How to house meat bird in a stationary coop?

[Molpet]

Have you thought about ranger or color broilers? They take longer but have less issues and free range better.

 

[FunClucks]

One more question for now. I’m on the fence about him processing them and would rather pay a farm. He wants to do them for cost saving but I’m worried he won’t know a diseased bird. Is there a resource for assessing the meat for things that would make it not fit to eat? A local farm is having a class on processing in May that he’ll attend but if we want to have someone else process them we have to book the appointment ahead of time and likely before May for later in the summer.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-want-to-be-sure-meat-is-safe-to-eat.1566685/

 

[Esrun]

We will not be free ranging them. We have way too many hawks and we live in the woods. The enclosure was more for their comfort.

 

[Esrun]

I can look into the other types of breeds though.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

There is no one right way to raise Cornish Cross. Everyone does it a little differently, and you'll just need to find what works best for you. I think those who fail with Cornish Cross do so because of poor management. But if you just stick to a recommended set of guidelines, monitor them closely and adjust as needed, you'll do fine!

@Birdinhand has had success giving free access to feed and only letting natural darkness limit their intake. I've also heard from others who feed 12-on and 12-off with success. But of course we all have differences in climate, feed, and genetic strains of birds, too. Your lifestyle may determine some different adjustments. As long as they're getting adequate feed somehow spread over a 24-hour period along with adequate sleep, they'll do fine.

Thanks for this reply! Yes, I would like to somehow store their feed nearby as it’s a little distance from the house over a small stream and up a hill. Our hens are closer to the house and in their run I have a large food storage bin. I wouldn’t intend to keep the feeders full just hoped to store them and the food with the birds somehow.

I've kept feed in a galvanized metal trash bin with lid inside their shed, or outdoors in a lockable weathertight storage tote.

At this point I was thinking of a hoop coop that could be split in half (back half a secure coop for sleeping and front half for daytime and then have an enclosed run for when they can be outside. The leaves are just what’s on the ground now, I didn’t mean as bedding intentionally. What do you use for bedding inside the coop? What would you suggest as a floor there, wood with shavings? - or still just the dirt with an apron around them? Hardware cloth seems out as an option for flooring bc I don’t want to do sand (I have sand in w my hens and I do like it for them).

It appears you have access to tons of leaves, so by all means use that in the run and in the coop. Anything that helps to absorb moisture and aerate their manure will help. I've found that hay and straw mat together and are hard to remove when soiled. Loose matter like wood shavings and leaves are easiest to clean.

Also, I had no idea they needed so much looking after, I’m glad to know these things ahead of time to see if we’re really prepared for this. Our hens are very low maintenance (partly bc we have a small flock and I have an auto coop door/heated waterer). We both work full time so I’ll really need to assess if I have the time for this. I’m prepared to take care of them in all aspects and my husbands job is to take over if anyone is hurt beyond being helped as well as processing day. So much to learn. We had talked about starting with six. Does that seem like a good amount? Of course I immediately said, “well, if we want 6 we’d better get 9”

If you can work a feeding schedule around your work hours, it's still very do-able. Birdinhand made me realize that my troubles with split skin and deformed legs *might* have been due partially to the genetic strain of my birds, hence why I had to measure feed, schedule, and supervise. You may do very well with a 12-on 12-off schedule.

One more question for now. I’m on the fence about him processing them and would rather pay a farm. He wants to do them for cost saving but I’m worried he won’t know a diseased bird. Is there a resource for assessing the meat for things that would make it not fit to eat? A local farm is having a class on processing in May that he’ll attend but if we want to have someone else process them we have to book the appointment ahead of time and likely before May for later in the summer.

Let him go to the class and do the processing. I don't know what kind of disease would affect these birds without showing symptoms, and make them unfit to eat. If you could attend the class with him, it may put your fears to rest.

 

[Birdinhand]

One more question for now. I’m on the fence about him processing them and would rather pay a farm. He wants to do them for cost saving but I’m worried he won’t know a diseased bird. Is there a resource for assessing the meat for things that would make it not fit to eat? A local farm is having a class on processing in May that he’ll attend but if we want to have someone else process them we have to book the appointment ahead of time and likely before May for later in the summer

It’s definitely within reach to process safely if you pay attention to some key principles. Stop feeding 12 hours prior to culling, dramatically reducing gut contents and chance of contamination while eviscerating/butchering. Certainly a bird that is truly sickly should be discarded and usually is pretty obvious. For a small first batch I’d skin the birds after culling, skipping scalding and the defeathering. When you are ready to take the plunge, the yard bird chicken plucker is a good work horse that takes the work out of plucking feathers and produces a cleaned bird. Either way, once they are skinned/plucked and eviscerated, the key is dropping their temperature in an ice bath. After chilling for a bit, I then move the operation indoors, where cleaned and sanatized surfaces are the key. I rinse them, vacuum seal and place in the fridge or cooler, checking temp daily with a lazer thermometer, adding ice as necessary, typically daily, to keep them hovering a bit above freezing. I buy the ice days ahead of time and put in in my freezer to make sure it’s deep freezing temperature (ice can be 30f or -20 and look pretty much the same). I do cool them for 3+ days to “rest” the meat… this can be done in a fridge, but is key to have done before freezing so they are ready to cook into a tender perfection.

