7.5 week Cornish cross died overnight

[NicW]

This is our first time raising meat chickens. They’re 7.5 week Cornish cross. Mcmurray hatchery said butcher at 8 weeks. We believe they got too hot last night and 7 were dead this morning. Is there anything we can do to save the meat? They didn’t bleed out when we cut off their heads this morning.

 

[NatJ]

I was taught to never eat an animal that died by itself, so I personally would not. I do not know exactly what the risks would be, so I might be unreasonably cautious in this.

If you have a dog or pig, I would consider feeding the dead chickens to it.

 

[MitchW]

I don't want to hijack the thread, but I have the same question, just slightly different circumstances. I went out this morning and 1 of 25 was dead. All were fine around 8:00 last night. It did dip down to around 40 last night, but I do have a 150watt radiant heat lamp in their tractor. So my question is, with it being cold, and the bird being dead <12hrs, would the meat be salvageable?

 

[NatJ]

I don't want to hijack the thread, but I have the same question, just slightly different circumstances. I went out this morning and 1 of 25 was dead. All were fine around 8:00 last night. It did dip down to around 40 last night, but I do have a 150watt radiant heat lamp in their tractor. So my question is, with it being cold, and the bird being dead <12hrs, would the meat be salvageable?

Since no-one else is chiming in, I'll just say that my answer to you is the same as my answer to the original poster: I would not, but that is because I was taught not to eat any animal that was found dead. I would be willing to feed it to a dog or pig, but not to a person.

I have never thought about the reasons for this, but I have had so few animals that died by themselves that it was never very important to me.

 

[NicW]

I don't want to hijack the thread, but I have the same question, just slightly different circumstances. I went out this morning and 1 of 25 was dead. All were fine around 8:00 last night. It did dip down to around 40 last night, but I do have a 150watt radiant heat lamp in their tractor. So my question is, with it being cold, and the bird being dead <12hrs, would the meat be salvageable?

We ended up processing them and cooking some and freezing some.
With your case of not knowing why it died (could it have had an infection, for instance) I wouldn’t eat it.
With our birds the blood didn’t drain out of them when we took their heads off and instead pooled inside. It doesn’t appear to have affected the quality of the meat (Though the white meat looked darker in spots from the blood). We did not keep the organs or feet as we typically do.

 

[MitchW]

I didn't chance it and just let the turkey vultures have a free meal. It's a balance I struggle with between not wasting meat (and seeing an animal go to waste) and not risking mine and my wife's health. I am wondering though if I may have an issue going on or if I'm just seeing the end result of some of the birds in the group that didn't seem to be the best from the beginning. I butchered one yesterday (not the one that died) that wasn't doing too well. I'm almost positive that he was the one I've been kind of keeping my eye on from the beginning because his breathing was always labored. But, now this morning I have another bird sitting with it's eye's closed and not wanting to move. It did get up and move on its own when I moved the tractor, but then closed it's eyes and laid back down. It didn't even react when I put their food in, and everyone always comes running when I bring the food.

Thoughts?

 

[LaFemmeKatia]

I didn't chance it and just let the turkey vultures have a free meal. It's a balance I struggle with between not wasting meat (and seeing an animal go to waste) and not risking mine and my wife's health. I am wondering though if I may have an issue going on or if I'm just seeing the end result of some of the birds in the group that didn't seem to be the best from the beginning. I butchered one yesterday (not the one that died) that wasn't doing too well. I'm almost positive that he was the one I've been kind of keeping my eye on from the beginning because his breathing was always labored. But, now this morning I have another bird sitting with it's eye's closed and not wanting to move. It did get up and move on its own when I moved the tractor, but then closed it's eyes and laid back down. It didn't even react when I put their food in, and everyone always comes running when I bring the food.

Thoughts?

I agree with you. I wouldn’t eat an animal that I found dead. It seems risky. Not worth taking the chance.

 

[NicW]

I didn't chance it and just let the turkey vultures have a free meal. It's a balance I struggle with between not wasting meat (and seeing an animal go to waste) and not risking mine and my wife's health. I am wondering though if I may have an issue going on or if I'm just seeing the end result of some of the birds in the group that didn't seem to be the best from the beginning. I butchered one yesterday (not the one that died) that wasn't doing too well. I'm almost positive that he was the one I've been kind of keeping my eye on from the beginning because his breathing was always labored. But, now this morning I have another bird sitting with it's eye's closed and not wanting to move. It did get up and move on its own when I moved the tractor, but then closed it's eyes and laid back down. It didn't even react when I put their food in, and everyone always comes running when I bring the food.

Thoughts?

What breed are yours and how old? We processed 4 of the Cornish cross at 7 weeks. All seemed great at that time. Then had 7 die at 7.5 weeks from being too hot. We culled two additional ones that day who didn’t seem 100%. Then finished the rest of the group at 8 weeks. The hatchery says they don’t live well past 8 weeks, though I’ve seen stories of folks keeping them weeks longer. I feel like they seemed pretty hardy through 6 weeks maybe. Then after that they seemed much more fragile.

 

[MitchW]

They're Cornish Cross's that I bought at TSC. It'll be six weeks tomorrow that I purchased them, so I'd say they're just a shade over six weeks, but when I bought them, some seemed further along than others and that trend has continued. And by further along I mean feathered up. Some though just didn't seem to feather up as well as most of them did.

My plan was to process them in another week and a half. There seems to be differing opinions on how long to let them go before processing. 6-8 weeks seems to be the general consensus, but I've also seen a number of opinions where people say they let the small ones go up to but not further than 10 weeks.

Another question that I have that I'd like yours and anyone else opinion on, how do you feel about culling any of the ones that don't seem to be that strong or healthy early on versus playing the wait and see game? I played the wait and see game and it seems to me that the ones that I thought were a little suspect and either weren't feathering up or growing as fast as the others are the ones I'm starting to see issues with towards the end. The feed I use is high quality organic (ie. not cheap) and it seems like a real waste feeding the weak ones for weeks if they're not going to make it to processing.

 

[NicW]

This is our first time raising meat birds so I’m clearly no expert (we’ve had chickens for eggs for probably 5 years now). I’ll tell you a bit of my sorry, in hopes something helps you. We ordered 20 unsexed Cornish cross from mcmurray hatchery (Ended up being 10 male, 10 female). They should have all hatched the same day for our shipment. I never noticed any significant difference in their feathering but as they started to get bigger we clearly had a big one and a couple smaller ones. When we butchered at 7 weeks we tried to pick the 4 biggest ones and one was almost 5.5lbs (we didn’t weigh after culling, just once they were ready for the fridge). And the smallest one at 8 weeks was just under 4lbs. And when I started to noticed that some seemed to be panting more than others (I’m in upstate NY, so it was NOT hot outside), there wasn’t necessarily a connection to just the biggest birds struggling.
About dealing with birds that are less healthy or maybe not as strong, I’d consider culling early if you think they may die before they should. I’d hate to waste the very expensive organic fees. Though, I’m not always good at taking that advice myself.