Poultry as livestock forum

[aart]

This is mostly covered in the meat bird section.

I am currently in the process of rebuilding a large portion of our old barn to accommodate what will be 40 chickens. I was hopeing i could put this thread in our new forum as I plan to discuss some of the issues ive had to deal with that normal "pet flocks" dont generally have to worry about.

But that doesn't cover birds kept primarily for eggs, big difference I would think.

 

[ivan3]

There are several members whose flocks function as primarily commercial commodities (eggs and/or meat). mac-in-wisco is one whose posts I've read with interest over the years: https://www.backyardchickens.com/u/2328/mac-in-wisco.

Advanced search: "large flock"" https://www.backyardchickens.com/ne...arch="Large+flock"&sort=relevance&titleonly=0

Hone in on members who are are buying cartons wholesale.

Start a thread in Managing Your Flock: `Chickens as Livestock', see who else shows up.

 

[wsmith]

Nor does the meat section cover the "non-pet" aspect of our larger operations. Yes, we treat our chickens well and I don't think we function as most of the super-large egg producers, but management techniques are different than for the 3-10 hens in the backyard operations. The problems take on a different tone with larger livestock/farm style operations than with a strictly backyard flock. I don't think most of us with that type of operation put diapers on our chickens or worry about whether we can put sand in our runs or not. We also routinely have to cull, and sometimes cull hard. Many of these topics are hard for the typical urban backyard "chickens are pets" people. And I'm not saying that those people are bad, or wrong, or anything like that. It's just a different kind of operation.

 

[applegal]

Shari
The chicken fountain does look pretty nifty. Just had to check it out. Farmtek.com also offers a variety of founts and nipple waterers.

Great idea for the forum!