The last stop gap to protecting you and your family from food born illness is treating raw chicken as a food hazard… they are relatives of reptiles and carry flora normal to them that are deadly to us. The hazard from the back yard flock is no more or less hazardous than store bought in my opinion, it all needs respect and understanding. Thoroughly cooking is the last step that should catch anything that has some how made it between the cracks.

Keep in mind that a bit of bleach water in a spray bottle is the home butchers friend… use it!

At the end of the day, all this effort is well worth it in my book. The Cornish cross is the champion for the back yard grower, offering the most outstanding conversion of grain to meat of any, better than rabbit and anything else I’ve come across. If you can except that they are bred to have a short, fast life and do not do well as adults, to the point that harvest day is a mercy killing, if you can accept that, it is possible to find a humane and even fun (they are cute and very sweet when young) way to produce meat for the family in what has got to be the lowest carbon foot print meat option available. I have learned to greatly appreciate what the breeding achieved and I do my best to respect these amazing creatures during their short and vigorous life.

 

[FunClucks]

The only thing I've seen so far when processing CX is one or two cases of green muscle disease. This is due to them flapping too much after getting startled, and can cause some of the breast meat to turn green due to it starting to die / lack of blood circulation. But that's not an issue for eating - just cut out the green meat and eat the rest of the bird. I part out most of my birds, so it's easy to see when I have green muscle disease.

Other than that, you mostly need to know what a healthy bird is supposed to look like so you know when it is and isn't healthy. Anything with spots is bad - spots on liver, entrails, or elsewhere indicates disease (I forget which type), and of course you don't want excess water in the abdomen. Bad smells, things that look off, set those birds aside in a very cold place and do some research on what's wrong. You can take pictures of the issues and post them on here, and folks can help ID.

That being said, I've never personally seen any of those diseases in CX, only seen or heard of them in older chickens of a different breed, mainly eggers.

 

[Acre4Me]

Good luck!

We raised CX first time a few years ago. It was a different experience than the egg chickens. But we LOVED the meat. So, spouse (a handy guy) built an outdoor pen: roof, wire side, bottom 18 inches is wood slats. But, then he dug down and out 18” deep, 2-3’ out. In this area he extended welded, galvanized wire, on top of which he laid a roofing waterproof layer. So, nothing will dig in, and the only wetness that impacts the pen is from blowing rain (and we keep up clear roofing panels on those walls of the pen that get the most weather). It’s a very robust pen, as long as the humans close and latch the door! We raise 12-18 CX in a 70 sq ft pen (pen is larger, but can be divided in half, so we commonly only use half for CX). Main thing for us is to hang water and hang feed. We find that as they get larger, around 6 weeks, they can tip over if they walk on something as low as a paver. When they tip over, they can’t roll over and they suffocate. They do not need to roost, in fact, they really won’t even if the opportunity is given at their heavier weight. They drink a TON of water. And they need Shade they run pretty warm, and often don’t need the heat lamp for as long as regular chicks.

Here they are at 3 weeks, late Sept. cold night. Only warming their butts.

Here they are at 4 weeks, when 2nd feeding is delivered.

 

[Esrun]

Good luck!

We raised CX first time a few years ago. It was a different experience than the egg chickens. But we LOVED the meat. So, spouse (a handy guy) built an outdoor pen: roof, wire side, bottom 18 inches is wood slats. But, then he dug down and out 18” deep, 2-3’ out. In this area he extended welded, galvanized wire, on top of which he laid a roofing waterproof layer. So, nothing will dig in, and the only wetness that impacts the pen is from blowing rain (and we keep up clear roofing panels on those walls of the pen that get the most weather). It’s a very robust pen, as long as the humans close and latch the door! We raise 12-18 CX in a 70 sq ft pen (pen is larger, but can be divided in half, so we commonly only use half for CX). Main thing for us is to hang water and hang feed. We find that as they get larger, around 6 weeks, they can tip over if they walk on something as low as a paver. When they tip over, they can’t roll over and they suffocate. They do not need to roost, in fact, they really won’t even if the opportunity is given at their heavier weight. They drink a TON of water. And they need Shade they run pretty warm, and often don’t need the heat lamp for as long as regular chicks.

Here they are at 3 weeks, late Sept. cold night. Only warming their butts.
View attachment 3744708

Here they are at 4 weeks, when 2nd feeding is delivered.
View attachment 3744709

Thank you! Do you have any exterior photos? And also, that picture is so awesome

 

[Esrun]

The one of them warming their butts