High heat and humidity = Chickens not eating and not gaining weight???

[patman75]

Today I scheduled to pick up 15 pasture raised Vantress X from a local farmer. When I showed up he said that this batch is much smaller than last spring because for the last 2 weeks the chickens were not eating too much because of the high heat and humidity so they did not gain the weight they usually do.

The chickens were much smaller than the spring batch but he only charged me for 14 chickens and gave me 20 so I dont have any problem with it.

So my question is does this all sound right? Sounds about right to me but I'm no expert.

Thanks.

 

[Baymule]

I work outside and when it hits the high 90's or 100+ I don't want to eat much either. It sounds reasonable to me that the chickens cut back on their eating because of the heat. Now, try to give them a cooler place than where they came from. I make mine a mudhole every evening to keep them cool the next day. They love it.

 

[terri9630]

I've seen it with all our animals.

 

[MMPoultryFarms]

I have cornish rocks going on 3 months old who yet have reached slaughter weight due to high heat and humidity it seems as i they stopped growing at 5-6 pounds

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

How old are they?

 

[patman75]

Quote:
I think they were 10 weeks. The biggest were maybe 5lbs.

 

[anthonyjames]

I have the same thing with the batch of cx that I have as well. I also had the same issue with my naked necks I raised earlier in the year. I have 125 naked necks and they barely at 1500 lbs of feed in 15 weeks. The biggest one was 3.8 lb processed. Avg was 2.9 lbs.

My cx right now when I weighed the biggest one was 5.2 lbs and they are 7 weeks old. I have 25 of them and in 7 weeks have only gone through 275 lbs of feed. They are 125lbs off and I am sure they will not be going through it in the next week unless the temps drop below 75 and humidity drops below 70+% Avg has be 87 here with 77% humidity for the last 5 weeks and the storms and flooding here in WI have been bad as well. Not to mention mosquitoes. I dread going to the tractors to move my birds and rabbits.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

I don't think that sounds so bad, did you get them for butcher or breeding?

 

[patman75]

Quote:
They are all processed and in the freezer. Some are maybe 2lbs and look like a smaller fryer.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

well, to me it sounds like an excuse for having small meat birds. Is it an accurate one . . . I don't know, I'm not familiar with that strain of meat bird, maybe that's just a normal weight at that age, or maybe he bred his own second generation and had a lot of unpredictability with the weight. I hear a lot of excuses like that coming from people who buy a "red CX", but I think the real reason is that it is a slower growing bird . . . more like a freedom ranger, that just needs an extra few weeks to make weight. My CX did slow down a bit in the heat but not 4lbs worth.