kids 4 H project

[Catfishingpokey]

We have laying birds and turkeys. So i thought raising meat birds would be a good project for my boys. So we ordered 15 birds they have to have 3 each to show for the county stock show the end of january .today we get the baby chicks and we got twice as many birds as i ordered and i am not prepaired for that many at one time does any one have any ideas on a quick and inexpensive brooder for the extras.

 

[poultrycrazy]

You can do cardboard boxes, also rubber maid boxes work really well and they are safter with a heat lamp than cardboard.

 

[Catfishingpokey]

We have them in a rubbermaid brooder right now with heat lamp. What we really need is an idea for cheap outdoor housing. We were prepared to house about 15, but somehow our order was doubled, and we need additional housing for about 15 birds. These birds get so big so fast!!! Any suggestions?

 

[kizanne]

cornish hens process some early

 

[Catfishingpokey]

We do not want to kill them to early beacause we would like the best selection for showtime.

 

[SC-ChickMom]

You could make a pvc tractor. Shouldn't cost too much and could house as many as you want.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=461919

http://www.pvcplans.com/PoultryPen.pdf

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=147225&p=2

 

[Hawkeye95]

check CraigsList for dog kennel panels -sometimes you can get good deals. Also- my neighbor just bought 6 ft tall goat fencing (but with smaller holes) and just used t-posts and drove them into the ground, and made a really large run for everyone. I think he used a really small pipe gate and put wire over it to get in and out. It's not covered, but it's actually pretty sturdy and works well. It's really close to his backyard. He's had plenty of coyotes back there trying to figure out a way to get in and they haven't dug under. They are all locked up at night, so even if something did dig under at night, they're safe. But the pen works great for everyone to get out during the day and not kill each other. He has a lot of chickens. He does have a corner of it covered with a tarp and he used a large shipping crate as a coop.

 

[EggsForIHOP]

My vote is with kizanne - pick off your slower growing birds as "game hens" - by the time they are big enough to be a game hen, you will be able to tell which ones are not "keeping up with the pack" and probably won't be big enough to show competitively anyways...

We have a friend that raises them to show, and that's what they do - except they for real start with 300 chicks at a time! her thing is "only 1 out of every 100 is worth showing" so she culls as they go, picking off any that don't make certain weights and shapes at each stage...

You could make one tractor big enough for everyone when they are small - then when they begin to outgrow it, just pick the ones you REALLY think are going to be good for showing, mark them, save them, and process the others. It'll save money all around on feed and supplies and you'll be able to "sample" your chickens before you get to process the left over bigger ones at the end

 

[Midwest Lizabeth]

Do you or friends have old, leaky, big round stock tanks? We used old stock tanks to brood our layer flock. I'd ordered 25 show birds. . .got hot. . .said they couldn't ship. . .ordered hatchery birds. . .and ended up with 52 chicks instead of our planned 25. We had access to leaky stock tanks and we did put a tarp under the the tanks so any leaks wouldn't foul the concrete in our shop.

We used wood chips in the brooder stock tanks. We had to completely clean them out a couple of times a week. We had three stock tanks. One for each group of 26 and a spare. We'd clean the spare, set it up, move the chicks to a clean tank, clean out their filthy tank, . . . .and so on. Since these chicks are supposed to just eat, the big, round stock tanks might work for you.

We're using wood chips (pine), stall dry, lime in our coops for the winter. . .might make a good mix for fast growing poopy chicks to cut down on odor. Just a thought. . . .

 

[Catfishingpokey]

I do think the culling is a good idea, but I am worried about them suddenly being too big for the housing as fast as these chicks grow. And how it will time out, etc, such as finding ourselves needing to cull birds the week of Christmas. At how many weeks can you anticipate starting to cull? I think the tractor suggestion sounds pretty good. We do have access to one old stock tank, but I am not crazy about the idea of that just because we don't really have a good area to set it up, and don't have a way to rotate for cleaning, etc.