As the title says, I am wanting to raise only meat chickens this year. We have an area in our yard picked-out (25ft x 50ft) already fenced. Just need a coop for 25 meat birds. Do I need nesting boxes? or just enough room for them to perch? I would like to construct something elevated, yet simple and cost effective. I have seen a few coops on Craigslist but they are all $300 and up and set-up for laying chickens. Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.
You shouldn't need nesting boxes if you aren't planning on collecting any eggs. I used a chicken tractor for my meat birds...they had access to perches but after a few weeks couldn't get up on them. Depends on what kind of meat birds you get, some grow faster than others. If you go elevated, make sure it is easy enough for them to get in. Again, once they get big, the get lazy...or just to heavy for themselves to move very far. Be prepared for poop. Lots of it. It was the one shocking thing to me. I have 50 non meat birds and I had 25 meat birds. The meat birds out pooped the non meat ones 3 to 1. I had to move the tractor 2 times daily to keep it "clean". My tractor is 15 feet long and 8 feet wide. Make sure your feeders are easily accessible as well....they like to hang out by the food. Good luck.
Almost exactly what I was going to say! We have our meat birds comin in 2 weeks so all this has been running through my mind as well. I've never even given mine the option to roost since they grow so fast. I'm not sure what you do know about meat birds but I take the food away at night if they haven't eatten it all or they will eat themselves to death. Also keep an eye on them when they get bigger, once they can't keep their legs under them it's time to butcher.
