6-Week old broilers dying...

[Sally_O]

Yes. The one that is still in the hospital is looking good except not walking. She's eating and drinking but not happy... I think she must have hurt her leg somehow... just because she's not walking. But the rest of them are fat and walking and look great. There is so much less poop this morning too after not feeding them last night. That is a huge relief. I'll look at waddles and combs when I get home tonight, see if I can learn the difference. Thank you!

 

[allieszoo]

The one in the hospital could have been too heavy for her own legs and that might be why she isn't walking. Does her leg look almost bent backward? They will get to the point of being too big for their legs. If they are doing better on the 12/12 schedule and still able to walk without issue I would see if you could fatten them up another week, but if any show signs of giving way under their weight, process them right away.

 

[Sally_O]

Thank you. We may do a few this weekend, then give the rest another week. I'm going to change the bedding for the hospital girl, see if I can figure out her leg.

 

[goldfinches]

3 pounds is small, imo. I lost a ton of peeps last fall because, even though mine had a heat lamp, it was too cold for them at their age. But, they were only 2-3 weeks or so. Yours should be better with the cold. Still, 50* is coldish for them. Could be your problem.

I think heart problems would be heart attack - like, sudden. Not slower deterioration.

Could be the way you were feeding them was giving them too much, though, and messed them up a little? Glad you're switching to 12/12.

 

[Sally_O]

Yeah, we thought 3 lbs was small. They look and feel bigger. We are getting a hanging scale this week so we can weigh them properly. There is half the poop on the 12/12. They are cleaner and seem more content, too.

 

[Sally_O]

Yesterday one had a heart attack right in front of me. This was the first one I saw die and it was pretty awful. I no longer think they had heart attacks followed by a slow demise. I think their hearts were giving out, then boom. Once dead, the other ones all looked like they had tried to move and fallen over. Now I realize 'heart attack" moved them. A chicken having a heart attack is a pretty violent event.

I noticed also that, when they first start looking unwell, their combs had started getting almost purple, like they aren't getting enough oxygen. I'm equating it to my lips turning blue when I had pneumonia... All the ones that have died had combs that were changing color.

We are processing on Sunday.

 

[goldfinches]

Yesterday one had a heart attack right in front of me. This was the first one I saw die and it was pretty awful. I no longer think they had heart attacks followed by a slow demise. I think their hearts were giving out, then boom. Once dead, the other ones all looked like they had tried to move and fallen over. Now I realize 'heart attack" moved them. A chicken having a heart attack is a pretty violent event.

I noticed also that, when they first start looking unwell, their combs had started getting almost purple, like they aren't getting enough oxygen. I'm equating it to my lips turning blue when I had pneumonia... All the ones that have died had combs that were changing color.

We are processing on Sunday.

I'm so sorry! Hope the processing is going well...

 

[Sally_O]

Thank you for asking. Processing is done. Oy vey. Fifty broilers is a lot to start out with! We did pretty good, we are all whipped. Took about 5.5 hours. We started with our drill plucker... after five birds, we drove an hour and borrowed our friend's home made whiz bang. WOW. That saved us hours and energy!

Anyone doing this for the first time: spend the money and get sharp knives. We bought all new ceramic knives, dull in a minute and you can't sharpen them. I'm getting the one others have recommended: the Havalon Piranta-EDGE. Bought new shears, dull in a minute. Would appreciate a recommendation on good shears. If there is such a thing.

The birds seemed to take forever to die. We all hated that and it was the most stressful part of the day. We used planters with a whole cut in the bottom for the head, cut good, got a good bleed... but just took too long. And the jumping and flapping... we were not prepared for that. We had ordered cones but got two that were waaaaay too small, so had to use planters. Next time we are getting great big cones. Our birds were BIG. We haven't weighed them yet, we'll do that tomorrow. They are in ice and salt tonight.

I watched a video where the farmer lowered the birds into the bucket to bleed out. It's dark so they are quieter and no spraying blood all over. That seems to make the most sense to me. Although with 50 birds, you have to be able to kill 4 at least at a time. Still pondering that.

We are glad we did it. The birds look good -- I was worried we wouldn't want to eat them! But I think we'll be fine... need sleep!!!

 

[my sunwolf]

This happened to mine as well, so I can't give you any help, only to say that the commercial growers I know expect anywhere from 5-20% losses in their huge flocks and plan accordingly. I have a few that drowned themselves (not in puddles, just in rivulets in the grass as the rain was happening), a few that got ascites, one that was stunted, one with kinky back... and I've only ever had 20 Cornish X. Mine were around 4-5lbs live weight at 6 weeks, so yours may be a bit small. It's also possible to get a batch that just doesn't grow or survive as well, depending on your source.

Also so glad your processing went well!!!