Losing 1-2/ day to unknown causes. Picture attached

[Oregon Blues]

Run one of the freshly dead ones out to your local veterinary university and have a necropsy done.

 

[MikeG]

Again, thank you. Really appreciate everyone's insight. naillikwj82, great points. We haven't processed yet at 7.2 weeks but we've scheduled it for Saturday. Our loss is around 20-21% and after giving Tetra-ox batch, we've only lost one additional. They're not quite as big as we'd like, but don't want to lose anymore. The temps have dropped significantly this week with night-time temps in the low 30s and figure those little metal-roofed tractors get pretty chilly.

We didnt necropsy any but will obviously look at hearts this weekend. Lessons learned on our first batch on the new farm>

1) Keep in the brooder 2.5+ weeks

2) Make sure waterer/feeders are sufficient prior to pasturing chickens

3) Don't be stupid with the antibiotics. Not a huge fan, but will certainly use them again if suspect

4) Next batch, control feed. I know ya'll have tried and had success with varying methods. We did unrestricted until they started dying off and then started restricting. In the future, we'll try unrestricted early and then ration in the 2nd half of their lives. It seems after week 7, their weight gain starts to plane-


Thanks again, everyone.