Meat bird coop?

[bryan8]

Well in april I want to build a coop for my Cornish x I will be getting. I'm going to get 25 Cornish x and 3-5 bb white turkeys. How should I set up for my meat birds? I'm pretty crafty, and I just need some ideas. It has to be big enough, and it has to be easy to clean. Could I raise them up on wire?

I'd like any ideas or pics

Thanks guys

~Bryan

 

[cassie]

Don't raise them up on wire. They get breast blisters. These birds are very heavy for their size and they need cushioning. A lot of people use tractors. We raise ours in a 12 x 12 box stall in the barn. It has plenty of ventilation but is not drafty. We bed with shavings and add shavings as needed. We do not clean the stall until all the chickens have been processed. We do not have trouble with odor or dirty birds like a lot of people seem to. I am not sure why. Maybe because we live in a dry climate. We are careful to add shavings before the bedding gets wet and stinky so it stays dry. We have been putting 25 at a time in that stall but next time we will put in more. We have hanging waterers and feeders. We find the birds are very easy to care for this way and they seem contented and comfortable.

 

[patandchickens]

Check out the Meat Birds Etc section of the forum, there are loads of threads on this very subject that will be helpful to you

Don't try to raise meaties on wire. I'd suggest either tractoring them (moving them daily or twice daily can be a drag but may beat *cleaning*

) or putting them in an ample sized pen with an easily-cleaned floor, even concrete if you have it and put sufficient bedding over top of it.

I did 3 BB bronze turkeys this year, with great success (except I was really bummed when I had to process them, they were my buddies, now I am hooked on turkeys

) with almost no work at all, by giving them free run of a large grassy paddock once they were old enough (10-12 wks or so). They didn't really poo too badly before that, and by the time they WERE producing these huge tennis balls of nasty stink, it was outside on the grass. Which is extremely green now, too

Good luck, have fun,

Pat