Meat birds on DE and sand What if?

[cjeanean]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=81764

You can't see it very well at all, just a glimpse. I didn't even think about taking some pics before dismantling it! We just took it apart 5 hrs ago!

 

[joebryant]

Quote:
I can't get the video to work.

 

[cjeanean]

hmmm....I wonder what's going on with it....will it take u to the photobucket page?

 

[joebryant]

Yes, but nothing happens on the video screen.

 

[cjeanean]

darn it, let me try uploading to picnik or something....BRB

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
You may not forsee it but it would happen :> Honestly, they are NOT going to scratch things enough to keep the poop from caking into a smashed flat layer of wet stench. Furthermore there is just too much poo -- it is a lifetime's worth of poo concentrated into a month or two.

The only reason I'm not having real problems with smell is that there's only 10 of them in a 4x6 coop plus 4x15 run (that they're out in all day). THey all seem quite healthy so far btw, at 5 wks (haven't lost any either). I have not changed their indoor litter, tho I have removed the caked-est spots and every day I toss another thin layer of shavings over everything. The run is bedded in shredded poplar (from stump-grinding) and I remove and replace the caked areas every few days. None of this would work with less total space per chicken, and I am not sure how much longer it is going to continue to work, either.

Ate enough of what? Poop? Why would they do that? I scatter seeds on the sand for my Orpingtons, they eat it and scratch in the sand trying to find more while at the same time they cover up the poo.

If their food is on poop, they will be eating poop with their food.

But they are just not like other chickens. THey are not CAPABLE of effective sustained scratching-around-for-food. If the only food they were offered was pellets scattered thinly on the ground (and Joe, you'd have to be out there scattering the food many many times a day to give them enough in total), they would either starve (grow very very poorly anyhow) or in desperation gorge on poo and die. They have to eat a WHOLE BIG LOT. (and as others have said, drink a whole big lot which mostly ends up as pooing wetly a whole big lot).

Mine DO have to stand to drink or to easily eat; and they DO walk around, and even play with each other a bit; but they are just genetically programmed to be the guy you see on the news being carried out of the house on a forklift because he's too big for the EMTs or their stretcher. And you just can't work for a living when you are spherical.

JME,

Pat​

 

[joebryant]

Quote:
You may not forsee it but it would happen :> Honestly, they are NOT going to scratch things enough to keep the poop from caking into a smashed flat layer of wet stench. Furthermore there is just too much poo -- it is a lifetime's worth of poo concentrated into a month or two.

The only reason I'm not having real problems with smell is that there's only 10 of them in a 4x6 coop plus 4x15 run (that they're out in all day). THey all seem quite healthy so far btw, at 5 wks (haven't lost any either). I have not changed their indoor litter, tho I have removed the caked-est spots and every day I toss another thin layer of shavings over everything. The run is bedded in shredded poplar (from stump-grinding) and I remove and replace the caked areas every few days. None of this would work with less total space per chicken, and I am not sure how much longer it is going to continue to work, either.

Ate enough of what? Poop? Why would they do that? I scatter seeds on the sand for my Orpingtons, they eat it and scratch in the sand trying to find more while at the same time they cover up the poo.

If their food is on poop, they will be eating poop with their food.

But they are just not like other chickens. THey are not CAPABLE of effective sustained scratching-around-for-food. If the only food they were offered was pellets scattered thinly on the ground (and Joe, you'd have to be out there scattering the food many many times a day to give them enough in total), they would either starve (grow very very poorly anyhow) or in desperation gorge on poo and die. They have to eat a WHOLE BIG LOT. (and as others have said, drink a whole big lot which mostly ends up as pooing wetly a whole big lot).

Mine DO have to stand to drink or to easily eat; and they DO walk around, and even play with each other a bit; but they are just genetically programmed to be the guy you see on the news being carried out of the house on a forklift because he's too big for the EMTs or their stretcher. And you just can't work for a living when you are spherical.

JME,

Pat​

Geesh, that's some description. Thanks It really leaves me wondering why anyone would raise them. I'll have until spring to decide if I want to jump into the fray.

 

[wyliefarms]

We raise meat chickens and that is the only chicken meat we eat. I am on my 3rd batch, we have sold so much that I needed more for us! We won't eat store bought anymore.

We start the chicks in a small part of the barn with wood shavings. We clean it once a week. When we first started we used a plastic kiddie pool to contain them, but they fly out at about 2 weeks old. So we would surround it with chicken wire.

At 3 weeks of age (when they are feathered out) they go outside to a movable cage. The cage gets moved once a day in the beginning and twice a day in the end. We have a large yard and the grass grows excellent there They do get to run around (waddle towards the end!) every evening outside the cage when it gets moved.

We raise 40 at a time. And I schedule it that when the 1st batch is 5 weeks old I get batch #2 so when batch #1 is gone to the processor #2 heads to the outside pen.

My oldest 2 daughters take some to the county fair to show and auction off.
The best thing about this is that they get to care for that batch of meat chickens and I don't have to do the work, except help move the cage.

Good luck if you try a batch of meat chickens. You won't be able to pass up the excellent meat!

 

[silkiechicken]

If you do small small numbers I think you'll be fine, like I said, I don't do over 8 at a time, usually just four, in a 4x8 tractor.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Personally, I am ok with it because they still do seem to have some fun and be reasonably happy in their lives. I don't find them disgusting or pitiable like some people seem to - they are just different than other chickens, sort of like a slug is different from a bumblebee (not *worse than*, just *different*).

The main thing for me is that with CornishX, I don't have to kill as many chickens (that is to say, take as many lives) to get X amount of meat.

To be honest, for myself (not meaning to imply any comment on what other people should do), I am not sure it would not be better for me to stick to beef, where a single life taken gives you MUCH more eatin'. I dunno.

I realize this is not where most other people are coming from, in terms of raising CornishX, but it's why I tried this batch and why I will doubtless raise more next year. (Eating some of our sussexes etc, too)

Pat