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This is our first time! We got 8 meat hens a week ago from McMurray, and are raising them in a brooder. In a week or two, we plan to put them outside in an enclosed coop.
I pretty much learned everything I know from Youtube homesteaders, and from Joel Salatin's books.
They're in a 3'x3' cardboard box, lined with a cheap shower curtain, and filled with a couple inches of pine shavings from the Agway store. There's a 250W lamp in one corner.
They have a water dispenser and feeder, both from McMurray Hatchery, very inexpensive & made in USA. So far, I've fed them "Country Feeds Meatbird" food.
What I'm discovering is, they get the shavings (and poop) in the water and food very quickly. So I tried elevating the dispensers and that seems to have cut back a tiny bit, but not a lot. I know this will basically take care of itself when they go outside; I just don't like that they're drinking poopy water. But maybe it doesn't really hurt them at that age?
Also, the poop... it's everywhere. I throw a few handfuls of shavings twice a day, and it looks clean for about 15 minutes. Then, suddenly, it's polka-dotted with poop everywhere again. And the poop's only getting bigger as they grow rapidly.
I noticed they've been pecking a lot, looking for bugs, so I tossed some lettuce in there to see what they'd do. One would grab it in her beak and several others would chase her around, trying to get it from her, totally ignoring the other lettuce lying around. I guess they don't yet know how to share?
The homesteaders say, start them on some small pebbles about now, but the Agway people said, don't bother. Don't they need pebbles for digestion? Maybe it's too soon?
Thanks for any advice and/or suggestion of a more appropriate forum!
Facts.... chickens are messy, mean little dinosaurs. They have no sense of hygiene, and they aren't nice to each other.
For the bedding, I would just have it deep enough that you can stir it in a couple times before changing it.
For the water... I have always used open bowls, better if it's too deep for them to want to walk in, because if they don't walk in it, they can't poop in it. Put it in a corner. You'll still have to change it, maybe a couple times a day. Don't worry too much about them walking in the food.... chickens eat by walking in and scratching in their food.
Best idea I've found for keeping them happy and keeping them entertained, is if you can go out every day and pull a big clump of green (unsprayed) grass, including as much dirt and roots as you can get with it, and put that in with them. They will eat and tear it apart, find little bugs and microbes to eat, and get some grit they need to digest complex food. If you have access to nice clean dirt, you could replace or supplement the wood shavings with dirt, and let them scratch around in it, along with any worms or bugs that are in it. Let spilled food mix in the dirt... let them find it.
Your house will smell like a chicken coop. They are messy, they poop alot... meat chickens even more than layer chicks, because they're eating more. Bonus, it's all good compost for the garden if you have one.
If you have an enclosed space now, let them out during nice warm days. And start weaning them off the supplemental light if it's warm in your house where they are. Sooner you can wean them off of that in your climate, the sooner they can be out.
Last edited by Diana Holbrook; 05-06-2021 at 07:02 PM..
Agree with Diana about using dirt clods with grass. It gets your chicks used to the bacteria in your yard. I buy chick grit from TSC and use it as soon as they eat anything but feed. It’s still best if you can change out their water and put new shavings on top of the old stuff. Baby chicks won’t thrive in a dirty pen with dirty water and food. A dose of apple cider vinegar in the water is good for their gut.
Yes, let them out as much as you can. The last time I had chicks, the hatchery in Florida threw in a few extra that I didn’t have a big enough box for. After about three weeks, they had to go outside. I have one of those flat heaters they can run under when they get cold. I put the heater in their house and ran an outside extension cord from the garage to the coop. They did fine and were kept warm at night.
Be sure to give them a varied diet, one of mine got wry neck, it comes from a vitamin deficiency. Chick feed alone is not enough to prevent this. Give them as much variety as possible, starting a few days old. While my chick was healing from the wry neck, they all got hard cooked, crumbled eggs, with chopped spinach and liquid vitamins. Many people use children’s Poly Visol from the store.
