Jumbo Cornish Rocks-Feather problems

[aprice6]

Our Jumbo Rocks have no feathers on their bellies, has anybody seen this before? We have a mixture of chickens, first time raisers, and the rest of our chickens have feathered out fine. If anyone has any advise please let us know. Thanks

 

[arlee453]

Normal for the Cornish X Rocks. They grow so fast their feathers can't keep up.

Are you growing them out for meat?

 

[aprice6]

Yes. My husband found one dead this morning so that is why we were more concerned. We just wanted to make sure if there was a disease or skin problem that might cause that. Thanks for your help.

 

[arlee453]

Those breeds tend to self-destruct. They just grow too fast for their bodies to handle sometimes, and a certain loss percentage is hard to avoid. The 'fall over dead' problem is not terribly unusual...

 

[PurpleChicken]

Are you leaving them food out 24/7. They will eat themselves to death.

Do they get any excercise at all?

Some people have reported an average loss of 25% before culling.

We prefer to raise silkies as meat birds.

 

[silkiechicken]

Haha, silkies are pretty good eatin.

Yeah, it is normal. The larger the batch, the more mortality it seems.

Here's a 4 weeker and they were free ranged...

 

[aprice6]

That is exactly what it looks like. They do get exercise, and we do leave the food out 24/7. But we got a large batch of them, and they are eating up a storm. Thanks for all of your help.

 

[arlee453]

It is interesting to me how a breed like that can be so perfectly designed for eatin'...

They gain weight 2x as fast as regular chickens and are ready to eat at 8 wks.

Let them have all the food they can eat and they tend to drop dead on their own before too many more weeks go by if you don't butcher.

If you want to slow their growth, or keep them longer than the 8 wks recommended butchering age, then take up the food at night to restrict their intake.

 

[silkiechicken]

I let mine eat 24/7... but they eat so much they get self regulate by how many times I can fill the feeder.