Within a few weeks, approximately 65,000 chickens – 54,000 hens and 11,000 roosters—will be trucked to the four enclosed barns on 10 to 12 acres set back some 650 feet from Hwy. 34 two miles southeast of Elmwood.
To handle that many chickens, each barn is 600 feet long.
A 14-foot-wide scratch pad with wood chips, or shavings, will be installed on the main aisle in each barn where the roosters and hens will mate, and possibly intermingle in a general way, with the roosters sleeping on the pad and the hens having a separate sleeping area.
There will be separate and different methods when feeding the hens and roosters. The roosters will eat out of orange-colored plastic trays lowered to the ground by a pulley system. Otherwise, the trays will be suspended in the air when not in use.
The hens will eat in individual pods or “wire cages,” Thom said. These are near their nests and away from the roosters.
These feeding cages are big enough for the hens to fit into to eat, but too small for the larger roosters.
“You want to make sure the hens get ample feed and not be dominated by the roosters,” Thom said.
The roosters and hens will drink water in a similar fashion, but in different areas.
The birds will peck at a silver nipple for water with a cup underneath to catch any runoff. The birds can drink from the cup as well.
