so...meat chickens

[pinkfox]

i cant do free range yet...so im thinking tractors or a semi perminent pen on rotation

if i do tractors, how many meatballs can i raise in an 8x4 assuming its moved once a day. (dont want so many that the patch would be competly bare by the end of the day and not recover)

if i do a pen (which would be moved after each batch) how many in an aproximate 12x12 pen, again, dont mind them turning it to "dirt" but dont want so many in that space that they do so much damage that it wouldnt recover without lots of help...
id rather not have to spend money reseeding areas on a regular basis.

the pens would be in the what will eventually be the orchard area which is currenlty tall clover and LOTS of bugs, id like for them not to completly destroy the "clover feild" Mowing it is FINE, but i dont want them to do so uch damage that id doesnt come back, but i still want to be able to raise enough in each batch to make butchering worth it (and help with the doggy feed bill as theyd be Primarily for the dogs)

Im trying to figure out a worth while method of raising meat chickens in some kind of volume that wouldnt result in a dust bowl in my back yard, but also provides them with a more natural diet. i dont mind suplimenting with feed, i just dont want it to be their entire diet

 

[Buster]

I tractor mine, so I would venture 20 to 25 could fit comfortably in an 8x4 tractor. And one of the points of tractoring is they DON'T destroy your property. They are on a particular spot for half a day to a day and then moved on. They don't eat all the vegetation at this density, and their droppings don't destroy the soil but in fact improves it.

I've never done the stationary pen thing, so don't have an answer for you.

I should add that while I have tractored DP birds and young turks a number of times, this is my first year doing Cornish Cross. But, the concepts are the same.

 

[Wannabefree]

I just did ten in a raised cage, and fed cut clover and grass and commercial feed. They did good. I'm not sure the size of the cage though..about 6x4 I think but I wished I had something larger by slaughter day, which was today. I don't think it was enough room for them. By commercial farms standards I could've probably put 20 in there, but I felt they were crammed in by about 3 or 4 weeks.

 

[Beekissed]

I've got an idea cooking that I might try this fall...for you, this might be easier to have some electric poultry fencing to help you keep them contained. The fence is a good investment to make for containing animals of any kind...say dogs, sheep, goats, etc. It only costs $164 with shipping and it supposedly lasts for up to 10 years, which isn't bad.

Anyway, I was thinking of placing a raised bed~about a 1ft. tall x 3 ft. wide x 12 ft. long~ on one end of the garden and building a 2x2 framework around it and a slanted roof of tin, make the front panel hinged so it could be easily opened to access the space and so the panel just hits the ground when opened.

Allow some really good overhang of the tin roof on either side of the pen. Apply some good hardware wire to the frame.

Inside the raised bed, brood some CX chicks, don't clean out the bedding....just use a deep litter method of hay/straw/shavings. When they are big enough, just open that front panel and use it for a ramp. Place their food and water outside under the overhangs on the sides of the pen. For me, I will free range outside of the fence but here is where that poultry fencing comes in handy to other folks.

When they are small you can run them right in garden because they are too small to do damage but they sure can clean it out of bugs...these birds are the best foragers I've ever seen if you don't offer free choice feed and only offer one or two feedings a day. When they have used that area, just switch the fence in the opposite direction and let them work that one. A person could do that in 4 different directions and keep these birds on some good grass and forage and finally put them back in the garden when the garden is done to clean it up.

When I butcher out the birds the pen will be filled with composting bedding and manure and I can remove the actual pen from off the raised bed. I can pile any garden leavings there, pile leaves in it this fall, old mulch hay, etc. I can throw some winter wheat seeds or oats in on top of the pile and let them sprout. I mean sow them in there thick so that they grow a thick mat of greenery. In the spring, I can put CX in there again on top of the greenery until it is gone, then put down some more leaf or hay bedding and repeat the whole cycle.

By the time I need to plant anything in that raised bed the next spring, the CX will be processing age and I can just take my Mantis tiller and cultivate the bed a little to turn the fresh stuff under and unearth the richer compost below, and plant some spinach, lettuce, carrots, a few tomatoes, etc. Come fall I could put some meaties right back into that bed, finish them, turn it under, plant some lettuce and such and place a frame with plastic over it to form a cold frame. Come spring, I could replace their pen over the raised bed and put more CX in there and just keep it all going.

No tractoring, no moving anything but the fence now and again, no cleaning out any pens, growing two types of food in the one space and still composting all at the same time.

I'll tell you what gave me the idea....when I moved the coop that the CX had been in for the first 4 wks I was simply amazed at the nature of the soil when I removed the bedding....absolutely filled with earth worms, it wasn't packed down like it was when the coop was placed there, the soil was easy to work with just a fork and the soil was rich and black compared to the soil right outside that square. Got me to thinking...man, wouldn't it be neat to have the whole garden that ready for planting each spring? Too big an area....so I started thinking smaller. How about having that good of soil in a large raised bed without having topsoil or mulch hauled in and dumped?

As long as a person added enough carbonaceous materials to bind with all that nitrogen, it would be a really great start on a rich raised bed system.

 

[mrscoyote]

We raise our meaties in an 8x4 tractor. 20 will fit fine but I had to move them morning and night to keep the mess from getting to bad.This time I am going smaller with 12 per tractor and I can get away with moving them just once a day.
Nancy

 

[BarredBuff]

We ranged our birds part time. If I raise another batch this fall, they will be completely range with little food. I will have to separate and feed the layers separate. Last year they run my laying flock down. The layers didn't get to eat as much and it wasn't good...

 

[Beekissed]

I was having that too the last time, BB, but I just fed the CX in a separate feeder and fed them first and then, while they were distracted by their gorging, I fed my gals in their own feeder. Everyone got food and everyone was happy!

 

[Cricket]

I like your plan, Bee! I bought electric poultry fencing 2 years ago and absolutely love it! I have a stationary chicken coop (would like one on skids) with 2 doors (4 would be better). I start them out with a squarish pen until they get used to the electric part, then by the end I can have a long narrow pen that I move every other day or so (15 min.). When we've done as much slanting around as we can, I switch the pen to the other side of the coop. My goal someday is to have a coop on skids that I can move along the line of the pasture fence.

 

[BarredBuff]

I am going to do electronet as well, because I have electronet setup for the goats now. It wouldn't be hard for the meat chickens either so a win win.

 

[BarredBuff]

Our homestead is now electric fence equipped.