New member and needs a little help with meat chickens!

[cowgirl4Christ]

I am raising meat chickens for a 4-h sow in February. I have researched about how to raise them right but everything I find is for raising them in the summer when you don't need to provide a lot of heat. The only predators it talks about are like Hawks and very small ones. I however have coyotes. I have six chicks coming next week and have no coop ready for them after they come out of my Garage. My winter gets down to about 20 degrees.. Do I need to keep a heat lamp on them even when they are older? Would an enclosed horse stall be a bad place to keep them? How big a space do they need?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Six won't need a ton of space. Can you start them in the horse stall with electric for a heat lamp?
They grow fast and they won't need heat long. When is the 4-H event?
If your meaties are Cornish Rock croos, 3.5 weeks is sufficient for Cornish game hen size. 6+ weeks, they're ready for processing as broilers.

Can you make the stall predator proof?

 

[Orpington Crazy]

Welcome to BYC try the meat bird section

 

[cowgirl4Christ]

Six won't need a ton of space. Can you start them in the horse stall with electric for a heat lamp?
They grow fast and they won't need heat long. When is the 4-H event?
If your meaties are Cornish Rock croos, 3.5 weeks is sufficient for Cornish game hen size. 6+ weeks, they're ready for processing as broilers.

Can you make the stall predator proof?

The stall is pretty secured to where nothing could get in... Not sure what you mean by electric... There is a light in there for them and when they come as chicks I was planning on keeping them in my garage for a week in a temporary box with a. Heat lamp. What did you mean by keeping them in there with electric? And the 4-h show is in mid February. I'm getting Cornish cross.

 

[matt44644]

 

[Mrs. K]

I think she means, can you use the electricity in the barn to run the heat lamp?

BE VERY careful with use of extension cords - they can cause a lot of fires.

What I think you will want to do, is keep them in the garage for 2 weeks, then take them to the barn for the daytime, and bring them back to the garage at night for a week, then leave them in the barn. Try lifting the heat lamp away from them a little each day, once they get a few feathers on them.

This time of year, you want to work into temperature differences slowly, so as not to stress the birds.

MRs K

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Yes Mrs. K. HE means electricity for a heat lamp.

I put chicks right out in the unheated/uninsulated brooder house from the incubator.

Just a heat emitter if a few chicks and it's not real cold out.



A hover if I have lots of chicks and it's very cold out.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Yes Mrs. K. HE means electricity for a heat lamp.

I put chicks right out in the unheated/uninsulated brooder house from the incubator.

Just a heat emitter if a few chicks and it's not real cold out.



A hover if I have lots of chicks andor it's very cold out.

 

[Mrs. K]

I do humbly apologize, sometimes it is quite difficult to tell from the Name if someone is male or female.

Mrs K

 

[cowgirl4Christ]

...

I think she means, can you use the electricity in the barn to run the heat lamp?

BE VERY careful with use of extension cords - they can cause a lot of fires.

What I think you will want to do, is keep them in the garage for 2 weeks, then take them to the barn for the daytime, and bring them back to the garage at night for a week, then leave them in the barn. Try lifting the heat lamp away from them a little each day, once they get a few feathers on them.

This time of year, you want to work into temperature differences slowly, so as not to stress the birds.

MRs K
I understand now thanks! Should I bring them from the garage to the stall morning and night until the heat lamp is raised to what the temperture is outside?