New to Broiler Flock Mgmt

[PR Prepper]

What is the best way for me to raise my first batch of Cornish X broilers.


Details:
I live in the tropics of Puerto Rico and want to raise my 1st run of meat birds. I have experience raising laying hens that free range. I do have a few concerns.

Climate: As we are moving into the summer months and here it tends to get hot and rainy. The temps usually range b/t 87-80 degrees, and we usually get a good rain every day. So it tends to get hot and muddy.

Predators: dogs, hawks, mongoose, rats, and mice

Land: i have access to 1/4 acre of land that i can run my chicken tractor on. I also have potential access to 3-5 acres behind the house on a neighboring property. The property needs to be cleared and mowed and would cost about $300 to get prepared.

Flock Size: i wanted to do 25, but may scale down to 10 for my first run to see how it goes.

Questions and Considerations:
I want to raise healthy meat birds. So my initial idea is to do a chicken tractor where i move them to new grass every day,

• With is being so wet and hot should i just wait until more favorable conditions? I don't want a big muddy, poopy mess where they would be prone to getting sick or dying
• Is a 1/4 acre of 25 birds be enough to be tractored on? or should i invest in clearing out the land behind the house so i can move them to fresh grass 2 times a day?
• Should i tractor them to fresh grass and them in the heat of the day pull under a tree to keep cool?
• Given the hot & wet conditions, What size and style chicken tractor should I be using? I know that i'll be using hardware cloth for the bottom section of the run b/c the hawks and mongoose will run off with their heads.
• Should I use a static coop until the rainy season ends? How much of a stinky mess would I be dealing with.
• The rats here are crazy vicious and will dig under the coop in a day if left unattended. Will a Cornish X roost up off the ground or are they just too fat and lazy to do so. If i can get them off the ground i think they'll be ok from the rats.
• Should i consider a different breed altogether?

Thanks for reading my long post and any help is appreciated.

PR Prepper

 

[iwltfum]

Wow. OK I mostly have no idea about most of your questions. I have never dealt with chicken-killing rats or mongoose before and I haven't lived in a tropical climate since I was 8, but I've raised meat birds for a number of years in several different climates in the US. I would definitely start with 10 since you don't really know what you're up against.

The wetness could cause some issues, especially if you don't keep up on keeping the grass short ahead of the pens. The long wet grass can harbor problems for meat birds. Just keep the grass short and you should be ok. Also, mud/dirt is not ideal to run the birds over, but you definitely can do it as long as it's relatively flat ground. I would plant some kind of grass in any bare spots though if you can.

1/4 acre is probably plenty for 25 birds for 8 weeks.

Pulling them to a tree everyday sounds like a royal pain in the A. Your pen should have plenty of built in shade to protect them during the day. The Joel Salatin way to move chicken tractors is simply one spot ahead each day or 2x a day when they get older - the idea is to get them off old grass and onto fresh grass as efficiently as possible.

You can certainly raise them in a static coop with plenty of bedding added over time - or lots of shoveling. But you will get a completely different product than if you pasture them, and the land management that goes hand-in-hand with pasture raising any animal is lost.

As for the rats and other predators, the cornish cross birds will definitely be sleeping on the ground so you will have to find someway to prevent anything from reaching under and grabbing the chickens if you have a problem with that happening. I've used electric wire along the bottom of the pens, that requires alot of set up and materials. You could also run chicken wire or hardware cloth on the bottom of the pens - it would restrict access to the forage a bit, but they would still be able to get some of it. Plenty of other options too I'm sure.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't have a lot of experience in what you want to do in your conditions with Cornish X. I have tractored dual purpose chickens and yes, rain is an issue. If it rained I had to move mine every day. If it was pretty dry I might go three days occasionally though in normal weather it was every two days. You are making a commitment to move it regularly. Don't plan any vacations.

I also suggest you start small. You are going to have a learning curve, The more you have the more stressful that curve will be.

Predators: dogs, hawks, mongoose, rats, and mice

My understanding is that mongoose only hunt during the day. Not sure how accurate that is, maybe primarily during the day. I'd treat them like a weasel or rat, try to keep any holes or openings pretty small. They are probably not strong enough to rip the tractor apart. A big dog can be unless you build strong. Often the problem is your connections. Fasten any wire securely to the frame and use strong materials. But you want light weight so your tractor is easier to move. Tradeoffs.

