Hey everyone,
We just started our first batch of Cornish X (Ross strain) a couple weeks ago and we have already lost 12 out of the 51 we started with. I will try and give as much information as possible so that hopefully it is easier for you guys to help out.
They hatched Nov 16th (so about 17 days old) and we picked them up from the hatchery the same day. The brooder is approx 8ft x 4ft with 2 heat lamps with 250W infrared bulbs. For feed, we used a 50lb bag of 20% organic chick starter which lasted the first 14 days and then switched to 22% organic broiler which they have been on the last 3 days.
Out of the 12 we have lost so far, 2-3 seemed to be possibly hurt by being trampled on by the others and I had to put down. The rest have been just been found dead. Almost all of them have been ones that looked otherwise healthy. The only real sign of anything wrong that we have seen has been some diarrhea which I had been just chocking up to heat or cold stress. We are in Central FL so this time of year it is not really hot or really cold but we do get some large temperature swings. I will post a screenshot of our ambient brooder temp/humidity over the past 3 weeks if that helps at all.
Most of the losses have been one here and one there but today was the worst day with 5 dead and 1 not looking too great when I got home from work. We did just get our coldest weather so far over the last couple days but they seemed to come through it fine. Yesterday morning was the coldest it had been in the brooder at 45F but it warmed up to mid 60s during the day and today was in the 70s. Since it was warming up, I turned off both heat lamps this morning. I had been in the process of weening them off of heat when we got the cold weather and so they had the lamps on the last two days.
Any ideas? Any help is greatly appreciated. I was expecting maybe 10-15% loss but after today we are at 23% and am super frustrated not knowing what is going on or how to find out.
The picture of the lone chick below is the one that didn't look like it was doing too well.
We just started our first batch of Cornish X (Ross strain) a couple weeks ago and we have already lost 12 out of the 51 we started with. I will try and give as much information as possible so that hopefully it is easier for you guys to help out.
They hatched Nov 16th (so about 17 days old) and we picked them up from the hatchery the same day. The brooder is approx 8ft x 4ft with 2 heat lamps with 250W infrared bulbs. For feed, we used a 50lb bag of 20% organic chick starter which lasted the first 14 days and then switched to 22% organic broiler which they have been on the last 3 days.
Out of the 12 we have lost so far, 2-3 seemed to be possibly hurt by being trampled on by the others and I had to put down. The rest have been just been found dead. Almost all of them have been ones that looked otherwise healthy. The only real sign of anything wrong that we have seen has been some diarrhea which I had been just chocking up to heat or cold stress. We are in Central FL so this time of year it is not really hot or really cold but we do get some large temperature swings. I will post a screenshot of our ambient brooder temp/humidity over the past 3 weeks if that helps at all.
Most of the losses have been one here and one there but today was the worst day with 5 dead and 1 not looking too great when I got home from work. We did just get our coldest weather so far over the last couple days but they seemed to come through it fine. Yesterday morning was the coldest it had been in the brooder at 45F but it warmed up to mid 60s during the day and today was in the 70s. Since it was warming up, I turned off both heat lamps this morning. I had been in the process of weening them off of heat when we got the cold weather and so they had the lamps on the last two days.
Any ideas? Any help is greatly appreciated. I was expecting maybe 10-15% loss but after today we are at 23% and am super frustrated not knowing what is going on or how to find out.
The picture of the lone chick below is the one that didn't look like it was doing too well.