Tractor Alternatives

[Mwhit]

Hey folks, first time here.

My family and I got started on our first flock of 16 birds this spring and I’ve had the idea of meat birds ever since.

I have them fenced in a 120x85 ft run with about half thick trees/forest and the other half open “pasture” with an enclosed 4x8 coop. The run is huge and I’d like to both add more layers and meat birds to keep the vegetation down and have all the benefits of meat.

My dilemma: i want to raise 25 meat birds (looking at Cornish cross) , but I work away from home a lot in the summer and don’t want my wife dragging a chicken tractor around and having to water and feed every evening. Adding to this, our run is sloped and heavily vegetated. I’d be willing to do the tractor, but wouldn’t be able to October or nov.

So I’m thinking of options and want everyones opinion.

Option 1: Start the meat birds now and fence in a separate run about 25x25 inside the run for the meaties. Add another coop or shelter for them. Would I have to scrape poop all the time ? Any less maintenance than a tractor ?

Option 2: use a chicken tractor for the birds but wait till late fall/early winter when I’m home more. We live in east TN and our winters are wet but pretty mild if this helps.

I’d love to have y’all’s opinion on this. I really appreciate it.

 

[My Bagurks]

Meat birds are absolutely messier than layers. But I would suggest making a separate area inside the run.

I don’t know where you live, but if you have hot summers, then you can make a super simple, mostly open coop for them. Meat birds are much more susceptible to heat injury than layers are. You will have to clean more, but if you go into it knowing that, you can engineer it so it’s not as much of a chore.

I’d say a 3 walled coop. So when it comes time to clean, you just push it out. You’ll find that the meat chickens won’t go far from the food anyway. They’re pretty lazy. My meat chickens didn’t even roost when I had them.

Meat chickens don’t need as much space as layers or nesting boxes, or much of any entertainment, or high roosts, but they are poop machines.

I’ve never done a tractor because it never appealed to me. I like things simple and easy.

 

[Mwhit]

Meat birds are absolutely messier than layers. But I would suggest making a separate area inside the run.

I don’t know where you live, but if you have hot summers, then you can make a super simple, mostly open coop for them. Meat birds are much more susceptible to heat injury than layers are. You will have to clean more, but if you go into it knowing that, you can engineer it so it’s not as much of a chore.

I’d say a 3 walled coop. So when it comes time to clean, you just push it out. You’ll find that the meat chickens won’t go far from the food anyway. They’re pretty lazy. My meat chickens didn’t even roost when I had them.

Meat chickens don’t need as much space as layers or nesting boxes, or much of any entertainment, or high roosts, but they are poop machines.

I’ve never done a tractor because it never appealed to me. I like things simple and easy.

Thanks for the reply. Do you think a 25x25 run would be big enough to where it wouldn’t need to be cleaned much?

 

[iwltfum]

A 25x25 run would need to be cleaned out or rotated to a new spot with fresh grass multiple times over the course of 8 weeks with 25 cornish crosses in it. I would just use the whole run if I was in your situation. 125x85 is almost 20 times bigger than 25x25. That's plenty of space for 16 layers and 25 short term meaties.

 

[Mwhit]

Ok thanks for tips. That does seem easiest to just keep them with the rest. Any suggestions on how to feed them and the layers ? Maybe keep them all on grower and supplement with oyster shell?

 

[My Bagurks]

25x25 would be plenty of room for Cornish crosses if you are getting feed for them. Mine didn’t move much when I had them. I started mine on 28% protein, non-medicated chick starter from Tucker Milling Co. and at 4 weeks, switched to a 24%. After 7 1/2 weeks I processed them. They were healthy, had a nice fat content, tasted GREAT, and none of them were under 5 pounds after processing. I had two roosters that were close to 7 pounds.

I wouldnt mix because of the feed difference, especially if your flock now is on a layer feed. Layers don’t need that much protein and they probably get plenty of extra anyway from grazing such a big run. And you’d be wasting the extra you pay for a layer feed on broilers.

If you do want to keep them together, they aren’t going to achieve that meat bird size that you will expect and it may take longer to get them to size. And the Cornish crosses we all know and love are susceptible to health issues. We typically don’t see them because they end up on the table before they present. But those broiler cross breeds are not bred for longevity. I’ve known people that fed them lower protein and were able to eventually get a few to breeding age, but even their offspring would not be the “engineered” meat bird that’s sought after.

Then comes the cleaning. Meat birds are filthy. They are eating and pooping machines. Their coop will need to be cleaned very frequently. Another reason I’d say to separate them. They won’t get up on the roosts like your layers do and may end up getting pooped on or sleeping in the poop. Not something I’d want for a bird I plan on eating.

And if you make a separate run and coop it leaves your options open. If you do the meat birds and absolutely hate it, you’re done and you now have a maternity ward, or a rooster bachelor pad or an introduction run or a sick ward. And when a coop/run goes through a wave of meat birds, you’ll want to clean it or maybe even disinfect it just so the next batch is safe from anything that could be in there. You wouldn’t want to have to redo your regular flocks home every time you do meat birds.

 

[Mwhit]

Sounds good. Setting up a fence inside the coop wouldn’t be a big deal so I think I’ll give it a shot and try to keep it low maintenance. Thanks for the advice.

 

[iwltfum]

25x25 would be plenty of room for Cornish crosses

Plenty of room if you want to rotate the area multiple times in 8 weeks. Or rake it out the same amount of times.

Why complicate things? You can absolutely get a nice batch of heavy cornish crosses while free ranging them with a small laying flock. All you need is a creep feeder for when the chicks are young so they can get at the high protein feed without the layers getting to it. The layers can handle the high protein feed for four or five weeks once they get to be a similar size to the other birds. I've done it this way plenty.
Only good reason to separate them on this scale would be for predator issues, which can be a problem with wide open cornish cross raising.

Unless you have a specific couple of plants in your pasture, the pasture plants really wont be giving the birds very much "extra" protein. In free ranging, its the bugs that are the protein but a few birds would leave even a large fenced run essentially bug-free in a few weeks so not much extra protein our there for them unless they are completely unfenced

 

[iwltfum]

Ok thanks for tips. That does seem easiest to just keep them with the rest. Any suggestions on how to feed them and the layers ? Maybe keep them all on grower and supplement with oyster shell?

Broiler starter for 4 weeks in a creep feeder that only the broiler chicks can get into

Then broiler grower for the next four weeks fed to the layers and broilers both

With plenty of free-access grit and oyster shells available to all

is how I would set it up.