Flip....in a Red Broiler???

[kooltex]

Okay, so my birds are past due for processing. I just haven't been able to get to it with work, and the weather. They turned 12 weeks yesterday. I found a dead one sunday night when I went out to close the coop door. He was a huge roo, at least 9lbs. He hadn't been dead very long so I went ahead and processed him. His heart was GINORMOUS! There wasn't any fluid in the cavity or anything, but the extra large heart was the only abnormal thing I could find. Has anyone ever had one of their red broilers drop dead from a heart attack? I was under the impression that these red broilers weren't suppose to have all the health issues of the cornishx. Just curious. I will be processing the rest of them on Wed or Thurs. I was thinking about keeping some for breeding, but now I'm not sure. This was one of the largest Roos, and was one I was planning on keeping. Oh well.

 

[the simple life]

I haven't raised the red broilers myself but if they are near their slaughter age or past it then I don't see why they wouldn't have the same type of heart problems as the cornish, its still a strain on their systems to get overly large.
I obviously can't say for sure but it stands to reason the meatbirds could have similar issues.
I hope the rest of them do well for you.

 

[dancingbear]

From all I've read, (and you know more about reds than I do, you've raised them, I've just read about them) it sounds like they're much less likely to have problems than the standard CX's, but it could still happen. Sounds like that one was larger than average, is that correct? Maybe he got just the right gene combo for faster growth, and it was his undoing. The enlarged heart's a possible sign of that.

 

[kooltex]

Yeah he was one of the bigger ones.