• With is being so wet and hot should i just wait until more favorable conditions? I don't want a big muddy, poopy mess where they would be prone to getting sick or dying

Certainly something to consider. I think your biggest risk for disease is Coccidiosis. It thrives in warm wet conditions like you have. With the life cycle of the bug that causes Cocci if you keep their water clean and move it every day you reduce the risk of Cocci. You might also want to look into medicated feed, where the medicine is Amprolium. Amprolium is not an antibiotic and only works to control Cocci. Nothing else, just Cocci. According to the USDA there is no withdrawal period for meat or eggs if you feed them medicated feed that used Amprolium. If there are any other medicines in there you are on your own as far as withdrawal.

To me the biggest issue was that it turned into a muddy, sticky, stinky mess pretty quickly. How big the tractor is, how many you have in there, and how wet it is will determine how often you need to move it. Your nose and eyes will tell you.

• Is a 1/4 acre of 25 birds be enough to be tractored on? or should i invest in clearing out the land behind the house so i can move them to fresh grass 2 times a day?

Another reason to start small. Trial and error will tell you.

• Should i tractor them to fresh grass and them in the heat of the day pull under a tree to keep cool?

I would not. How much room do you have under trees so you would not have to put them where they had been pooping? That would seem to negate a lot of the advantage of pasturing. Plus that sounds like a lot of work. Maybe provide shade with something light like shade cloth?

• Given the hot & wet conditions, What size and style chicken tractor should I be using? I know that i'll be using hardware cloth for the bottom section of the run b/c the hawks and mongoose will run off with their heads.

How do you plan to move it, by hand or using heavy equipment? I'd make it as big as I reasonably could and still be able to move it. How big a risk are dogs? A hoop coop might be worth thinking about.

Putting wire on the bottom will make it heavier plus the friction of dragging that across the ground will make it a lot harder to move. Plus it might snag on something. Building it up on skids to make it easier to move interferes with them foraging. I did not do this but maybe you could build panels to go flat on the ground all around it that are removable for when you move it. Google "chicken predator aprons" to see what I'm talking about. Maybe put some bolts sticking up on your tractor at ground level and put 18" of wire on a 2x4 with holes drilled to fit over those bolts. Should be easy to remove and put back.

• Should I use a static coop until the rainy season ends? How much of a stinky mess would I be dealing with.

Certainly an option. How long does your rainy season last? Cornish X should be ready to butcher in less than two months. You don't need a coop with roosts or nests, just a shelter. Cornish X eat and poop more than your layers. They also tend to not move around much unless you force them so the poop can really build up fast. If you put your shelter where it stays dry (water drains away from it) and you can stop rain from blowing in it will be manageable, plenty of people do to that way.

• The rats here are crazy vicious and will dig under the coop in a day if left unattended. Will a Cornish X roost up off the ground or are they just too fat and lazy to do so. If i can get them off the ground i think they'll be ok from the rats.

You do not want them to roost very high even if you can get them to. They grow so fast they outgrow their skeletons. They can injure their legs by hopping down very far.

• Should i consider a different breed altogether?

Certainly an option. Rangers are a milder version of the Cornish X, better suited to pasturing but slower to grow to butcher weight. I have a rooster with my laying/breeding flock and hatch my own dual purpose to butcher. Cornish X or rangers are better if you are selling them, dual purpose are more if you eat them but there are drawbacks as far as how big they get and how you cook them if you grow them to any size. Trade offs. I have been known to add 15 or 20 dual purpose cockerels to fill out a pullet order so I have plenty to butcher, plus I wanted to replace my rooster with a special breed.

My suggestion is to try a few and see how it goes for you. You may like it, you may say never again. Make your decisions based on what you see, not what someone like me over the internet tells you. No matter how much you think about it and plan (planning is good) some things just are not going to work out the way you think. At some point you just have to do it.

 

[RUNuts]

Do let us know how you fare. I think Ridgerunner covered it.

There is a utube channel of a guy in Hawaii dealing with mongoose (interview with Justin Rhodes?). He uses pallets as predator aprons weighted with cinder blocks and a Suscovich style tractor (also on utube). Being hot and humid, a taller roof than Salatin may be better.

Best wishes