Want to try meat birds.

[Birddog1148]

There will be fresh air when I let the hens out during the day, plus the garage is not sealed well at all, 75 years old building made of recycled lumber.

 

[Birddog1148]

Gonna start with 6

 

[SunnysMama]

Good Luck!!!

 

[Birddog1148]

Well I have had them almost a week, bought the biggest ones TSC had. The 4 white ones are meat birds. The 2 dark ones are dual purpose birds. How old do those dark ones need to be before I can tell the sex? If they are hens I will add them to the flock instead of eating them. Those white ones grow fast! I forgot what kind they are.

 

[SunnysMama]

More than likely the white ones are Cornish Cross chicks. I know when I had a cockerel that was supposed to be a pullet showed signs of sex at about 3 to 4 weeks. The cockerels combs will turn red and be larger much faster than the pullets.

 

[Birddog1148]

been home a week ago yesterday but I am sure they are older than that

My homemade brooder from a 5o gal tote and hardware cloth inserted in lid.

 

[Birddog1148]

Supplies to make a 4x8x3 pen in the garage next to the permenant coop. Gonna make it modular so I can take it down and store it when I am not raising meat birds.

 

[Elke Beck]

Hey Birddog1148, when you make your modular pen, can you post how you did it? I would love to have a pen that I can store away.

 

[Charlieandlola]

I couldn't tell on my non meat birds (dual purpose or egg layers) until about 2 months old, but I was suspicious a couple weeks prior to that.

Those white ones are cornish cross and yeah, they grow amazingly fast. The dual purpose will take longer to reach a good size for eating, if you decide to keep them around. I butchered 3 young roosters at 3 months old and they were pretty small, but I had to get rid of them; they were fighting and causing problems.

 

[missnu01]

Well the CX won't really be able to stay with your layer chicks...because the growth of the CX is ridiculous...truly a site to see. They are 4-5x larger than my layer breeds of the same age. We got them on the 6th so 13 days ago, and they are as large as my last chicks were at 5 weeks. No joke.