Daily Journal: 50-Cornish X chicks from Schlecht

[Hillsvale]

Quote:
hummm mine are on chick grower, born May 13th and as of yesterday (16 days old) the sample chicks I weighed have gained an average of 1 pound 3 oz each .... little piggies!

 

[bnentrup]

Quote:
hummm mine are on chick grower, born May 13th and as of yesterday (16 days old) the sample chicks I weighed have gained an average of 1 pound 3 oz each .... little piggies!

Well, I think the difference here is your location-- we hit in the upper 90's with a heat index of 105 here yesterday. Today, is much different with a cooler breeze in the upper 80's. The chicks have consumed twice the food they did yesterday.

If I continue in raising meat birds, I may elect to bring in a window A/C unit for the hot days to keep the temps in the 80's with a brooder light in addition. Just need to consider cost vs. benefit. I am still not too worried since they appear healthy.

 

[Hillsvale]

could be the temps... our has hit 90 degrees in the last couple of weeks but its not constant... thank god!

 

[LadyBeartoothMamma]

I have a question.. I have three Dark Cornish bantam Chicks. One is a Rooster and the other are hens. Ive got different reactions and different answers. Now can they breed or are they too heavy to breed????

 

[bnentrup]

Well, I decided to take em outside today. I gave them 2-hours on the grass/near a tree and they ate plenty. I noticed that there was still a runt that did not fill its crop, and I decided to give him an unfair advantage along with 2-other smaller guys by giving them time in the brooder alone with the feed to themselves. They showed appreciation.

I wonder how many others out there pay attention to the runts, and then try to isolate and give more feed to those to catch up. I think if I did this for a few days, we could get them caught up. Such as, tomorrow I plan on catching a few night crawlers for the runts and giving them first dibs.

Can you build the runts up?

 

[uhuh555]

To increase their water/feed intake especially on hot days mix a small amount of starter with equal volumes of water. For 50 chicks, start with 1 pint of water to 1 pint of starter. This way they will eat and drink more when the weather is hot. They expel large amounts of water with their poo on hot days and become dehydrated. Then they reduce the amount of dry food to compensate for the water loss. Low feed intake = low (or no) weight gain.

 

[Hillsvale]

Quote:
Good advice...

 

[bnentrup]

Quote:
PERFECT! Thanks for that tip... Fortunately, we are having much better weather in the past 24-hours. They have been burning up my bag of feed now. I make elect to go ahead and mix up a batch to get them going though (since the heat is just around the corner).

I did weight a handful of them, and all were right at 8oz and exactly 2-weeks from birth yesterday. Therefore,we are about 50% of goal weight at this time = They need to catch up!

 

[bnentrup]

We are 2-weeks, 2 days since the b-day of our initial 50-cornish. I have 44- now.. and have counted ten times in the past 4-days. One disappeared!! It could have easily been a miscount in the beginning, but I fear that we had a cat intrude our garage when the door was open, as I caught one near the door the other day.

THINGS WE HAVE RECENTLY LEARNED:
-Feeder space is worth its weight in gold. We have now resorted to about 54 inches of feeder space. I think we have reached a good place for the size of our chicks at this point.
-WEIGHTS ARE STILL LOW, HOWEVER we are gaining! I have tried the wet mash approach and could not get the chicks to even look at the feed when moisture added. Hmm... Three days ago we resorted to adding into the 20% starter a 25% brewers grain mix for extra protein. They have gained 20% weight in 2-days. I think we are on a better track than prior.
-FANS seem to help, but I feel that it puts them in a trance with the sound/feeling. They are 'chillingout' when the fan is on. I shut the fan off, and they kick up to eat.

Overall, we are just battling the heat and trying to grow our chickens.

Here is where we stand: MOST are 9oz (if my cheapie scale is accurate). I have a runt at 5oz....

The chicks have full crops at each inspection (except the runt), rear ends are pink and huge!!! and assume this is just their intestines full/processing the food??

More to come!

 

[EGGTASKTIC]

Do noy know if it was come up, but how about a timer for your brooder lamp