Meat chickens and trying to keep coop clean.

[WoodlandWoman]

You can also add a wire apron to a tractor, to prevent digging. Just have it in sections that are hinged at the bottom and fold up when you need to move it. If you walk on hardware cloth it flattens it, so the cut pieces are like panels. You can use metal rings to attach it to the bottom edge of the tractor fencing. I've also seen people make frames for the apron and use regular hinges, too. Just tie them up to move it.

 

[ChickaBangBang]

do you leave them outside all the time or bring them in a coop at night or when it rains??
I have 8 in a large dog cage in my garage and it's a mess. I clean the cage every other day but it was so wet the last few days I've had to change it 3 times in 2 days and I thought my husband would change it last night and they have been sitting it POOP MUD!! I want to get them outside but it's a hassle hauling all of them out every day.

 

[cassie]

I'd get some livestock hog panel and just make a pen in the garage. You can bed it with shavings and just add more as needed. The way you are doing it now sounds like a real hassle.

 

[NovaAman]

Today is the first day that my meaties are not outside. And that is only because they are 2 weeks old, and the weather has taken a hard turn from the mid to upper 80s during the day to a whopping high of 52 right now. I have a moveable pen that I use for them during the day, and a 2.5x3.5 dog coop that 10 meaties sleep in. I only just cleaned their coop out for the first time on Wednesday when I didn't work. Also, I move their whole coop and pen once a week. The coop I use is very light. I take off the hinged lid, and I can pick the whole thing up myself, move it, then use the pen to "HERD" the meat birds to the new location. This has worked well so far. SO, at night time they are protected from predators in their coop. I'd like to build a tractor though, and I like the idea of hinged aprons. Only I think, I would lay down a few landscape ties over top of those. They're light enough to pick up and set on top of the tractor while moving from point A to point B...

 

[NovaAman]

I'd get some livestock hog panel and just make a pen in the garage. You can bed it with shavings and just add more as needed. The way you are doing it now sounds like a real hassle.

Or straw.... Get some lawn and leaf bags from Lowes or menards and use a winter scoop shovel to do weekly clean ups, and then you can just burn the whole bag in a barrel, use it for compost, or chuck it out with the trash...

 

[ChickaBangBang]

The dog cage has a pan that goes inside and I can remove that and dump it but They keep spilling their water and making huge mess now. I think maybe I'll just remove the pan and put the saving directly on the ground and in the coop so I can just lift them up and onto new beading and scoop up the area. I just didn't want poop all over my garage on days they have to be inside. I haven't had the chance to get anything together like a movable tractor yet and my other birds free range and have coops right now. The meats and my Amaraucana's are the same age and I keep them away from the older ones except when they free range. There's been some fights and I have to get something together soon to get those all out of my garage. It was fine until I needed to move my car in there to repair it and now I need a 3erd place to house them.

 

[ChickaBangBang]

To be clear... I have 2 coops set up with a run in between them and I have 4 adults in one and the other I have my teenagers and 2 ducks (15 teens). I let them all free range during the day and open up their coops and they seem to do pretty good but not good enough to move them all together at night.
The Meatie's and the Ameraucana's are a month younger then the teens and they are really active and flighty which seems to piss the teens off so I have to watch them closely if they free range with the others so really can;t move them all together. So dog cages in the garage is what I've been working with.

 

[ChickaBangBang]

Or straw.... Get some lawn and leaf bags from Lowes or menards and use a winter scoop shovel to do weekly clean ups, and then you can just burn the whole bag in a barrel, use it for compost, or chuck it out with the trash...

I've been doing that with the pan that goes in the cage. I have straw in there... it just all went to mush the last few days because they are constantly attacking the water and feeder and I can't hang them in the cages. I'll take the pan out and put bags down so it will be easier to clean up.

 

[harleyjo]

The whole mess with the meat chickens is why after my first year with them I said "never again!" I did a lot of research and decided to raise Delawares as my meat birds. These are a nice white bird, only a litte bit of black in their feathers and a good dual purpose, so I get the added benefit of eggs from the hens. I know several other people in my area that won't deal with the mess of the meaties. It may take a little longer to raise them but I will take that any day over the mess and stink from Cornish X.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

I just started a new thread called something like "Mini-van mobile coop/tractor" dealing with the same issue...tractoring 35 Freedom Ranger chicks. I've never raised CornishX chickens, but after reading about how messy they are (and not really liking the idea of raising something that basically eats itself to death) I went with the Freedom Rangers. They do seem very active, but they still eat a ton and therefore poop like mad.