How to house meat birds?

[Molpet]

I raised some cx and kept a pullet for breeding. I read that after a week of all they can eat, start to feed all they could eat in 20 min 2x a day. Also free ranged them with layer chicks. They had to look for food and that kept them active.

The pullet I kept keeled over a few days shy of a year. Water belly. But other people have had better luck https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...d-live-out-a-normal-full-length-life.1235154/

 

[Morrigan]

I raised some cx and kept a pullet for breeding. I read that after a week of all they can eat, start to feed all they could eat in 20 min 2x a day. Also free ranged them with layer chicks. They had to look for food and that kept them active.

The pullet I kept keeled over a few days shy of a year. Water belly. But other people have had better luck https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...d-live-out-a-normal-full-length-life.1235154/

If I remember right, you hatched out some of her eggs. If you wouldn't mind sharing, what did you cross her with and are any of the offspring still alive.

 

[Molpet]

If I remember right, you hatched out some of her eggs. If you wouldn't mind sharing, what did you cross her with and are any of the offspring still alive.

The only roo I had then (fall 2016) was a barnyard mix someone gave me. A BR hen went broody and she hatched 3 cockerels and 1 pullet out of the cx pullet and the mix roo.
Last year I used the smallest of the 1/2 cx mix cockerels for breeding and kept all the pullets and 2 cockerels. This spring the breeding cockerel died of water belly. Another 1/2 cx brother was disliked by the hens and ripping up their sides when he caught them.... so he went into the pressure cooker. I still have one 1/2cx cockerel left.
The 1/2 cx pullet I named Eve, I don't usually name birds, but I thought she would be the mother of my flock of part cx..... She laid an egg 2x a wk and it was either double yolked no yolked or very porous and didn't hatch... she died a couple weeks ago with no children, I believe from internal laying.
There are a couple dozen grow outs running around that are part cx/part cx. I had someone give me a old english lav isabar orpington roo, that has fathered some out of a part cx hen. Not sure if he has added anything I want yet, time will tell

 

[Morrigan]

I guess it's not surprising that the CX are not great at the laying business, as that isn't what they were bred for. Interesting to see if any of the part-CX/part CX offspring get any size to them.

 

[Molpet]

I guess it's not surprising that the CX are great at the laying business, as that isn't what they were bred for. Interesting to see if any of the part-CX/part CX offspring get any size to them.

Last year I got cockerels at 16wks that dressed 5-7 lbs
This year I only have processed a few and they were 4-7 lbs at 16 wks..more are coming up... I had turkeys hatching first this year and started the chickens late.

 

[pintail_drake2004]

housing them can be as simple or as difficult as you make it. I re-purposed a horse run-in into a meat bird/breeding pen. The pen side is 16x14, with an attached temporary run. plenty of room for the 29 birds I had in there.

I raised some barn yard mixes and some Red Rangers. The RR roosters were at butcher weight around 10 weeks and the hens I took to 12 weeks.
the front row are the RR, the mix are in the back.

They were fed chick start for about 3 weeks then I free fed them grower to finish. The RR would get out and forage in the large pen we set up for them, and all of the meat birds got garden scraps often.