Don’t forget about cocci, if your food is not medicated, you need to dose them periodically. Corid is what you should use, it prevents and cures outbreaks.
You've discovered that chickens are on the lower rung of the barnyard intelligence ladder.
But first, a 250w bulb in 3x3 box...you are gonna cook 'em. Back it down to 60 and watch the chicks. If they huddle directly under it, it's not providing enough heat, go to a 100w bulb and observe again. A good starter book is "Raising Poultry The Modern Way"
More important...after you've plucked and butchered your first chicken, come back and tell us if raising meat chickens was a good idea...
Lol, about the food sharing, there are 4 hens in my backyard and they do the same thing. They want what the other one has!
Add clothing and a small dab of intelligence to the mix and you get a description of many members of humanity. Add some space, a larger dose of intelligence, and some independence from the flock and that behavior is minimized, except among some of the carrion eaters and psychopathic narcissists.
A meat chicken (Cornish cross) that happen to lay an egg that gets broken soon discovers it is a tasty treat, best consumed before others get to it. Parents of some teenagers might not strenuously disagree with that idea.
You've discovered that chickens are on the lower rung of the barnyard intelligence ladder.
But first, a 250w bulb in 3x3 box...you are gonna cook 'em. Back it down to 60 and watch the chicks. If they huddle directly under it, it's not providing enough heat, go to a 100w bulb and observe again. A good starter book is "Raising Poultry The Modern Way"
More important...after you've plucked and butchered your first chicken, come back and tell us if raising meat chickens was a good idea...
Regards
Gemstone1
haha, will do!
Already my teenager thinks of them as pets and is upset by the idea of harvesting them in a few weeks.
The wife would like egg layers instead. I'm okay with that - now that we have the "infrastructure" we can probably raise a few later this year or next spring.
But it's a daily chore and the teenager needs to sign on to help.
When I watch these homesteading videos with families of 3, 4, 5 kids all pitching in to help... that's what I'm going to do in my next life. So much better than lying around indoors on their phones.
What your question??!! You don't state the age of your "meat hens". But if you're planning outside I'm assuming you bought feathered out birds of three/four weeks at least???
Just hatched three groups of chicks this spring out of my Borotto (Italian) incubator 24. (Design wise, go Italian). Yes, I bought the red base chick waterers/feeders and OF COURSE, they stand/poop/knock over and so I now use Thermos Food tops for water, or those one lemon fridge storage (the base). They all caught on fast, water and food wise no issues. They're NOT turkey poults!! I went to the local Thrift store and for TWO BUCKS bought a warming tray (I had wood boxes exactly those dimensions) and flipped it over, plugged it in. 105 degree max, dial down, VERY FIRE SAFE. i have a coop outside (steel kit bashed from a sound display) and that has a 150 watt red light AND a flat heat tray (not really needed but we're down to 40 F. at night, still cool through May. The two week box went into the small bathroom with pine shavings, no smell, but these guys can JUMP two feet. The last batch is two days old and they're Andalusians, lil guys, and they already are jumping.!! It's pretty hilarious. All are still on "chick starter" through eight weeks, though yoghurt and shredded cheese treats (they thinkt they're mealworms) are on the go. All are doing good.. DINOSAURS are almost impossible to kill. the bigger three week birds I've moved to my glass Pyrex bowls (can't tip over) and water in those now that they won't drown.
the one thing to note about "meat birds" is that they're genetically modified and bred to GROW FAST. but you don't want TOO fast. they're have a heart attack. in birds, in comm. meat barns, they're called "flippers".
I actually had that happen to the fastest growing calf I ever bred, a heifer. The guy (yes, I told him) kept them on poor pasture and wanted to get his hay in (which he never nothing about) He made huge coin as a Teamsters' Longshore forklift driver, Huge money. I told him I could BUY hay cheaper than he could get it cut, and ensure quality. He then gave up, and let them in on the full pasture. Calf had a major heart attack the next a.m.; my Vet. examined. !!
If you think chicks are dirty little crappers then don’t get ducks!
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