OK .... run is mostly done for now ... i will be putttling a roof on it before winter .... made the.run door ...birds are in their run ... I picked up 6 more chicks this past Friday .....so much fun!!! The first brave soul checks out the new world.... My Dorking :D Oops! How'd that get there!!! :D
Made a brooder that I could put in the coop so I can keep them together and they can get familiar with eachother..
Lol.... compared to what you have going, Bro ..... this is peanuts! I love the chickens, tho .... lots o fun :D
All 23 birds fully integrated .... as you can see the grass has seen it's day .... putting in 4-6" of rough sand in on Saturday throughout the entire run area ....
I'm thinking about raising some turkeys... what do you know about that? I have plenty of room, that isn't an issue. What do I need to get started?
Growing up on the farm we raised 100 chickens each year. Very few were left alive from one year to the next and we started from scratch each year with chicks. There were 8 of us around the kitchen Table so we ate up some chickens. In later years we kept some around for eggs until egg production became profitable and then we kept more around for eggs. Chickens do not do well in hot weather. They need shade and lots of water. I didn’t mind butchering chickens like some of my siblings. We used the 5 gallon bucket method to dispatch them and then scalded and plucked them and then sent them into the house for my mother to gut and cut up. You have built a very nice coop. Dont chew gum when you are in the coop. Once I dropped my gum and I picked up and tested several items I thought were my gum until I found my gum again.
My brother raised turkey for years. The biggest was 45 pounds. Somewhere I have a picture of it dressed and in a roaster for Thanksgiving.
Muzzy... I haven't done turkeys yet, but I am thinking it should be pretty simple like chickens ... not alot of work once you have everything set up .... I will do a few turkeys next year and let you know RC ... thanks for the compliments and the gum advice ... I will tell Andrew ...lol .. we will be doing meat birds next year as well ... possibly this year .... just gotta build a tractor ...
Chicken tractor ... easiest way to do meat birds, IMO ... I will just move it to a different part of the pasture everyday, eliminating the need to have to clean up after those poop machines. ... and it will fertilize the pasture as they move through it .. ... butcher them in 6-8 weeks and voila`! Full freezer!
I still dont get it. I've not heard this term before. Is this tractor an impliment used to butcher the birds???
No, it's a portable coop and run made out of wood or PVC and covered with wire for protection ... it is moved everyday so the crap does accumulate and have to be picked up .... they eat ALOT! and they crap alot ... meat birds don't move much so they need less room than layers...
Thanks. I've not heard that term before. If you think chickens poop a lot (and they do) you should try raising geese. They poop their own body weight every 3 days. Talk about being full of sheet. Perhaps the democrat party symbol should get rid of the jack arse that symbolizes their movement and replace it with a goose. I kid.
Chickens look great, Tony. What kind of rooster is that black and white one? We are roosterless right now.
Thanks Bruce! He is a Silver Dorking .... I also have a Buttercup Rooster .... they get along great and my Dorking crows a TON! LOL
