dying cornish chicks

[hunterblu123]

So far I have not lost anymore and it's been about 2 weeks so knock on wood I think were OK.

 

[Ariel301]

Good to hear yours are doing better. I'm still losing birds, I've just given up on mine. I got mine from Central Hatchery, so they are not the same batch of birds. Between all the people who bought birds from the order I made, there are 14 birds left alive out of the original 208! Since I bought them and then sold them to other people, I worry now about my reputation as a breeder, hopefully I made it clear enough to the people that I did not breed these birds, I bought them for resale. No one has demanded a refund from me, thankfully, and between several households that bought them, all the birds are having the same problem, even though they are on different management systems.

At 7 weeks old, mine are still under a pound in weight though they are eating an incredible amount of feed. No sign of parasites, predators, or infection, but they're like you said, literally just falling over dead. I notice they seem to get sluggish, and at that point their little feet and faces are cold to the touch even in an 80+ degree barn, and their feet are swollen and bruised looking; to me it seems like a problem with circulation, like the heart is not pumping right and the blood is backing up. I had a horse die of heart failure some time back, and she had similar symptoms, cold to the touch and swollen legs. All I can think of it they've got a congenital heart defect maybe, because they are not heavy enough to be dying from the typical heart failure. I have bantam breed chicks the same age that are bigger than these birds! I'm going to contact the hatchery tomorrow, and send them some pictures of mine and see if they have any ideas.

 

[addictedtochickens]

I purchased 20 from Meyers hatchery and am now down to 11. They are now six weeks old and all are right at eight pounds and will be processed soon. These are definately annoying birds and it seems like they truly die for no reason. I have had two break down, three flip over dead in front of me, three die from trampling, and the rest were wheezing whenever they sat down and were dead the next day. My dad cut them open and said their lungs were really small and they probably could not keep up. Next year, I am raising dual purpose birds.

 

[GottaLuvChicks]

Well over the past few days I have lost 6 more. I am down to 8 left. Good news, no dead ones this morning. And 2 of the ones I found were posiibly NOT from the same thing...they were either attacked by something (which I don't think because everyone else was fine) or something tried to pull them through the chicken wire and gave up, just eating their heads off (I found one outside of the wire and one who was obviously pulled until it got stuck). I am thinking the latter, as I have everyone else just fine, and the only signs of blood were where they were pulled through. So hopefully it was something small that saw them laying close to the wire already dead and just thought "free easy meal". Also, the pile of dead ones in my woods (kept FAR from the house and the coop) are gone, so something is out there somewhere enjoying the free meals! So of course today I am going to re-proof the coop as much as possible to make sure no little critters are getting in.
So, I am wondering...do I risk eating the ones that survive the next few weeks, because I am worried that it might be something more than heart failure. Do I just cull the apparently healthy ones and chalk it up to a bad batch, or see what happens? I do know that IF I do meat chickens again, I am NOT doing CXs, I will probably go with a batch of Freedom Rangers in the spring so that I don't have to worry so much about the cold weather while they are little like this...

 

[jaj121159]

Quote:
Central has a really good reputation. Have you talked Phil, the owner? If not I would suggest you give him a call. If you have, as a Central hatchery customer, I would be interested in his response. I just finished 51 out 52 from Central. They were great and averaged 4.25 lbs. per birds dressed.

 

[jaj121159]

Quote:
A couple of things, first for the recently killed ones, I would make sure you have hardware cloth along the bottom two feet of the pen. Second, it sounds like the birds were spooked and stuck their heads through the wire. Coons will team up to do this, especially a sow and her kits.

Since you have lost so many to an unknown illness, I would recommend you have some of the birds examined by the vet. It's kind of like an autopsy, but I can't remember what is it called for birds or animals. If it is an illness, I would certainly want to know what and how to remove it from your coop and property.

Third, feeding dead birds that may have died from an illness to the local wildlife population is not good. It could be something that can be transmitted and now it could be spread all over. The other thing to think about, if it is an illenss and a neighbor's dog got into the dead ones and gets sick, you could be liable even though the dog was trespassing. This scenario would depend on the laws of your state.