Arkansas folks speak up.........

[angel1]

Right now I am really bummed out. I have my chicks in an outbuilding with heat lights to keep it warm. I have an extension cord ran from the lights to an outside wall socket or electric outlet. Either the guard dog or her pup unplugged the lights and it was only off for a short while but it was too much for my little birds...I lost 15 of them due to the cold. Tomorrow I am going to get another baby gate to keep the dogs off of the deck where the extension cord is hook into the outside outlet. The rest of the cord goes on top of the buildings and is off the ground so nothing can reach the cord except on the deck. It's really disheartening to find such a thing has been done when your trying your best to keep everything alive. I keep check on the cord now but I probably won't get much sleep tonight cause I am going to try and keep watch. I could have just as easily lost the whole kitnkabootle! I tried to do as the hatchery told me to do...and lost 4 chicks right off the bat. maybe when they get some size on them I might try the 12 hours on and 12 hours off but right now I am afraid of losing more. I don't think these can do without food for a full 12 hours long. Thanks.....

 

[Ridgerunner]

Angel1, I haven't grown Cornish crosses as meaties (I use some of my dual purpose birds for meat) and I have not done research on them so I can't answer some of your questions. That won't stop me from offering an opinion though. I can answer some questions about raising chickens in general.

If they are eating anything other than chick starter, like hay, grass, bugs, or grain, they need grit to properly process it. If yours are outdoors in sandy or rocky soil, they are probably finding their own grit. For my chicks, I put sand in a separate feeder and let them eat however much they want. I just wired a small yogurt container to the side of the brooder and kept that filled but I did not have as many as you. I found after I started offering them sand, they quit having pasty butt, but I'm not sure the two were related.

You need to know what "meds" are in the medicated feed to know what you are feeding them. Are you trying to treat the runs, the sniffles, constipation, or an infection? Different meds do different things. I'm being blunt there to make a point. I agree with you as you said to only treat them for something specific, not throw medicines at them for no reason. Most medicated feed contains Amprolium, Amprol, different versions of the same thing. Amprolium is not an antibiotic and will not cure anything. It is a substance that reduces the breeding of the protozoa that causes coccidiosis, often called cocci, in the intestines of chickens. If you don't know about cocci, you can do a search on here and learn a lot. Cocci can kill chickens if they get huge amounts of the protazoa in their intestines. The protazoa thrive in wet manure. So if you keep your brooder or coop dry you probably won't have problems. There are different strains of the protazoa and some are worse than others, so some people do have problems even with dry brooders and coops and even if they feed the feed that has amprolium in it. Chickens can get immune to the cocci protazoa by having small amounts in their intestines for a couple of weeks. They actually need to eat some of their one or two day old poop to gain this immunity and share it with the other chicks. The can still get this immunity while eating feed with Amprolium in it. Amprolium does not stop the reproduction, just greatly reduces it. Probably not as important to meaties since they don't live that long, but certainly important to your laying flock.

As I said, I am not a Cornish cross expert, but I'll offer an opinion. If you have true Cornish crosses, most will probably not live long beyond 8 weeks unless you greatly restrict what they eat. I think that is where the confusion over the 12 hours of feed a day comes in. If they are allowed full access to food all day, they will grow tremendously fast but will eat themselves to death at an early age. That's why you pretty much need to process them at about 8 weeks. Otherwise they will eat themselves to death, getting heart attacks, their legs will break down from the weight, internal organ failure, several different potential problems. If you do restrict how much they eat so they don't grow as fast, they may be able to live a couple of years. It is not a healthy situation though. They are specifically bred to efficiently convert feed to weight gain and gain weight so fast they will have bald spots since their feathers can't come in fast enough to keep them covered.

I would not try to keep Cornish crosses for their offspring. If you take a white rock hen and a Cornish rooster, you will get a Cornish cross. My understanding is that special strains of Cornish roosters and white rock hens are used for the commercial Cornish crosses, so the ones you breed yourself will not grow as fast as the commercial Cornish crosses. The Cornish crosses you get from a hatchery are probably not from the same strains as the comercial birds either, so yours might do as well as hatchery Cornish crosses, but they might not. It depends on the strains of the parent stock.

