CindyinSD
All will be well, and that will be well is well.
My 3 wk old CX chicks are dying at a rate of 1 a day. One morning I found two stiff little corpses. I ordered them through the feed store—maybe that was a mistake. So far I’ve lost six. I have them in a Suskovich tractor. This is a photo of it filled with Color Yield meaties earlier. There are 2 heat-emitting lamps and one red lamp in there in case they want them. I turn them on in the evening since it’s now hot during the days. I tarp the ends in the evenings and open them up in the mornings.
I move the tractors every day to give them fresh grass, but (unlike the CYs), they don’t show any interest in it. They loll around like ever-expanding little ticks. It’s even hard to move the tractor because they don’t want to move with it. I have to do it a couple of inches at a time and sometimes go in there to pick up one that just won’t (or can’t?) get up. I’ve been feeding them FastGrow by Hubbard, but I was planning to switch to their “Developer” once this runs out. There’s maybe an eighth of a bag left. I’m gonna mix it into my poults’ feed and switch the meaties to Developer today in case that’s the problem. They have clean water in a nipple feeder and I’ve been adding ice to it if the temps get very high, but really, it’s not uncomfortable temp-wise (to me) inside the tractor.
I am at a loss and am suspecting it’s the breeder, because I see others on YouTube raising CX successfully and I’ve also heard that some strains of CX are more hardy than others. Is there something I’m not doing that I should be or that I am doing that I ought not?
I had almost no trouble with my CYs. I had to cull one early on who developed leg troubles; I found one dead around 6 wks, and toward the end, one got squished under the tractor as I was moving it (so my fault). She was big enough that I fixed her for dinner that evening. But like I said, lots of folks have great success with CX. I really enjoyed the CYs though and I think they’re better than the grocery store CX or the Hutterite ones I’ve had. I just wanted to try both so I could decide which to raise in the future. Right now I’m thinking I’m not excited about CX.
I move the tractors every day to give them fresh grass, but (unlike the CYs), they don’t show any interest in it. They loll around like ever-expanding little ticks. It’s even hard to move the tractor because they don’t want to move with it. I have to do it a couple of inches at a time and sometimes go in there to pick up one that just won’t (or can’t?) get up. I’ve been feeding them FastGrow by Hubbard, but I was planning to switch to their “Developer” once this runs out. There’s maybe an eighth of a bag left. I’m gonna mix it into my poults’ feed and switch the meaties to Developer today in case that’s the problem. They have clean water in a nipple feeder and I’ve been adding ice to it if the temps get very high, but really, it’s not uncomfortable temp-wise (to me) inside the tractor.
I am at a loss and am suspecting it’s the breeder, because I see others on YouTube raising CX successfully and I’ve also heard that some strains of CX are more hardy than others. Is there something I’m not doing that I should be or that I am doing that I ought not?
I had almost no trouble with my CYs. I had to cull one early on who developed leg troubles; I found one dead around 6 wks, and toward the end, one got squished under the tractor as I was moving it (so my fault). She was big enough that I fixed her for dinner that evening. But like I said, lots of folks have great success with CX. I really enjoyed the CYs though and I think they’re better than the grocery store CX or the Hutterite ones I’ve had. I just wanted to try both so I could decide which to raise in the future. Right now I’m thinking I’m not excited about CX.
