I've lost my mind.

[Texasmedic]

Did a little alcohol-induced internet shopping and drunk-me decided that we needed meat birds. Since then, I've gotten pretty excited about it, so I guess that drunk-me knows what it's doing after all. That said, I have some questions.

I have 15 Cornish-X hens coming from Meyer. They'll be in in two weeks, I decided to have them shipped the week I get back from vacation.

I will be tractoring them in my backyard. They'll be moved every day. How bad do they tear up the yard? I don't have a huge backyard. I'm hoping that after 2 weeks they'll be able to re-graze the same plot. Is that crazy? I have enough to rotate them through for 4, but I was hoping to keep them on one half of my yard.

Is 15 birds in a 4'x6' tractor too small? It's 1.6 sq/ft per bird. Should I bump it up to more?

My layers should be starting to lay right about the time the meaties are ready to process. So I get to play the real-life game of "which came first".

 

[Monkeybean415]

We just did 15 (well... Processed 8 this weekend- a bear got the rest a week ago) they didn't really tear up the yard much. We had them in a repurposed dog house and outdoor run. The bedding needed to be changed a few times. We didn't put them outside until they were 4 weeks and they ended up staying the nights in the garage in some playpens after the bear and it worked fine just let them free range with the layers. I think they become a big mess when you have a whole lot of them but 15 is a doable number. Good luck!

 

[eviemethugh]

I think 2 foot really needs to be a minimum. But, you will most likely get one free extra and probably lose one or two, so it may all work out. Plus, they stay on top of each other all day and never use the whole space anyway, but if you have boys the last few days before processing may just about do you in (fighting and over the top crowing competitions!!) when they don't have enough space to get away from each other. If you move them twice a day when they are 5+ weeks they really won't tear up your yard too much until the last week or so. They will make giant dust bath holes but ours grow back in fine. If you don't get much rain, water the areas where they have been so your grass doesn't burn/brown from the nitrogen in their poop.

 

[Red Tie]

I've got 15 Cornish in a tractor that is 8 x 12. We need to move it every other day now that they are 5 weeks old. Lots of poop!

: )