You could probably get the same results by crossing the Cornish rooster with other chickens, especially other rocks. I'm not sure what the Cornish crosses look like from a coloring viewpoint. They could be using the white rocks so the carcass dresses out prettier. If you pluck a dark colored bird, the dark pinfeathers are very unattractive but if you pluck a light colored bird, thye are not noticeable. That's why I skin my Australorps and pluck my Buff Orpingtons and Delawares. Or maybe they get a sexlinked chick so they can elect to grow out only the males, which are more efficient than the females as meaties. Maybe a combination of these reasons. As I said, I am not a meaties expert.

Hope this helps some. Good luck!

 

[luvarabhorses]

Great post!

Before I started keeping my chicks on wire for the first few weeks I had problems with large roundworms also. Very gross!

Angel, sorry for all your misfortune!!!

I had a guided trail riding business in MD and treated my horses with extreme kindness. I also tried to teach people something about horses when they came to ride. As you can tell by my name, I really love Arabians and wanted some of the stigma regarding them to be proved false. It was mostly a lot of fun, loved hanging with the horses all day and some of them met me at the gate in the morning to start the job.

I'd love to start that business back up here but the Federal Government insists on $1 million dollars worth of insurance to start that business, even though the govt can't be sued and Arkansas has strong equestrian laws.

 

[verycherry]

Angel, so sorry you lost some of your babies.

There is so much good advise here. Aren't you glad you found this forum?

I would really consider the 12 on/12 off thing too. I've never had this type of bird, and it sounds odd to go that long without feeding, but it's proven to work best that way.


DANG IT'S COLD! I couldn't believe the temperature change yesterday. The wind was fierce here last night.

Oh, I didn't tell you all about the big buck at my house stalking the yard the past few nights. He's been stomping at us from the woodline and walking right up to the dogs in the back yard, just proud and fearless. He scared us into the house twice one night, because he kept coming closer and I wasn't sure what he would do. Well, the other night he was in the front yard and my daughter told me, so I stepped out and looked and he was at the back of the van, and I was at the front of the van! He had two ladies with him, and he lead them over the driveway and to the other side of the front yard. They were beautiful to watch. The next night, he was in the front yard again, so I tossed him part of an apple. He ate it, and came closer, so I tossed him another piece. He didn't see where it went, so I held out another piece and he came right up and took it out of my hand! I petted his head, and he just stood there and let me. I was on the other side of the door, in case he decided he didn't like me, but it was soooo cool. I then let my 6 year old pass him another piece of apple from around the door. He never acted aggressive at all. I hope he doesn't get shot, as friendly as he is. Unfortunately, one of his ladies got hit by a car last night right in front of the house. I just hate that. I'm not going to try to befriend him any more though. I want him to stay back in the woods and out of site as much as possible. Oh, and he's a 6 point with a nice wide spread. Beautiful deer!

 

[angel1]

Thanks guys..I appreciate the help. I'm not really stuck on the cornish x rocks for meat chickens...it's only been 2 weeks but I haven't seen where these birds impress me with their growth and also they seem to be more vulnerable than other chicks that I have grown. Normally when I grow baby chicks I only loose 1 or 2 of the whole batch....so far in the last 2 weeks I've lost a total of 23 chicks...15 of those are due to the heat lamps being unplugged by accident. But I've still lost 8 chicks otherwise! and with no apparent reason. Now I know that 4 of those could have been from starvation as I was following the hatchery rules of only feeding 2 x's a day and nothing after 2 pm...won't EVER do that again. gotta go for now..going out to check on the chicks again to see how they are farring in this great northern weather!

 

[urban dreamer]

verycherry, thats a bummer about your buck and sorry about your chickens angle1. Keep your buck away from me, I bought my hunting tags yesterday. I am hopeing to take a few deer this year and MABEY a turkey, mabey... anyways, how are ya'll liken this COLD and WET weather we'er having? Im irritated as heck that I didn't get to check on my flock this morning because one slow, lazy, hubby who shall remain nameless, made me late this morning. Anybody have any bad luck on Friday 13th?

