Meat bird Coop

[chickney]

Last year we increased our laying flock, so our original coop and enclosure became too small. Moving the girls to the larger area left us with an empty coop and run. Not wanting to waste this very nice coop and run, I thought hey I'll get some meat birds and brood them in the coop, then when they are old enough to go outside all I have to do is open the pop door and they are home, everything will be great.

NOT!!!

My 25 Cornish X meat birds are the stupidest birds I have ever seen! I believe they "bred the brains outta these birds". As planned I brooded them on the floor of the coop and they are now 5 weeks old.

I opened the pop door at 3 weeks of age because they were fully feathered and I wanted them to get some natural sunlight. I moved their water and feed "outside" to encourage them to "go look" for food and water (as in forage). Hahahahahah, after 2 hours of the pop door being open, they were still inside the coop screaming for food and water. Okay ya need a little help here, so I carefully chunked each one through the pop door to give them the idea -- go this way, food is out here, etc.

This particular coop is about 2 feet off the ground, made that way for additional predator proofing at night and as an additional shade area for my layers, which also means it has a ramp to go up and inside. Okay so once outside they just stood there, like--now what? I put the feed and water sort of half under the coop and half not under, basically right in the middle of them. As of today they have not gone back into the coop (like 14 days now), although a few of them have "sat on the ramp". We had a cold front come through so I ended up covering the wire that surrounds the underside of the coop with plastic sheeting to help keep the cold air and wind off of them. All the while there is a nice heat lamp "inside the coop" 24/7, gee guys all ya gotta do is walk towards the light and you'll be nice and warm and cozy. But NO, they still won't go inside.

I can see the coop and run from my kitchen window so I am always looking out there to check on their progress. Three days after I chunked them out the coop door and they had not come out from under the coop so when I went out to feed and water that day, I thought I would move the f & w containers about 5 feet out to the open area of the pen and into the sunshine. You would think they would have followed me (and the feed dish), but NO they just stayed right there screaming for food. It has took me several days of slooooly moving the f & w containers 1 foot at a time to get them out in the sunshine.

Apparently they also bred out the preening gene because I have yet to see one clean itself. They are fairly dirty and I desperately want to give about 6 of these little boogers a bath, and may yet before this is over. Today I am going to put an entire bag of shaving under the coop house, for warmth as we will have a freeze tonight and tomorrow night, and to hopefully get rid of the smell that is now eminating from under there.

Now let me say this, I have NOT followed normal feeding schedule for Cornish X. For one thing I do not want them getting too big too fast, please no heart attack here. So they are not growing so fast that one could say they are "fat and lazy". They are simply stupid.

My recommendation: DO NOT waste your time and money on anything even remotely elaborate for Cornish X meat birds. They will not in any way appreciate your efforts. Of course you will have to have a warm, dry place to brood them out, but once they leave that area they only need ground space and shelter from the elements (and predators). Polyface Farms (Joel Salatin) has a great pen design you could modify for a backyard application. His pens are 10 feet X 12 feet X 2 feet high and they house 75-100 birds. You could cut that down to 5 feet X 6 feet X 2 foot high and have ample room for 25 birds. The only problem you and I will have (since we are not moving the pen every day) is the smell, so adding pine shaving to the ground will help (should) with this. Compost out those shavings for 120 days (or longer) and you have some great mulch for your flowers. The pen my meat birds are in measures 12 feet X 20 feet, they have yet to wander into half that space.

On the roosting poles I believe the reason they don't "give" Cornish X a place to roost is because since they get so big so fast, and because they don't move around like a normal chicken you end up with a bird that is always roosting, which results in bruised breast meat from the weight of the bird resting on it's breast all the time.

Good luck.

Wow, Thanks for sharing that. I have heard very negative things about Cornish X. However, I believe I am still going to just try it for once and see if it works for me. Last year we got a straight run and then slaughtered our roosters at 6 months. The issue with this was feeding the birds for 6 months and towards the end it was non stop crowing. I have been looking into some birds and I have heard good reviews on Cornish X blends, or the Dark Cornish X's. I will see how this summer goes with the 25 meat birds I ordered, I understand it will be smelly and a dirty experience. Have you thought about ducks for the pin with the meat birds in it? We love our ducks!

 

[MimiEggs]

I am so sorry to give you such a bleak outlook on the Cornish X. Did not intend for it to sound that bad. I guess I personally was not prepared for them to be so very different from our laying hens. But they are and that is just a fact. Also did not want you to go out and build some big ol thing for 25 birds you will have for a few weeks when they don't really need it. The fact that they don't have a "desire" to move about the pen is kind of sad, ya know?

The first time we raised for meat, we incubated our own eggs and then raised out the extra roosters. Let them go a little long and so the meat was not as tasty as it could have been or so my kids tell me. That was why I thought I would try the Cornish X. I did order all hens since my kids made a big deal about the roosters, we will see if there is a taste difference, LOL.

Next time we raise for meat I will probably hatch out my own eggs again or maybe try the Red Ranger Broilers. Dont' get me wrong, I'm not sorry I got the Cornish X. It is more my set up that I am unhappy with. Wish I had just made a pen I could "move everyday" but just don't have that much room on our property to dedicate to that project.

