so...meat chickens

[Beekissed]

Yay! How do you like it so far?

 

[BarredBuff]

I like the way it works, very simple. No goats in yet, but we are setup for them now. Could meat chickens be left overnight in a electronet paddock? With a lean to shelter of some sort....

 

[Beekissed]

Depends on if they will get into the shelter....last night mine foraged so late that they couldn't see to get into the coop and bedded down outside of it in the electric paddock. I was going to leave them there until I thought about my resident owls. I put them inside. I'm glad I did now because we had torrential rains last night and those birds would have been soaked all night long.

 

[BarredBuff]

I may have to construct a portable range shelter when I try it this fall.....

 

[Shella]

This fencin' sounds like somethin for me to setu for our animals, when we get the herds

 

[jimmy]

we have a 10 x 12 tractor and let them out during day. fed them in the morning and evening and we just processed 73 cross, for a total of 304 pounds of meat. could not be more pleased. we will start another flock in the early fall.

 

[~gd]

I suggest that anyone that has this problem to go on line to www.premier1supplies.com They have just about anything having to do with pastured poultry And sell the electronet fencing. they are not cheap but they have good ideals many of which can be converted to DIY projects that can be done on the cheap. [I make my own electronetting using Aluminium wire and light weight cord. Their Poultry Solutions catalog is like an idea book and you even can call them for advise.
I think they got their start by supplying fence for sheep.

 

[pinkfox]

i like the idea of the electro netting just not the price lol., like the idea of making my own though, would LOVE to know how to do that GD

 

[Buster]

i like the idea of the electro netting just not the price lol., like the idea of making my own though, would LOVE to know how to do that GD

There are highly successful pastured poultry operations that do day range and use polytape and plastic electric fencing posts with a few t-posts for corners. They space the tape/polywire 6 inches off the ground and 6 inches apart up the post to near the top. They can make it as large as they think their broilers will need and are not stuck with 164 feet. They then place the day range shelter in the middle of this large area, and control broiler movement with placement of feeders and waterers. If the area is large enough, some of them never move the shelter from the time the birds are on pasture to processing time, about 5 weeks if you brood for 3. The shelter generally has a floor, though, and they use a deep bed system. If you didn't you would need to move the shelter frequently. The birds stay basically in the area and don't move beyond the wire.

When that batch is done, they simply pull up and move the posts and polywire and shelter to the next available location.

Significantly cheaper and more versatile than electronet. And you can get all your supplies at your local feed stores.