Newbie ~ Imagine that:) Do I need a tractor or coop for meat birds?

[BooneHillbilly]

I am in the process of building a 12x12 coop. After reading some of the posts here I am wondering if I need to put my meat birds in the coop at all. I see where it can cause blisters etc etc.. I was planning on sectioning it off into 2 - 6x12's. Do I need a coop for the meat birds? Can I keep them all in once 6x12 section? I planned on incubating the eggs indoors.. it woudl be great if i can get a breed that is good for eggs as meat as well and then use the other half for rabbits or pheasants/quail... Thanks in advance!

 

[saddina]

Well, more details please....

1. Where you are matters, I'm in a desert I can wear a minidress on Christmas, here coops keep the sun off, not the heat in.

2. How many meaties we talking about?

3. Are you thinking of heritage breeds, dual purpose, or cornish hybrids (cornish x)? If you want to hatch your own, you'll need the coop, if you're thinking of cronish crosses, you have to order as chicks*, tractors should do it just fine.


note * Several members are breeding thier own meat hybrids, but to do this requires keeping 3 flocks, which is most likely more than you want to do.

 

[jaku]

Yes, it depends on which kind of birds we're talking about- if you're talking about the standard broilers, (Cornish X's,) then definitely go with a tractor. If you put even a few of them in a coop, it will literally be caked with poo and awful to manage, almost certainly guarenteeing that you won't do more than one batch. With a tractor, you can easily manage 25-50 in a small area, provided that you move it as much as possible (at least once per day.)

You can get breeds that are OK for meat and eggs, but you'll probably be disappointed with the amount of meat you get from them- for a decent meat yield, you need hybrids, like the Cornish X, or Colored Range Broilers. The only problem is that these aren't self sustaining- you can't breed them and get the same birds. If you could, you'd be a millionaire in about 5 minutes, as all the hatcheries get their broilers from a few places where the actual hybridization method is a closely guarded secret. Also, broilers usually die, either by the knife or naturally, long before the reach egg laying age.

If I were you, I'd continue building your 12x12 coop- and still divide it in half. Put your layers on one side (heck, even experiment with breeding a couple of meaties if you want,) then keep all of your equipment on the other side. Then, for about $150, build a tractor for your meaties. A great one, that I keep 50-75 in at a time, can be found at www.pvcplans.com. It's light, easy to build, and very easy to move. My first tractor I built so heavy that it was a chore to move, which was a mistake.

Good luck!

 

[BooneHillbilly]

I am in WV.. Dont really know how many meat birds I would need actually to keep the flock going... So I cant breed the Cornish X? I would only have room for a small tractor.. So the meat birds stink? Why s that the meaties small and the layers no so much? All of a sudden I fell I may be gettin in over my head here..

 

[jaku]

Quote:
No, not over your head- I had the same thoughts when I first started too! You can't breed and sustain a broiler flock because they are hybrids- for example, a "pure" buff orphington bred to another "pure" buff orphington would produce buff orphington chicks- hybrid birds bred to other hybrid birds produce unpredictable offspring. Think of it kind of like mutts in the dog world- if I have a lab/beagle mix and breed it with another lab/beagle mix, there's no way of knowing what I'll get, let alone assure that I'll get puppies that all look like the parents. Does that make any sense? Maybe someone else can explain it better, if not. Combine that with the fact that meaties are prone to heart and leg problems, and are meant to be butchered at 6-10 weeks- usually they die if allowed to live much further.

As for the smell, the birds themselves don't smell, it's the poo. Meaties eat ALL DAY. In fact, if they do anything but eat, lay around and poop, I haven't seen it. Eating all day translates into pooping all day. It's really a shocking amount that can't really be explained in writing. BUT, it's very manageable and will do wonders for your lawn- just almost impossible to handle in a stationary coop. The good news though, is that you don't need much room for them in your tractor. Only about 2 sq. foot per bird.

 

[Spud395]

But how much room would I need to keep the tractor moved around?

In total I've 1/2 acre of that between 1/8 and 1/4 of n acre that would work for a tractor. How many meaties would work in that kind of space?

 

[cassie]

We raise our meaties in a 12 x 12 box stall in the barn. Since we live in a hot climate we raise them only in the cooler months. We bed with shavings. We add shavings as necessary and never allow the bedding to get wet and stinky. We have no trouble with odor or blisters and our chickens remain clean. We have been putting 25 in that stall. That is really more space than they need so we are going to try 50 this next time. If it seems crowded or if we have trouble with odors and dirty bedding I have another smaller stall where I can move some of them if we need to. We raise Cornish X. I wouldn't consider raising anything else for meat. Hope this helps.

 

[jaku]

Quote:
Wow, I'd love to see your setup- I can't imagine how that could be possible without smell! How often do you add shavings? And don't you go broke lining a 12x12 stall with shavings?

 

[Winsor Woods]

You should be fine on a 1/4 to 1/8 acre for a tractor. If you grid out on paper, the places you start the tractor and then move the tractor to each day, you'll see how many "moves" you have in your property before you reuse the same spot. Once you move the tractor from a particular spot, rain and/or watering will help to break down the poop and get that fertilizer into the ground. It shouldn't take too long before you can reuse a spot. I've got 25 cornish x's (4 weeks old) in a 12x5 tractor and it's plenty room. I can push that to 50 birds if I need to. I only move once a day or two days right now and it's not that bad. As they grow or if I had more birds, that's what dictates the number of moves. When they were inside in the brooder though with wood pellets, that's a different story altogether. Wow, a bag of wood pellets would last 3 days max before the moisture from the poop turned them into saw dust. And the smell was bad too. Outside in the tractor....Not a problem.

Dan