I actually have 2 male Pekin (6 months old) living with our 2 roosters and 28 laying hens. Also just happen to have two 4 week old female Pekin so will have to re-home one male in the next few months. I did think about putting them in the smaller pen but just don't want to do that. Am crossing my fingers the husband lets me put a duck pond in by our greenhouse so they can have their own space. And I am also thinking about downsizing our laying hens to make room for "more ducks"........Love My Ducks!!!!!

 

[chickney]

I am so sorry to give you such a bleak outlook on the Cornish X. Did not intend for it to sound that bad. I guess I personally was not prepared for them to be so very different from our laying hens. But they are and that is just a fact. Also did not want you to go out and build some big ol thing for 25 birds you will have for a few weeks when they don't really need it. The fact that they don't have a "desire" to move about the pen is kind of sad, ya know?

The first time we raised for meat, we incubated our own eggs and then raised out the extra roosters. Let them go a little long and so the meat was not as tasty as it could have been or so my kids tell me. That was why I thought I would try the Cornish X. I did order all hens since my kids made a big deal about the roosters, we will see if there is a taste difference, LOL.

Next time we raise for meat I will probably hatch out my own eggs again or maybe try the Red Ranger Broilers. Dont' get me wrong, I'm not sorry I got the Cornish X. It is more my set up that I am unhappy with. Wish I had just made a pen I could "move everyday" but just don't have that much room on our property to dedicate to that project.

I actually have 2 male Pekin (6 months old) living with our 2 roosters and 28 laying hens. Also just happen to have two 4 week old female Pekin so will have to re-home one male in the next few months. I did think about putting them in the smaller pen but just don't want to do that. Am crossing my fingers the husband lets me put a duck pond in by our greenhouse so they can have their own space. And I am also thinking about downsizing our laying hens to make room for "more ducks"........Love My Ducks!!!!!

No worries, I appreciate your honesty about the Cornish X. My friends did the same thing. I was thinking about doing the free range boilers, but felt like I should try these crazy frankenstein birds. I like to try everything once. Wow, a duck pond in a green house. We are building a green house this summer. We got 2 ducks last year from the same girl that gave us our chickens. It turned out that our "straight run" was 80% roosters. Our ducks turned out to be one female one male, and we have been getting consistent eggs all winter! I'm surprised she lays about 5 eggs a week when it is the heart of winter (we have at least 3-4 feet of snow). Our ducks live with our chickens, occasionally there is some duck on chicken foul play. We are going to build a separate coop but have them be in the same run this summer as we will be adding 6 more duck hens. I think that once you go duck, you dont go back. I enjoy both chickens and ducks. I also just enjoy geeking out on this forum.

 

[MimiEggs]

Oh sorry (LOL) not putting the duck pond "in" the greenhouse just close to the greenhouse. We just built our greenhouse this year, finished it a few weeks ago. Had to do a fair amount of dirt work before getting started so the area surrounding the greenhouse is like a blank canvas of nothing but dirt. Once we started the dirt work my mind has been going bananas with all the things I can do "in that space", if ya know what I mean.

 

[chickney]

I totally understamd. We arw going to be building a greenhoise this summer. I guess great minds think alile .

 

[chickney]

Alike*

 

[serenityNH]

After lots of trial and error I now raise my Cornish x with my layers, if I have a broody hen I let her raise them. The layers teach the Cornish how to go into the coop at night and how to forage. I have had very good luck with this and have never had any health problems with my meat birds. They do take an extra week or two to grow out and they get very messy in the coop at the end so I need to keep up on the litter but over all it makes the meat birds so much happier and lively. They move around and forage up until the very end, yes they have to rest a lot while running through the yard but they certainly still get around and best of all they are CLEAN! No poopy butts or muddy blistered breasts, they are white as can be. I have experienced the lazy, smelly, dumb Cornish that everyone talks about but it doesn't have to be that way. It's all on how you raise them.



edited to add picture

 

[chickadoodles]

I was thinking of getting some Cornish to raise for meat. And was wondering where to keep them. As I am just starting to build our coop. Now that I know I can keep them with my hens it will make it easier for me!
Thanks for sharing!

 

[MimiEggs]

My Cornish X have finally begun to venture out into their yard and what a relief that is. They still won't go into the house although they do go up the ramp and sit at the entrance which is hysterical to me cause I'm like standing there talking to them saying okay go another 2 inches and your inside, your almost there, but oh well. I put an entire bag of shavings under the house just before the last cold front came through so I feel better that they have that, and of course that has helped keep them cleaner and cut down on the smell.

Raising meat birds "with" my layers, Hhhhmmmm, sounds like a good thought, I will have to contemplate that one for the next go round.

 

[chickney]

After lots of trial and error I now raise my Cornish x with my layers, if I have a broody hen I let her raise them. The layers teach the Cornish how to go into the coop at night and how to forage. I have had very good luck with this and have never had any health problems with my meat birds. They do take an extra week or two to grow out and they get very messy in the coop at the end so I need to keep up on the litter but over all it makes the meat birds so much happier and lively. They move around and forage up until the very end, yes they have to rest a lot while running through the yard but they certainly still get around and best of all they are CLEAN! No poopy butts or muddy blistered breasts, they are white as can be. I have experienced the lazy, smelly, dumb Cornish that everyone talks about but it doesn't have to be that way. It's all on how you raise them. edited to add picture

Very good yo know. I get my cronish x in early july and if there are broody hens I will forsure have them raise my chicks.