Meat birds on DE and sand What if?

[Miltonchix]

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GREAT IDEA!!
I don't have "dirt" here, mostly sand. I would be creating some of the best gardening soil imaginable at the same time. Bug free for the most part and rich in nutrients. THANKS for the brilliant idea. I have my first large batch of meat birds coming in late November that will be harvested in Feb. Just in time for gardening season to begin here.

 

[Acre of Blessings]

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I am about to embark on 35 meaties myself for the first time. Myself and 2 friends went intogether on 100 of them. Now someone tell me " How long can I keep them in a coop before moving to a pen? I cannot keep these in the house so hubby said they have to be outside from the get go. So, I figure if I put them in the coop first week or two will this be a problem or not?

 

[HidingInTheHenHouse]

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cjeanean, what were your dress out weights and at how many weeks? How many did you have in the pen, and how big was the outside run? If you do it again, would you enlarge the run area or not?

 

[HidingInTheHenHouse]

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Wyliefarms,

This is pretty much how we are doing our batch right now. How big is your moveable pen? Does it move on wheels, or do you just pick it up and move it? Does it have a wire floor, or solid floor, or no floor? Could you post a picture?

My 23 meaties are 4 1/2 weeks now. I just started moving their pen twice a day, and spraying down the grass. We also have a very large backyard, so they can move several times before we are going back over the same grass. I put the feeder and waterer up on blocks so that they have to stretch a bit to reach it. However, I noticed that if any feed is spilled, it tends to kill the grass in a ring shape around where the feeder was. Have you ever noticed that?

 

[wyliefarms]

I am not able to post pictures. My digital camera got stolen in July at our county fair.

It's not in the budget to replace right now.

Our outside cage (I just moved the 18 meat birds and 12 laying pullets outside this afternoon) is made from the awning from a store in town that updated the front of the store. Hubby welded the 2 large pieces together and we chickened wired the bottom (Twice around off centered, a coon stuck his paw through a couple years ago and got a meat bird) and put a tarp over the rounded top. Secured everything with zipties.

There is no floor on the bottom and there are wheels in the back and we use a cart dolly (I think its called this. It is an old one from our business that we haul water softeners on to get into homes)

I have to go and measure the cage for the size. 40 Meat chickens are tightly packed at the end. I would love another cage like this

We do get some patches of dead grass from the feed not too bad though. The laying hens love to scratch where the cage has been.

Hubby even welded the 2 smaller pieces of awning and we have a minature cage without wheels (its light enough to move) for our 3 bantam hens.