Cornish Cross not eating, full crop and intestine at 9 1/2 weeks old

[MeatBirds_R_Us]

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

 

[2ndTink]

I'm not sure as I haven't raised CX for meat, but were there any feed changes, or exposure to a pesticide or other chemical that could have slowed their digestion? Any signs of coccidiosis?

Maybe try adding probiotics?

I'm not an expert by any means but maybe we can bump this to the top and get you some help.

 

[FunClucks]

That's sure weird. I've never had that happen, and I don't have any ideas what could be going on. You can try to wait and see if things resolve, or just process them now.

I process all my birds with a full intestine/crop, because I'm bad at planning. It's usually not a big deal, I just be sure to make sure the nasty bits drain off the table, and use lots of soap in between birds. I also rinse the carcasses well.

 

[FunClucks]

Post any pictures you want to. It's the meat bird forum. Graphic insides of a chicken won't surprise anyone who follows this forum. That's what we're here for. Pics of the birds prior to slaughter, side view and top view, while standing, would also be helpful since you said they're thinner than normal.

Where did you source your CX from? Different strains of CX have different growth habits, you may get slightly different results if you've changed hatcheries and they sell a different strain of CX.

That not eating thing sounds super weird.

Consider spatch-cocking them, or a different method of getting the guts out - cut them down the sides of the ribs, and open them up like a clam (when lying on their backs). No pulling anything, and can be nice to have more space to work.

 

[MeatBirds_R_Us]

Thanks for the replies. I'm still not sure what happened. I ended up processing 12 birds at 9 1/2 weeks and averaged only 4 1/4 lbs. I stopped after 12 because it just seemed like such a waste.

I didn't feed them for another 36 hours and added ACV to their water and made sure they were drinking. I also added more grit. I didn't think they need grit since i feed them crumble/pellets and they have access to dirt areas where there should be natural grit. They still had feed on the ground that they hadn't cleared up but there was no easy way to get that out. After the 36 hours, most of the birds had an empty crop and i saw normal droppings around the coop. I re-introduced food and noticed quite a bit of weight gain over the last 9 days now so i think i'm in the clear.

All that being said, i might start looking at an alternative to the CXs although, i must say getting them in the freezer at 8lbs+ is for sure nice when it does happen.

 

[2ndTink]

That's really interesting, I wonder if they all ate something that messed up their digestion and the fast allowed them to clear it?

 

[FunClucks]

Thanks for the replies. I'm still not sure what happened. I ended up processing 12 birds at 9 1/2 weeks and averaged only 4 1/4 lbs. I stopped after 12 because it just seemed like such a waste.

I didn't feed them for another 36 hours and added ACV to their water and made sure they were drinking. I also added more grit. I didn't think they need grit since i feed them crumble/pellets and they have access to dirt areas where there should be natural grit. They still had feed on the ground that they hadn't cleared up but there was no easy way to get that out. After the 36 hours, most of the birds had an empty crop and i saw normal droppings around the coop. I re-introduced food and noticed quite a bit of weight gain over the last 9 days now so i think i'm in the clear.

All that being said, i might start looking at an alternative to the CXs although, i must say getting them in the freezer at 8lbs+ is for sure nice when it does happen.

Sounds like when you introduced grit it helped them start to digest and use their food better, since after that you saw significant weight gain. I keep containers of grit available regardless of the environment - the natural grit isn't always an adequate type, shape, or size of stone, but the stuff you buy at the store I know works for them. Not all rock types make good grit. Whenever I process, I find grit in various stages of being used inside my CX, so I know they eat and use it, even when fed crumble/pellets and supposedly nothing else (chickens eat random crap, so I always give them grit so they can digest good).

No way to 100% know for sure that this is what happened, but for the future, I'd always put commercial grit out for your CX. Glad you sorted it out.