Colorado

[Double Kindness]

At 8 weeks old my cx broiler meat chickens are starting to die of heart attacks.

I have one napping in a box of shaving that looks bkue tinged skin and not moving much while I drink my first cuppa black coffee and get my water scalding and sharpening my favorite knif .

ATM I have one of my white bresse roosters with my layers hoping to hatch out more white bresse and bresse x ayam cemani crosses to put in the incubator.

I might be doing ee x ayam cemani or svart honas chicks in the spring. I have also hateched out very pretty crested cream legbars x ayam cemani, some were bkack with silver edged lacing on their feathers and crests, one was solud black and a couple looked like barred rocks or marans the legbar x ac lays an intesely olive colored egg, the rest are all laying blue eggs.

 

[coop410silkies]

Well there is something very enjoyable at watching the chickens explore their new area. Funny our pullets are the bravest and are the one's to first explore. They somehow managed to get through the dividers in the coop to go and lay eggs in the nest boxes on the other side. The older girls seem to not as adventurous and I had to shoo them and bribe them out of the run. The integration seems to be going smoothly this far. We will leave the divider in the coop and we are hoping to remove the divider this weekend. The birds have seen each other for two weeks through the barrier, that makes a big difference.

How many birds do you have? Sounds like a lot.

Yes, my young hens, too, seem by far the more curious and adventuresome. I have maybe 50 large fowl. Maybe a dozen+ silkies. Almost half of the LF are layers, and the rest are breeding groups and their grow outs. I've culled a LOT of cockerels, but if they get along and are nice to both me and the hens, I'm inclined to let them be. The LS Roos tend to be especially docile and friendly, so I still have a number of these, I am ashamed to say.

In my divided coop, I am still collecting eggs from the three hens on the underpopulated side. Two of the hens are pushing 3+ years, and they are the Mamas/aunts of their rooster offspring I put in with them to breed with them. The cock does not like to stay with these two old SS heritage gals, though, and I don't know if the eggs are even fertile. the only bird that does stay with them is a young LS pullet, who is the third member of this trio. She is likely to be the layer of at least one of the eggs I collect, but I'm not too sure about the older SS. Could be some of the more spritely hens on the other side are using their nest box to lay eggs. Last year I hatched some very unpure looking birds from my Heritage SS, so I know some cuckooing goes on. I am rather new to chickens - and to birds in general - and while I can research and inform myself about breeding strategies, nothing can prepare me for all the little chicky tricks my birds spring on me. There is no substitute for experience, as they say, and it's very hard to predict who will get along with who. Well, I do know how to find out if the eggs are fertile.

These SS seem slow to mature. Both the pullets and cockerels don't start developing size and type until late. Which means I have to keep and grow out a lot of birds in order to selectively breed for the best. I think. And then there are the Silkies who reproduce like Tribbles.

Looked to me as though you have a number of nice hens. Do you raise them for eggs? With names, I can imagine they are pets - like my Grusome Twosome and Tremendous Trio.

Blessings

 

[uzisuzuki]

At 8 weeks old my cx broiler meat chickens are starting to die of heart attacks.

I have one napping in a box of shaving that looks bkue tinged skin and not moving much while I drink my first cuppa black coffee and get my water scalding and sharpening my favorite knif .

ATM I have one of my white bresse roosters with my layers hoping to hatch out more white bresse and bresse x ayam cemani crosses to put in the incubator.

I might be doing ee x ayam cemani or svart honas chicks in the spring. I have also hateched out very pretty crested cream legbars x ayam cemani, some were bkack with silver edged lacing on their feathers and crests, one was solud black and a couple looked like barred rocks or marans

the legbar x ac lays an intesely olive colored egg, the rest are all laying blue eggs.

Is it normal for broilers to die that early?

Your ee x ac were just adorable when you posted pictures of them as chicks. I wish I could have purchased a couple, but it was probably best for them that I hadn't considering the MG that spread through my flock.

 

[coop410silkies]

...

At 8 weeks old my cx broiler meat chickens are starting to die of heart attacks.

I have one napping in a box of shaving that looks bkue tinged skin and not moving much while I drink my first cuppa black coffee and get my water scalding and sharpening my favorite knif .

ATM I have one of my white bresse roosters with my layers hoping to hatch out more white bresse and bresse x ayam cemani crosses to put in the incubator.

I might be doing ee x ayam cemani or svart honas chicks in the spring. I have also hateched out very pretty crested cream legbars x ayam cemani, some were bkack with silver edged lacing on their feathers and crests, one was solud black and a couple looked like barred rocks or marans the legbar x ac lays an intesely olive colored egg, the rest are all laying blue eggs.[/quote
Very interesting.

 

[samsr]

At 8 weeks old my cx broiler meat chickens are starting to die of heart attacks.

I have one napping in a box of shaving that looks bkue tinged skin and not moving much while I drink my first cuppa black coffee and get my water scalding and sharpening my favorite knif .

ATM I have one of my white bresse roosters with my layers hoping to hatch out more white bresse and bresse x ayam cemani crosses to put in the incubator.

I might be doing ee x ayam cemani or svart honas chicks in the spring. I have also hateched out very pretty crested cream legbars x ayam cemani, some were bkack with silver edged lacing on their feathers and crests, one was solud black and a couple looked like barred rocks or marans the legbar x ac lays an intesely olive colored egg, the rest are all laying blue eggs.

