Meat and egg layers living together/ free ranging

[hjpointers]

Hello. I have 13 laying hens and a rooster that have a coop with unlimited amount of oats, oyster shells and laying grain and they free range during the day. They come back to the coop throughout the day to eat and/or lay eggs.

We want to start raising ranger meat chickens and build a separate pen for them but let them free range all day with the layers. 1) how do you keep the chickens going into the right pen every night and 2) how do you keep them eating the food their suppose to?

 

[Elke Beck]

Your hens may be different from mine, but my layers made life miserable for my meat chicks. The layers would stalk the poor things and try to get them cornered so that the layer could beat them up. Even when they meaties were bigger than the layers, the beatings continued. I would keep them separate, and fence off an area for the meaties for that they can be safe.

 

[Life is Good!]

We have two runs side-by-side. One has the main coop for the layers. The other run has a pvc tractor/coopette for meaties or chicks we're growing out from incubator hatches.

I don't let the two groups co-mingle. If the layers have free-run of the backyard, the meaties are locked up. If the meaties have free-run of the backyard, the layers are locked up. Whoever is 'stuck indoors' gets super-special treats in their run to offset some of the pacing up and down the fence. Somewhat helpful, for a time at least.

The meaties really just prefer to hang at home. They've somehow managed to NOT eat all of their grass in their run, so they're pretty content to just 'stay home'. In the past week, I've only let them out in the back acre twice...and they didn't really browse around much. Just sorta waddled around for a time, then laid down! As it's been cool and rainy, I've tried to maximize any sunny moments for all the chickens! I've got our runs in the shade which is great when it's 90 degrees, but at 55, it's a touch cool.

 

[jen85]

Mine are together and don't get picked on. I only have eight meat birds so that might be why. Also, they stay close to the food and water and don't run all over our land like the other birds do.