Meat birds in a run ?

[sesa]

Does anyone raise their meat birds in a run as opposed to a tractor? I was thinking of pouring a slab and raising them on it instead of moving the tractor everyday. I could harvest more of the poop for the compost pile that way and could still toss cut grass and weeds into it for the birds to peck at.

 

[Kali]

Mine are in a 15x3" run but it needs a good cleaning every week and that's even after letting them out to free range everyday.

 

[jaku]

Wow, that would be a lot of poop cleaning. Have you raised them before? If not, I'd suggest trying it one time in a tractor first. The amount of poo is staggering, and you can't get a grasp on it until you've actually seen it. The moveable pens are so nice and make things very clean.

Pouring a slab would definitely help, but I'd worry how the birds would do on concrete. As for tossing grass and weeds in, don't bother- they won't eat it. Mine matt the grass down, but never eat it. Even when I withhold food for the last 24 hours, I've never found ANY grass in a crop.

 

[dadof4]

I use electric poultry netting for mine so they have about a 40 by 40 pen that I can move. I have found that mine eat alot of grass. My wife and I were surprised at how much was in there gizzard.

 

[jaku]

Quote:
Really? Odd that yours eat it and mine won't.

 

[Homesteading_Bound]

Maybe it's the type of grass...

 

[pdpatch]

We use a indoor pen that's about 26 x 8 per 25 to 30. We change the litter about once every two weeks are first then once a week towards the end.

We use sawdust that comes from a pallet making buisness, that is sifted and dryed. We let the green manure sit for about 6 months minimum before using it as compose.

Tom

 

[sesa]

Well I have my first batch of chickens in a tractor now, 22 of them and yeah there is a lot of poop, but I figure that scraping the slab every few days will be less work than moving the tractor everyday and then raking the poop around in the grass.

 

[UncleHoot]

Quote:
Chickens seem to love dandelions. I've also notice them eating wild carrots (queen anne's lace), in addition to grass. The big, thick types of grass (fescue?) don't seem to get as much attention as the smaller, thinner types (perennial rye, kentucky blue). At least that seems to be my experience.

 

[dadof4]

I live out pretty far and there are several diffrent types of grasses and weeds to graze on. I noticed they were fond of anything with a flowere on it.