Raising on wire

[charthorn]

I've been raising cornish CX for a number of years and the biggest issues I've had is the cleanup after sending them to freezer camp. It really doesn't matter if they were kept in a pen or freeranged, they make a mess. I was wondering if putting them up on wire would keep them a little cleaner and cleaning up the area afterwards a little easier. Has anybody ever raised their Jumbos on wire?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I have not raised meat birds on wire but I do raise my Dual Purpose chicks on wire in the brooder and grow-out coop. It keeps the brooder and coop dry, to me a benefit more important than easy clean-up. With the brooder I put plastic bins from Walmart under the wire to catch the poop, really easy clean-up. I shovel out the area under the grow-out coop.

A couple of things. Some wire has sharp nibs on it that can cut the birds' feet. These can come from the automatic manufacturing or hot dip galvanizing. They will all be on the same side of the wire, so carefully check if the wire you are using has them. Not all does. If it does turn the sharp side down so it doesn't hurt them.

Not sure how this would play out with your meat birds since they grow so fast, but I use 1/2" hardware cloth. Somewhere after 12 weeks of age the poop gets so big it stops passing through and can build up on the wire. I don't know if you will run into that with your birds.

 

[Mosey2003]

I'm working to get my brooder converted to a wire floor for my dual purpose chicks. If I were wanting to raise them completely, I would look for a slightly larger wire for a secondary grow out area, something like 1"x1" - otherwise the poop will just pile like Ridgerunner said.

 

[charthorn]

Thanks for the info, all good points to consider. I think I am going to go ahead and design a pen where they're up on wire. I'll let you know how it works out

 

[charthorn]

Here's my new coop. Brooder in the middle, bulk feeders on each end and a 20 gal water tank with self waters running down the center. Floor is 1 x 1 welded wire so hopefully they will be a lot cleaner.

 

[Compost King]

if I were to raise birds on wire for the sake of not having a mess I would use the same Hardware cloth used for Rabbit cages. The openings are rectangle 1/2 inch by 1 inch. Its made for rabbits to hop on so its floor safe in my opinion. Its strong enough hold their weight too. I am not saying it absolutely has to be that hardware cloth but I feel it would be ideal for it. Most of my coops have hardware cloth floors (unless ground level) but I put straw over it and only have hardware cloth to keep the bedding as dry as possible and the bottom of the bedding get oxygen which comes in handy when its composted later.

 

[Ridgerunner]

My brooder (which is also a broody buster) and my grow-out coop both have a 1/2" hardware cloth floor. With my full sized fowl around 12 to 14 week of age the poop stops going through the wire. The openings are too small so the poop starts building up. Using 1/2" wire would defeat the purpose of not having to clean it. Perhaps with the straw over it you don't have that issue.

 

[charthorn]

So far the new coop is working awesome. We're four weeks into raising 30 meat birds and they are growing great and keeping clean. As some are approaching 4#, next week I'll start sending some to freezer camp.

 

[charthorn]

New coop worked great! All 30 are in the freezer with an average dress out weight of 5 lbs. at six weeks. The coop stayed clean and the birds were super clean.

 

[Molpet]

Well worth while. Glad it worked out well