Newbie here, HELLO!! I hope my first post doesn't sound silly, I need opinions

[Bobby Ray]

Well first off I want to thank everyone here for being so helpful thus far. I've been lurking behind the scenes for a while now gathering some great info, this site is so helpful!

I started my brooder last weekend and have around 15 chicks, all mixed breed, these will be my layers. I will get some meat birds in a couple of weeks but for now I'm focusing on the build of the coop.

I was hoping to get some opinions on a couple of things.

1. I was thinking about setting aside a closed of section of the coop for younger birds that I'll be introducing to the flock, this section will have it's own area in the coop and a portion of the run, from what I gather I need to keep the younger birds separated for a while till they get bigger?

2. I also was wondering about letting the birds free range, I have a complete fenced in yard and I'm willing to put up more fencing to keep them confined to one area of the pasture, will I be ok with letting them roam if I clip their wings or will they fly over a 4 foot fence?

3. When raising cornish x is it ok to keep all the birds together or keep my layers and meat birds separate? I hope that didn't sound ridiculous but I couldn't find a answer anywhere.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this.

Bobby Ray

 

[Bobby Ray]

OK so I had a typo, my fence is 5 feet so if I clipped one side of their flight feathers would that be enough to keep them from flying over the fence?

 

[OldGuy43]

I suppose it depends on your cluckers. I have Red Sex-Links and their run is divided in half by a 3' mesh fence and they don't offer to go over it even though they spend most of the day in the other half and seem to prefer it.

The real problem isn't going to be keeping the chickens in, but the predators out.

 

[Kaitie09]

Well first off I want to thank everyone here for being so helpful thus far. I've been lurking behind the scenes for a while now gathering some great info, this site is so helpful!

I started my brooder last weekend and have around 15 chicks, all mixed breed, these will be my layers. I will get some meat birds in a couple of weeks but for now I'm focusing on the build of the coop.

I was hoping to get some opinions on a couple of things.

1. I was thinking about setting aside a closed of section of the coop for younger birds that I'll be introducing to the flock, this section will have it's own area in the coop and a portion of the run, from what I gather I need to keep the younger birds separated for a while till they get bigger?

That is how we did it and it works great. You can also add a little door between the runs so when your smaller birds get bigger, you have extra room for them.

2. I also was wondering about letting the birds free range, I have a complete fenced in yard and I'm willing to put up more fencing to keep them confined to one area of the pasture, will I be ok with letting them roam if I clip their wings or will they fly over a 4 foot fence?

It really depends on the breed. If you have heavier birds, then they might not. However, there is also a chance that they could get some great air and fly right over.

3. When raising cornish x is it ok to keep all the birds together or keep my layers and meat birds separate? I hope that didn't sound ridiculous but I couldn't find a answer anywhere.

Depending on how you feed them, it could work. When we did them, we fed them a specialized meat bird feed. They are also very very dirty so your would have to clean your coop a lot more.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this.

Bobby Ray

 

[Bobby Ray]

thanks for the feedback, I'm so undecided on the matter...I guess I just need to dive into it.