Cornish Cross Health problems

TMac222

Hatching
Jul 20, 2020
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So my husband and I have been raising cornish cross for a few years now. For the most part we have had a lot of success. We just finished up a batch this morning and I noticed they were not the same as previous rounds. We had a few runts but also a few bigger ones. Overall they appeared healthy. Anyhow 2 of the smaller birds when I cut them open had yellow fluid inside. Everything else about them was normal. I had never seen that before. The only other thing I noticed about all 25 birds is that they were more "fragile." I can't really put my finger on what made them different then other batches but their bones were definitely softer. My knife cut through quickly and a lot came through the plucker with broken bones, when we rarely have had that happen before. Also their skin and organs seemed to tear more easily too.

We have had a few things that occurred during this round.
1) we went on vacation which caused us to get them out on pasture a week late and let's face it, no one takes care of chickens as well as the owner.
2) Our hanging feeder broke and my husband improvised with a tray...🙄🤷‍♀️
3) we had some warmer then normal Temps for our area.

So any thoughts on what we may have done that could have caused this? Or was it the chickens? We want to avoid this issue for our next round. Thank you.
 
Welcome!
Any differences in their diets this year? Do you usually limit feed to 10 or 12 hours/ day, and this year they were free fed? Mineral deficiencies or an unbalanced vitamin/ mineral problem can cause 'soft' bones, never good.
I wouldn't eat those underweight chicks with fluid in their abdomens, myself. heart failure or something.
Heat stress is a very big problem, especially for the Cornishx birds, who are on the edge anyway.
Different hatchery?
Blood lines do differ, who knows? Call the hatchery and see if anyone else is having similar issues, in case it's more than just your problem this year.
Mary
 
Some birds get "Ascites" -- fluid build up in the body cavity. Stress could cause it, or the breed of bird. Not to unusual for the Cronish X meat birds.
 

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