I still have two of my meat birds left from the beginning of July. I started with 36. At 8 weeks these two were too small to process. Maybe i will get some jumbo eggs soon. They are quite large now and were changed over to layer feed at 10 weeks. I only lost one due to heart attack. The extreme cold may be working their hearts a bit too much lately, trying to keep them warm. Just a thought. They are known for heart attacks though.

 

[COChix]

The heater has a built in thermostat so it will turn on and offas needed. You can google the heater. Its a aqua heat ecoplus 728581 120v 60hz 200watt

Nice, I am hoping that heater is strong enough. Sounds like you have the bigger size, I have seen others have success with those. Will you be using with nipples? Just curious if vertical or horizontal. My understanding is the vertical nipples still freeze even with a heater. I have seen people wrap their buckets with insulation using a fish tank heater and vertical nipples. Good luck.

Yes, my young hens, too, seem by far the more curious and adventuresome. I have maybe 50 large fowl. Maybe a dozen+ silkies. Almost half of the LF are layers, and the rest are breeding groups and their grow outs.

Looked to me as though you have a number of nice hens. Do you raise them for eggs? With names, I can imagine they are pets - like my Grusome Twosome and Tremendous Trio.

Blessings

We have 14 layers in Englewood and 3 layer and BO roo in Boulder. We got them for eggs and to be connected to our food source. We got a rainbow pack of 29 to kick off our adventure. We hatched last spring from our flock and had a broody hatching, at some point we had 40 or so birds. We have downsized since then, we have processed 11 roo's so far, no egg layer yet. Some are older and not laying and will be processed down the road.

As far as names, we called our hatch the Fiesty Fifteen, we have 7 pullets from that hatch, the BO as the dad. Got some pretty big dual purpose mutts now from that hatch. Three lay a greenish/blue egg and four that lay in various shades of brown.

Is it normal for broilers to die that early?

Your ee x ac were just adorable when you posted pictures of them as chicks.

Broilers are known to grow at alarming rates, they get too heavy for their body weight. Some end up having heart attacks....

X 2 on the cuteness of DK chicks.

 

[coop410silkies]

@COChix: I use the bucket waterers and feeders like those in the pix you posted. I like them a lot, but keeping the lids clear of debris (poop) remains a problem for me. Do you have to pry the lids open every time you fill the buckets? And pound them closed again? How do you provide for your cord to the heater in your nipple waterer? Do you make a notch in the side and at the top of the bucket? Do you use anything to keep the birds from perching on and knocking your buckets over? do you have to fasten the buckets to keep them from being knocked over?

One other problem, with my roosters: their combs get injured when they use the 90* street elbows in the feeders, and they don't like to feed from them. There is blood at the inside top of the elbows, and I don't believe it's from fight wounds. These are not cut edges, but the smooth finished edges. Do you have suggestions? For right now, I am taping the elbow edges with a soft flexible tarp repair tape, and we'll see how that goes. Maybe I should use larger elbows?

 

[COChix]

@COChix: I use the bucket waterers and feeders like those in the pix you posted. I like them a lot, but keeping the lids clear of debris (poop) remains a problem for me. Do you have to pry the lids open every time you fill the buckets? And pound them closed again? How do you provide for your cord to the heater in your nipple waterer? Do you make a notch in the side and at the top of the bucket? Do you use anything to keep the birds from perching on and knocking your buckets over? do you have to fasten the buckets to keep them from being knocked over?

One other problem, with my roosters: their combs get injured when they use the 90* street elbows in the feeders, and they don't like to feed from them. There is blood at the inside top of the elbows, and I don't believe it's from fight wounds. These are not cut edges, but the smooth finished edges. Do you have suggestions? For right now, I am taping the elbow edges with a soft flexible tarp repair tape, and we'll see how that goes. Maybe I should use larger elbows?

I guess we are lucky, we don't have a bunch of girls trying to roost on the water bucket. Haven't had that issue at all, except with chicks. I know others have had this issue, I have seen people use funnels or a cone at the top of the bucket to keep them off. We typically attach the bucket water to the side of the run with a bungy, don't want it getting knocked over. Yes, we have a hole cut into the top side of the bucket for the heater cord to run through the bucket, that way the lid fits securely.

I have read on the thread for the making your own bucket feeders for $3, people have reported similar issues with roo's with large combs. Many don't like the bucket feeders, not sure what people did to remedy this, but maybe you could have one opening that is with a larger elbow. In fact I browsed that thread again and people have reported good luck using 4inch elbow with roo's who had larger combs. You could also post that question on that thread and see what people suggest.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...te-5-gallon-25-feed-bucket-feeder-for-about-3

 

[coop410silkies]

I guess we are lucky, we don't have a bunch of girls trying to roost on the water bucket. Haven't had that issue at all, except with chicks. I know others have had this issue, I have seen people use funnels or a cone at the top of the bucket to keep them off. We typically attach the bucket water to the side of the run with a bungy, don't want it getting knocked over. Yes, we have a hole cut into the top side of the bucket for the heater cord to run through the bucket, that way the lid fits securely.

I have read on the thread for the making your own bucket feeders for $3, people have reported similar issues with roo's with large combs. Many don't like the bucket feeders, not sure what people did to remedy this, but maybe you could have one opening that is with a larger elbow. In fact I browsed that thread again and people have reported good luck using 4inch elbow with roo's who had larger combs. You could also post that question on that thread and see what people suggest.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...te-5-gallon-25-feed-bucket-feeder-for-about-3

Thanks so much, the information is helpful. I'll continue to work on issues and post what works.

 

[COChix]

Thanks so much, the information is helpful. I'll continue to work on issues and post what works.

Here is a shot from someone else using a funnel to keep the birds off.