How much room for meat birds?

[ChickChickChicky]

I posted this question in another thread but got no answers, so I'll try here.

I am contemplating raising a few meat birds (CornishX) this spring. I've had laying hens for just over a year now and have soaked up TONS of knowledge from the old-timers on this and a couple other threads (which are now sadly closed). I plan on feeding the meaties ff (fermented feed) from day 1 but am wondering if the space requirements are the same for meaties as for layers??? The coop they'd be in is 6' x 4' and the attached covered run is 6' x 12', it will hold 6 layers just fine.

I actually have two coops, the other coop w/ covered run will comfortably hold 12 layers. I'm going to start off small with the meaties to see how I like it and how things work out, but MIGHT in the future decide to reduce the laying flock and put them in the smaller coop and raise meaties in the bigger coop. None of my layers free range (due to microscopic city lot and huge overabundance of predators) but are confined to their coops/covered runs 24/7 (pop door always open; pine shavings deep-litter method in coop; sand, dirt and wood ashes in runs; absolutely predator-proof; and they get fresh greens and ff every day and meat scraps maybe every 2-3 days).

Another thing I wonder about is how well meat birds could navigate the ramp (plywood with cleats about every 5-6") to get in and out of the coop. It's a little steep, but of course my hens have no problems with it. Ideas and suggestions appreciated!

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

I don't have experience with CX, but I did raise Freedom Rangers last summer and they had no problem navigating a ramp. As for square footage...I know a lot of folks use chicken tractors for their meat birds because they are very poopy, messy birds. I think they fit more birds per square foot in a tractor than you might in a fixed run because they can move the tractor regularly to fresh/clean grass. If you have a fixed coop/run, I'd err on the large size, be sure the entire run has shade, and then move the feeder and waterer around the run on a daily basis to see if you could get them to move around more. Maybe they could spend the night in the coop but on some days you could move them to a play pen on fresh grass.

 

[Life is Good!]

CX will not be able to navigate that ramp after about the 5th week of life. After this point, their chests become so overly huge that simply trying to walk over a stick lying on the ground can be a challenge! Seriously! You'll be putting them to bed every night.

There are many companies offering 'Red Broilers' or other such names. These are the FR's that are commonly sold by a couple different names. These birds DID roost well, DID climb and jump and fly - just like any other chicken, until about 9wks. However, they also crowed at 8wks.

So, if I was on a micro-ciy-urban lot, I would choose some CX because they were exceptionally quiet birds. They do stink - a lot, so plan on extra bedding (deep litter method did NOT work for me for this, but does for my layers just fine) and finding someone to compost it if you cannot yourself. I'd say two bags of bedding a week, especially after they get out of the brooder.

I'd also reconfigure my coop situation so they have no more than a 2x3" lying on it's side to climb over. Our tractor has a 2x4" lying vertically (so the 4" is perpendicular to the ground), and our CX had a devil of a time getting past that barrier towards the end of their lives. If you place a waterer and feeder in different places daily, it encourages the birds to move around more. Good luck!

 

[CatSeg57]

We are seriously thinking of getting 15 meat birds soon. We have a section of the garden (4' x 8') that we cant seem to grow anything in so were thinking of using that for the meats. We will enclose it with hardware cloth.
Questions... Is this big enough for 15 birds, how about 24?
Do they need an fully enclosed shelter for over night like the layers have?
I'm sure I'll have a few more after I post this, so any info for a newbie is appreciated.
Thanks

 

[RoosterML]

We are seriously thinking of getting 15 meat birds soon. We have a section of the garden (4' x 8') that we cant seem to grow anything in so were thinking of using that for the meats. We will enclose it with hardware cloth.
Questions... Is this big enough for 15 birds, how about 24?
Do they need an fully enclosed shelter for over night like the layers have?
I'm sure I'll have a few more after I post this, so any info for a newbie is appreciated.
Thanks

For 4x8 I would stay with the 15 birds. The first few weeks it will be fine. After several week they are just pooping machines and your 4x8 area is gonna get real nasty real quick. You could do 25 and let’s say at 4-5 week you process down to the number you can handle in that area. At 4-5 weeks you’ll have cornish hens. Hope that helps.

 

[Jejahess]

This is my 3rd go-round with CX's.

The first time I built 3ea 5'x10' tractors to raise 65 birds. They spent the first 2 weeks in a 7x10 space in my shed. It was late March, so still close to freezing at night here and the tractors would have been too drafty. After about 2 weeks they were getting feathers and making enough manure that they moved to the tractors. I still had heat lamps in with them at night. From weeks 2 to 6 they did fine in the tractors. The yard was well fertilized. The last 2 weeks they were pretty crowded and getting them motivated to move every day was a hassle. So I had 22 birds in a 50sf area, about 2sf per bird.

The 2nd batch I did last fall I built a 10x10 pen out of an old car canopy. I built it on a PVC pipe frame so I could slide it around. I placed the pen in the corner of our garden and it stayed there for the full 8 weeks. I enclosed 3 walls and made it pretty draft proof for a brooder. As they got bigger, I'd add some wood shavings every couple days for fresh bedding. At about week 4 I opened up a 10'x20' run outside the pen for them to spread out during the day. After we processed the birds I tilled the area well.

I am picking up 80 birds tomorrow and have the pen set up again. This time I using an area of my yard that I'll just reseed after we butcher. I don't really want chicken manure on our garden so close to planting time.

I found that the 10x10 pen with the additional run space worked just fine for 75 birds. It's really only the last 3 weeks or so when the really get big and need the additional space.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

So, as you can see from my Sig (below), I have a CX (still), ate the others. Mine free ranges with the rest of the flock, but is now 11 months old. It can still navigate a moderately steep ramp with cleats. So could its siblings (12.8# and 13.4# when the boys were butchered). They didn't do it well, but they did it.

If I was to do it again (and I won't), I'd give more space to the house, and less space to the run - or I'd cover more of the run with shade.

They are fat, lazy, black holes into which feed pours in, and shit pours out. They hardly move, given the choice, but can be effectively raised on restricted feed plus free ranging to good weights (if late) with actual texture.

If I wanted baby fat, textureless, generic "chicken" like you get in the store (and there are some recipes for which that works really well), I'd give them about 6 sq ft of combined house/run with it laid out as perches, water, food, equidistant apart, and let them fatten till they nearly popped, then...

Off with their heads!

 

[Parront]

They are fat, lazy, black holes into which feed pours in, and shit pours out.

This could be a new "Ex-Urban Dictionary" entry for the Cornish-X meat bird!
That is why people use those movable pens and move them often. It beats the clean up for most of us. It sounds like the OP wants to have a stationary pen out by the garden in a spot too shady for the garden to grow very well, am I understanding that correctly? They really do not benefit from a house with a run like your layers. Think cage, they do not need perches. Sounds like you might have a total of 6 x 16? And tons of predators looking for chicken nugget for dinner? 2 feet tall hardware cloth all around, shade on one end. I never fed them fermented feed, can't comment. Feed them Chick starter at least 20%, (some here go 22% meat bird starter) protein until they are feathered enough to go out in the weather, about 3 weeks old. I would start small, how many can you process in one day? When you are learning, that might be only 1 or 2! Have you processed any of your layer cockerels? They are all ready at the same time, and sometimes die if you try to hold them too long. Good luck with your meat birds! I think they are great eating at the 10 pound plus size that mine got to at 10-12 weeks.