meat birds in with laying hens

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
Good for you. You must have the secret.

No, no secret. I'm not the only one who has meat birds that have outlived their expected life span. There are a few people on this thread as well. It was just an experiement and I got lucky.

 

[Salt and Light]

I have one coop and one run. I raise meats and layers together because I have no choice. They eat and drink the same food. The layers do pick on the meat birds, regardless of size. When the new birds are small, I to run the adult birds out of the coop, only letting them back in at roost time.

Probably not a perfect situation, but it works.

 

[pwappers]

Thanks for all the advice. I think we are going to try it and see how it goes. If they don't get along we will just pull the hens out and put them into a smaller coop (we have a couple old dog houses on the property that will work for a few weeks).

 

[boomboom63]

I got 25 meat birds(giant cornish) and 30 laying hens on the same hatch day and kept them together for the first 4 weeks, all went well until the last few days and the layers are becoming cannibals, they are very aggressive and actually disemboweled one of them, it was just awful, so I immediately seperated them and put the meat birds in a seperate pen. The meat birds didnt protect themselves they just buried their heads in the corner and the chicks just pecked at them until they pecked a big hole. they really are dumb and just bred to eat, eat, eat. Next time i will start them together then seperate at first signs of blood anywhere on the cornish hens.

 

[yooper coop]

I have 16 Cornish x and was thinking of picking up two ten week old barred rock pullets tomorrow. I think I will wait a few more weeks now :-(

 

[scooter147]

I've raised meat birds and layers together for probably 30 years and never had an issue. I'm talking day old chicks of both groups.


FYI. I generally keep two Cornish hens to about 6 months, make great roasters.

 

[PotterWatch]

We just processed a small batch of meat birds that had been free ranging during the day and being cooped up at night. They were living with layers of different ages, turkeys, ducks, and a couple guineas. Didn't have any problems with any of them getting along. The meaties did take about twice as long to get to processing size as they do when we keep them alone and on a higher protein diet.

 

[muskratlake]

I have four year old layers and am getting twenty meat kings. I planto keep them separate but how far awy is safe ? If they have separate coops and a segregated run ,is that safe.?

 

[SovereignFarm]

Depends on type of meat bird. The broilers our neighbor gets can hardly walk so they don't cause their hens any problems. We hatch out dual purpose breeds and raise the roosters for meat. With ours the roosters are way too active and athletic to keep with our laying hens, they will terrorize them so we raise them up separately.

 

[donrae]

I have four year old layers and am getting twenty meat kings. I planto keep them separate but how far awy is safe ? If they have separate coops and a segregated run ,is that safe.?

Safe from what? What is your concern?