 

[angel1]

luvarab...that's good that you had a trail riding thing...I LOVE horses...I don't have much property (1 acre) so I can't have any unless I want to feed it EVERYTHING and not much grass. I HAD my eye on almost 80 acres in NW AR but hubby had cancer surgery back in 2005 and he didn't bounce back like the VA docs said he would! He never did get his energy back...it's like someone took the wind out of his sails so to speak. Anyhow, if I had more property then I'd like to have a few just so that I can try and get DH back out doin things agin...maybe it'd make him feel better. I've tried genseng, bee pollen and other things trying to get him to feeling better. NO luck so far...but I ain't a givin up! Anyway, yes cherry it's VERY cold here too...getting ready to go out and check on the chicks again and I talkd to DH and he said to get some of his duct tape and tape the cord to the wall so it doesn't come out agin. gonna do that to cause I am worried sick that it's gonna happen again. I didn't get into bed til almost 4:30 this mornin. Those dogs out there are large guard dogs (so I didn't shoot em for pulling the plug out..I figured it was an accident), we've got coyotes around here like you wouldn't believe! I need a night scope on my 22. IF you take a flash light and go out at night and shine it just over the fence into the field then you'll see about 35 to 40 sets of eyes staring back at you! it's either a HUGE pack or 3 or 4 pack together. I don't have milk goats anymore but I'd like to get a couple(for my drinking, home yogurt,cheese, dip and my soapmaking), I'd also like to have a few angora rabbits or goats for their fiber. anyway,,,getting on..cherry, make SURE your careful with that buck...wild bucks and even ones who have been homegrown...when they get "bucky" they can be deadly! I had a friend who raised a buck from a baby but when he grew to a large size and started getting into his "bucky" period then he would raise up on his hind legs and try and box the daylights out of her when she went out to feed him. I seen one man with a camera just taking pictures of a buck and low and behold...that buck RAN and closed the 600 yards between him and the man and beat the tar out of him...liked to have killed him! IF he has ladies running with him...chances are that he is in his bucky stage. And deer can be nice one minute and meanern the dickens the next....just be careful... yep....I'll say it again......it's dang cold out there!!!
luvarabs...how can you tell if something has roundworms? actually how can you tell if a chick has worms at all? if they're in the layin stage...do they just quit layin for no reason? what are the symptoms? I've never had worms or anything wrong with my chickens before so I don't know...Thanks a bunch........Oh yeah...BTW...I'll run down to the river (it's just down the hill from me) and I'll get a bucket of river sand.........Thanks again..

 

[angel1]

cherry...yes I AM glad I found this forum...people on one of my goat lists suggested I come here...isn't it wonderful how we all find each other by different lists?
I've got a question for ya'll...I know that the marans lay those huge beautiful dark brown eggs and the barred rock lay the big light brown eggs...They BOTH look the same to me...black with white specks or white with black specks...HOW can a person tell the difference between the two? and I think that I've had such bad luck with these batch of meaties that I dont' want to do this again...atleast with this breed. I think I might go to a different HARDIER breed of chicks. These aren't faring all that well in my book.

 

[urban dreamer]

I wanna pony

My ultimate goal in life is to have my own property where I can deer hunt and have a horse or two (and more chickens

) But I still have a long way to go, after all, Im only 20 and still in college. I'll just have to bite my tounge, do good in school and get that good job someday. Angel1, I reeaally want a maran for those beautiful eggs, but Im at my chicken limit. And Lisa, Arabs are beautiful horses, but arn't they expensive?

 

[heritagehabitatfarms]

Quote:
sry about your losses...
i only restrict feed after 4 weeks... and i have rarely got them to grow out in 8 weeks like they say they will... i do mine in a chicken tractor tho... if you have them inside a building you might get them to grow out in 8 weeks... you don't have to restrict the feed at all if you are flexible about when you proses them... i have some friends that feed them all the time and as soon as they start to have leg problems the just butcher the ones that are having the problems... they butcher theirs over about a 3 or 4 week period...

about some of your earlier ??? the big broiler companies do a 4 way cross to get the Cornish x rocks that you buy today... they keep 4 grandparent lines that are highly inbreed... then cross them to get the parent lines and then cross them to get the chicks that you have... as they have been breeding the same lines for 40+ years there really is not a whole lot of resemblance to the original 2 breeds...

it is very hard to grow them out to adult hood... i would say that if you started out with the idea that that is what you wanted to do... out of 100 chicks you might get 5 that reached point of lay... and that is only if you restricted there feed real hard and free range or have them in a tractor... i have had one little hen that we got to lay she was a runt the whole time when we butchered her pen mates she was about 3 # less weight so we kept her... she only lived for a year and then her legs gave out... its cheaper to just buy new chicks every year... or you might try the slower growing Freedom Rangers... or if you want to weight about 5 years ill be selling mine

(Lord willing)