Which birds are best

[greyfields]

If you plan to do crops of meat chickens, it is easiest to bring in day old cornish cross chicks and just raise them. If you really want to do it yourself, though, get a bunch of Dark Cornish roosters and just let them roam the place. They will be your best terminal sire you can use, and you can use them on every shape and size of hen you have.

Another route to go would be to make your own egg laying hybrids. Use a Rhode Island Red rooster on Barred Rock hens which will give you Black Sex Links. They are awesome layers and very hearty animals. You will know the males as they hatch, due to the sex link gene. You then raise all the males for meat and keep the hens as replacement hens.

My BSL's are probably the meatiest birds on the place after the Freedom Rangers I held back. You will get far better performance out of doing hybrids than any purebreed by a good long distance.

 

[miss_thenorth]

This topic has my interest also. For the spring, I plan on getting some meat birds, but confused about what type to get, etc. Currently I have 6 RIRs or possibly red rocks.
Possibly for the first year, I would do cornish Xs, ordered as day olds, but ultimately I would like to do dual purpose.

If I did as you suggested, Greyfields, would these hens go broody? I don't really want to mess around with incubators.

Also, would they do best in a chicken tractor, or a permanent coop, or does it matter?

 

[greyfields]

I have an incubator so it makes no difference wether I have broody hens or not. Also, some people ask if a certain breed will go broody or not. Although it is considered a breed 'characterisic' it more comes down to the individual birds themselves.

Cornish X's is a good way to start. As I've mentioned before, dual purpose birds really aren't the greatest meat birds. They're just better than Leghorns (which isn't saying much).

I raise my meat chickens in a brooder for 3-4 weeks depending on weather. I get them on grass in a chicken tractor as soon as possible, using a heat lamp. I move the tractor every 2 days, then every day, then in the last 2 weeks I open the tractor and let them out into a portable electric netting pen. That cuts down on the labor of having to move the tractor daily, which can become a chore.

 

[Mark]

greyfields,

>I raise my meat chickens in a brooder for 3-4 weeks depending on weather.

Do you keep the light on 24/7 or let them sleep at night?

Also, how old are the chicks when they go to the portable electric netting pen?

I just got done raising 10 Cornish Xs (processed at 8 weeks) and never thought they were strong enough or feathered enough to handle outdoor conditions. We kept the lights on 24/7.

Thanks,

Mark

 

[greyfields]

Part of learning pastured poultry production is to do it when the weather is favorable. We have mild winters and mild summers, so I need only avoid the rain and don't have to worry too much about the temperature. When I raised Cornish Crosses, I used a red heat lamp at night; but only for their first week or two on grass. Now that I do Freedom Rangers, who stay fully feathered, I probably wouldn't use a lamp unless I noticed the weather taking a cold snap at night.

I have several different tractors I use. The smallest I can pull by hand, which is where I start them. It initially only moves every other day, then ever day. Once they're making it too messy by noon, I move them into a larger tractor (which is nice, but takes the tractor to pull). I then move them daily. Once they get to the poitn that daily isn't enough, I let them otu of the tractor into a 80x80 netting enclosure. I also put the food outside the tractor, so they're only making a mess in there at night.

Here is kinda the idea:



This is not a tractor, but a house I use for young ducks and geese. The larger tractor is in the background, but isn't occuppied at that time. The board is just a wind break.

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

Wow, those are huge *chickens*

What did you feed them?!?

LOL kidding, but I love the set up.

 

[greyfields]

I know, aren't they cute? I have to be completely honest and say that the geese are my favorite animals on the farm. Sorry chickens.

In that photo, inside the netting are younger goslings and ducklings, which I wanted to keep separated from the larger flock of geese outside the netting... just to be sure everyone got enough to eat and there was good integration. Normally, though, the waterfowl are given complete free range and they mow my lawn for me. I need only keep them out of the chicken pens, or they'll eat all the hen's food.

 

[nadams4]

i know with meat birds its best to keep them in a small area so they dont get much exercise.

but has anyone ever heard of raising their food and water up so that the birds must use their leg muscles to eat??

 

[seymojo536]

We raise the cornish X for competition at the fair. One of our methods to improve their legs is to put their feeder on a flat top pyramid so they have to walk up and down to eat. Their water is on the other side of the coop. Because they are only 7 weeks old at judging, it's important to have their legs as fully developed as possible. We also let them outside so they have to walk back in on the ramp to eat/drink. If you just put them in a small space I swear there are some that would lay in front of the feeder and eat, never standing up.

 

[greyfields]

Many people will argue you'll create leg problems by providing perches, roosts or anything they will have to jump off of (chickens will walk up steps, but they jump down them). It comes down to the question, why do Cornish Crosses have leg problems?

The poultry judge at ou Fair last year was talking to me about it. He said he and his 4-H'rs had done a project on it and found that birds given higher levels of calcium had fewer problems. Calcium being an expensive component in chicken feed, it is very unlikely your 'complete ration' is providing more than the bare scant minimum of calcium. I do not recall how he was supplementing the calcium, but I'd suggest a bit of bone meal in their diet. It contains both calcium and phosphorus. Chickens cannot absorb or use calcium if they lack phosphorus, bone meal provides both. I'm not sure if oyster shell provided phosophorus along with calcium, but I want to say it doesn't.