Illinois...

[Welllaidacres]

I hope at some point you can share a picture of what you built. It really sounds innovative.
My gut feeling is you should be making these and selling them! Please note I say this with no experience in meat chickens (other than the two I just rescued from a suburban mom). Is there a downside to packing 20 together? If so maybe you can create a divider at each level.

I will take a picture when I get home. The biggest downside is they are much heavier to move. You cant move them full at all unless you have equipment with pallet forks on it. Another small downside is when that level gets close to empty, you are reaching 48" back to grab the last few birds. The processor I take them to just picks the pallet crate off my trailer with their telehandler. I can move them empty by myself. Its not the easiest task but definitely doable. The other thing that is since they are wood, they are harder to clean than the HDPE plastic crates.

 

[NotAFarm]

I have a farmer neighbor that I borrow crates from to take mine to the processor. I told him that if he was ever going to sell his to let me know. He got them from a commercial raiser that was going out business. He had to buy the “whole lot”. Some were in bad shape but he got them at a good price and spent off time in the winter disassembling the bad ones and making them into refurbished ones.
I have seen all manor of crates when I’ve brought mine in.
There are crates that belong to the processor that some people unload all types of poultry into straight from the trailer they are hauled there in (think horse/cattle type).
You might call your processor and ask about their off loading procedure to make sure your crates will work.

edited...see you answered about the off load.

 

[Justso]

Oh I see. Experience is a good teacher!

 

[Welllaidacres]

I hope at some point you can share a picture of what you built. It really sounds innovative.
My gut feeling is you should be making these and selling them! Please note I say this with no experience in meat chickens (other than the two I just rescued from a suburban mom). Is there a downside to packing 20 together? If so maybe you can create a divider at each level.

I forgot to take pictures last night, but I found this on my phone. YOu can get the jist of it from here. Its a pallet on the bottom with plywood laid over the slats. I nailed 2x4s to the side of the pallet and mad a second tier with ply wood. I wrapped the 3 sides in chicken wire and put hinged doors on the far side.

 

[WhyDoILikeChickens]

Talk to me about free ranging. I hear stories like this and it scares me but I also see happy chickens out hunting bugs and I know my girls would love it. I can't have a rooster so that's out for protection. I have 3 dogs. One loves the chickens and I think would protect them but the other 2 I am not totally sure if they'd have a momentary lapse in judgment at some point -- one is really old and forgets herself more often than not now. Most of my neighbors have dogs so if they get over my fence ever, they would likely be someone's dinner. Plus hawks, coyotes, foxes, etc. And is it ever too late to let them try? Are they too old to learn how (about 6 months old now)? Every time I go in the run, there are 2 who stick their necks out as far as they can to eat the grass growing just outside of it. I know they'd love it but how do I rip off that band-aid and just let them try? And now that I have 4 new chicks on their way, it would be nice to let them all have a little more room by spending some time free-ranging...

As you may have been reading there are definitely dangers in free ranging. I believe risk is well worth the risk. I only have a chance to let mine out on weekends. I usually let them out a few hours before dark and they put themselves to bed then I just lock them in. I work evenings so I cant let them out during week. They escaped once when DD was tending to them and it was a hilarious fiasco. Wish I could have seen but I believe was a good learning opportunity.

 

[Faraday40]

Xansie was broody and sitting on a rock for a couple weeks, so I gave her some incubator chicks as they hatched on Friday. Friday night I added the week old chicks that hatched on Sept 8th, and she didn't seem to mind. After dark, I slipped in the 3 wk old (Aug 27th) chick. I didn't want it to be lonely, right? By Sat morning, I added the 9.5 wk old serama chick. I don't really have a place for it, her serama mama already abandoned her, and I haven't sold her yet. I doubt Xansie will notice.

Here's my very happy hen, Xansie, and her chick hoard. She loves being a mama. Today they got to go outside for the 1st time. You'll notice the little 3 day old seramas zooming about and one in back trying to use the big chicken nipple. The chicks are Orpingtons and Seramas. Mama hen is a very special Silkie.

 

[Molpet]

Xansie was broody and sitting on a rock for a couple weeks, so I gave her some incubator chicks as they hatched on Friday. Friday night I added the week old chicks that hatched on Sept 8th, and she didn't seem to mind. After dark, I slipped in the 3 wk old (Aug 27th) chick. I didn't want it to be lonely, right? By Sat morning, I added the 9.5 wk old serama chick. I don't really have a place for it, her serama mama already abandoned her, and I haven't sold her yet. I doubt Xansie will notice.

Here's my very happy hen, Xansie, and her chick hoard. She loves being a mama. Today they got to go outside for the 1st time. You'll notice the little 3 day old seramas zooming about and one in back trying to use the big chicken nipple. The chicks are Orpingtons and Seramas. Mama hen is a very special Silkie.

Such a good mama

 

[Faraday40]

Loving my Modern Game Bantams. They're sweet and slightly needy. (They're afraid to walk all the way to the coop from the tractor. Each night they begin the journey with the other bantams, but get scared and turn around and run back to me. They then get picked up & carried the rest of the way. LOL)

I need to come up with some good names for them. The black is calmer and likes to be held. The blue is loud and vocal, but also likes to be held.

Since we're likely keeping both, we could collectively nickname them
"the Gams" for Game - the E; plural
Maybe "Sticks" ? (or Styx for the black one)
Both hatched on July 4th

Any ideas?


I got a little carried away with the photos.

 

[Justso]

Loving my Modern Game Bantams. They're sweet and slightly needy. (They're afraid to walk all the way to the coop from the tractor. Each night they begin the journey with the other bantams, but get scared and turn around and run back to me. They then get picked up & carried the rest of the way. LOL)

I need to come up with some good names for them. The black is calmer and likes to be held. The blue is loud and vocal, but also likes to be held.

Since we're likely keeping both, we could collectively nickname them
"the Gams" for Game - the E; plural
Maybe "Sticks" ? (or Styx for the black one)
Both hatched on July 4th

Any ideas?


I got a little carried away with the photos.

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Striking birds!

 

[Faraday40]

Striking birds!

Thanks. My son & I fell in love with them years ago when we saw one at the IL state fair. This year the MGB moved from the wish list to our coop.