Last year we raised 50 Cornish Cross - we were not prepared and kept them in a brooder in the shed for TOO long (5 weeks) until we could get the tractor ready for them. We had Rhode Island Reds & Barred Rocks in with them for the first 5 weeks and they were fine. We tried to keep them separate but the RIR & BR could jump & fly and would go where they wanted. It was a Stinky mess, having to shovel out what seemed to be 50# bags of processed feed - I hated it and could not wait til butchering day...but the product in the freezer turned out to be SO NICE!!!! I shocked myself half way through the winter when I could start counting how many birds were left in the freezer...by asked DH if we could do it again. I love having those tender plump roasters handy when company is coming and knowing what is in my freezer (we raise our own beef as well).
This year we put them in a brooder in the garage for 1 week...April 4-10, changing the bedding every day gets old fast. We put plastic around and on top of their 10 X 10 tractor with 2 hanging red heat lamps and 2-30# hanging feeders and 2-3 gal hanging waterers (so they have to at least stand up to eat & drink)... Feeders & waterers must be filled EVERY day right now(we are only at 3 weeks we may have to add more or fill 2x a day). Hanging things makes moving the tractor easier too. This is MUCH better than last year. Because they are moved to fresh grass regularly, they are much less stinky and we don't have to shovel out the coop. The red lamps allow them to sleep when it is dark. We did not remove feed last year and we did not have any leg issues, but I understand it can be a problem. We are not removing feed this year... but they are sleeping when it is dark and they are moving around more on the grass and with more space. Depending on the size of our birds we plan to butcher between Memorial weekend & 6/12, we'll see how it goes, depending on their size.
We don't eat chicken on processing day/ or deal with any food prep. ... I prepare something like sloppy joe for the crock pot the day before and have chips & the sides(cole slaw, potato salad) in the fridge, we just wash up & serve & throw away the paper products and get back to work... We tried cooking fresh chicken several years ago the smell was a big turn off and no one wanted to eat chicken after processing.
We use start & grow for the first 3-4 weeks and then finisher for the last 4-5 weeks. We used vitamins in the water the whole time. We processed at 10 weeks, We had 4-5 # birds, they would not fit in 1 gallon bags, had to get 2 gallon zip lock freezer bags.
Edited to add: I forgot to mention that during processing we had 20 gal barrels with a hose running low pressure fresh cold water in at all times and we kept adding 10 # bags of ice to it to keep it ice cold; cooling the chicken quickly and keeping it cold til we were ready to package & freeze.
