MeatBirds_R_Us
Hatching
- Oct 11, 2025
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Hi, I'm in bit of a tough situation. Today was going to harvest day and after withholding food for 12 hours all 40 of my cornish crosses still look like their crops are excessively full. I also noticed that for 9 1/2 weeks, they seem rather small. This is my 4th year raising cornish crosses and i have never had any problems.
About a 5 days ago, they all started behaving lethargic and stopped being excited about feeding time. I was watching them during the week and they seemed to leave food on the ground. I fed them about 10-12 lbs a day of which 3/4 was given in the morning and the rest in the evening.
I took the first 3 this morning and noticed that the breasts were really underdeveloped compared to previous years. They just seemed not much meat on them at all. I'm guessing maybe around 4 lbs. It was a PIA to process with the full crop as well. The intestine was extremely full and took up a lot of room inside the chest cavity.
I'm really confused if this was something i did wrong or if they got sick and i didn't notice. I didn't see any abnormal behavior until a few days ago though. Anyone have any ideas? is there any reason to not put these in my freezer and just call it a loss? I can post some pictures of the intestine if that would help, wasn't sure if that was ok in the group though.
Thanks in advance.
Thomas
About a 5 days ago, they all started behaving lethargic and stopped being excited about feeding time. I was watching them during the week and they seemed to leave food on the ground. I fed them about 10-12 lbs a day of which 3/4 was given in the morning and the rest in the evening.
I took the first 3 this morning and noticed that the breasts were really underdeveloped compared to previous years. They just seemed not much meat on them at all. I'm guessing maybe around 4 lbs. It was a PIA to process with the full crop as well. The intestine was extremely full and took up a lot of room inside the chest cavity.
I'm really confused if this was something i did wrong or if they got sick and i didn't notice. I didn't see any abnormal behavior until a few days ago though. Anyone have any ideas? is there any reason to not put these in my freezer and just call it a loss? I can post some pictures of the intestine if that would help, wasn't sure if that was ok in the group though.
Thanks in advance.
Thomas
