Hello all.
Several years back I had a username but can't for the life of me remember it. So starting over.
We are located in south central PA. We currently have 7 layers (3 years old) and I have 6 more chicks coming in 2 weeks. We've been messing around with layers for about 10 years now with good success. We use a semi-mobile coup/run system and move it around our yard during the year. In the winter we park it over our garden and they pick it pretty clean until spring when it's time to till.
Our next adventure is meat birds. Tomorrow I'll be ordering 70 Cornish Crosses from a local hatchery. I'm building 3 chicken tractors for the broilers, each one is 5'x10'. I have lots of experience with butchering wild game, and broilers look pretty easy. For the tractors I'm building I'm incorporating a semi-automatic feeder and an automatic watering system to reduce the amount of work it takes to tend to 3 tractors.
The pic attached is of the automatic watering system I finished yesterday. It uses a toilet fill valve & chicken nipples to keep the water clean and full. Doesn't work so well in freezing temps but that really wasn't much of an issues this year.
Take care all.
Jeremy
Several years back I had a username but can't for the life of me remember it. So starting over.
We are located in south central PA. We currently have 7 layers (3 years old) and I have 6 more chicks coming in 2 weeks. We've been messing around with layers for about 10 years now with good success. We use a semi-mobile coup/run system and move it around our yard during the year. In the winter we park it over our garden and they pick it pretty clean until spring when it's time to till.
Our next adventure is meat birds. Tomorrow I'll be ordering 70 Cornish Crosses from a local hatchery. I'm building 3 chicken tractors for the broilers, each one is 5'x10'. I have lots of experience with butchering wild game, and broilers look pretty easy. For the tractors I'm building I'm incorporating a semi-automatic feeder and an automatic watering system to reduce the amount of work it takes to tend to 3 tractors.
The pic attached is of the automatic watering system I finished yesterday. It uses a toilet fill valve & chicken nipples to keep the water clean and full. Doesn't work so well in freezing temps but that really wasn't much of an issues this year.
Take care all.
Jeremy
