that processes for other people. The one guy he could think of who raised meat birds took his to KY for processing. None of the state's web sites give any indication of a poultry processor. Even if I did have a stomach to do it myself, this isn't a good time for me to be investing in all the equipment.

Transportation is another issue, now that I don't have my big trucks and horse trailer anymore. I'm hoping my trainer will let me borrow his truck, and maybe even his trailer. I'm trying to get everything figured out before placing the order so I don't get stuck with a lot of birds and no way to dispatch them.

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

Contact your local poultry clubs or shows. There is someone in your area that does it. I'm often surprised at what the feed store people don't know or are not willing to tell. They might know of someone local but if your not happy with the work done think it will reflect on them. Local laws could be involved too, if they are not government certified then they might not feel comfortable telling you about them. Many people that have the home processing equipment do a few birds for others to help with the cost of the equipment.

If you find someone near by you can do a few small batches, way less work and fresh food year round.

 

[mommahento5]

"I will never raise Cornish in a stationary place AGAIN...."


I totally agree! I have done both indoors in an area similar to what the OP has, and in an outdoor tractor of simialr size that was moved daily (sometimes 2 or even 3 times near the end), and I will NEVER do it indoors again. Be prepared to clean it out nearly daily! I would only do 25 in the amount of space you have and just see for yourself. Raising the crosses is more like raising pigs than chickens!

 

[patandchickens]

Last late-summer-into-fall I did 10 CornishX in a 4x6 indoor pen *plus* all-day access to a 4x14 outdoor bedding-over-cement roofed run. (That would scale up to 60 birds in a 12x12 stall *if* they had access to a whole lotta outdoors, that was wind-sheltered and had excellent footing). It worked fine, as I processed about half of them at 6 wks which allowed more room for the rest of 'em for the last few weeks til I processed them too. I would not try to put more than that in there, personally - I'd rather they have room to move around (mine had muscles in places that no store-bought chicken carcass has muscles. pretty cool actually) and I don't honeslty think I could keep things clean enough unless I started removing all the litter frequently and topping it up 3-4x per day, which would be too expensive and burdensome for my tastes.

The smell is really really different, btw, not like regular chickens - more like a large dog that has eaten something that disagreed terribly with its innards. You can't clean the pen like you can clean a horse stall - you would either have to shovel out ALL of the bedding approximately daily (ka-ching), or actually I just covered it with a thin layer of fresh shavings 1-2x a day. I am pretty sure the smell of 60 birds in an enclosed barn would be horrible, though, even with decent cleaning. Really.

you don't need equipment to process them yourself, especially if you can find a helper (possibly paid in chickens?). Just a sharp axe or knife, a stump or etc if you use an axe, and miscellaneous buckets and table and so forth that you probably already have. You can rig something to scald them then hand-pluck; or you cna dry-pluck; or you can just skin them. I didn't buy a *thing*, myself (tho certainly if you could find someone with a plucker who'd rent or lend it to you, that'd be great). So, maybe it is something to consider.

Good luck,

Pat

 

[Chick_a_dee]

This is an interesting thread, we're ordering 30-40 meaties beginning of the summer (hopefully late May) and are planning on keeping them outdoors in a large open chicken tracker, free ranging during the day kept in a tracker at night.

 

[jaku]

Tractors are the only way to go- then you can pack them in quite a bit more with no problem, since you give them clean ground at least once per day.

 

[CovenantCreek]

Quote:
you haven't seen how my horses treat their stalls........ lol (that's why they're outside now)

I'd like to thank everyone for your responses. It's been very enlightening. I've decided not to try to get any before spring, but to wait till I can keep them outside, mowing the grass for me.

 

[BirdBrain]

Covenant Creek,
You don't have to have a lot of equipment to process birds. Last year we ended up skinning our birds and then cutting them into their major pieces. We took the whole breast and laid the legs and thighs in the half cavity and vacuum packed them. The backs and necks we boiled for broth and the wings we packaged for BBQ wings. This method took up SO much less space than whole birds and the processing of them was much faster than hand plucking them.

We ordered 50 birds last year and got 54. When they were 3 weeks old I ended up with another dozen I got free with 2 bags of feed. We had them in an area about the size you are talking about. We used pine shavings. It was doable and as it was in February and beyond, they kept each other warm under 2 heat lamps. We also used fans to cool them near butchering time. It gets warm fast here in Texas. If I had it to do over again (and I do with 25 out there right now

) I would use the pine pellet bedding intended for horses. It is just wonderful stuff. It absorbs the moisture SO fast and all I have to do is stir it to freshen it up. When the pellets get wet, they disintegrate into sawdust. The chicks are keeping so much cleaner and it smells SO much better. I was thinking about getting some DE to put in there as well.

Last year I shoveled the shavings into a pile outside and when they were dry set fire to them. Gone was the smell and it left a wonderful pile of ashes to mix into the garden. The cabbage and lettuce are loving it.

You can do this and survive to eat many happy chicken meals.