Losing baby Cornish Rocks

[grizz78]

Have many of you raised Cormish Rocks? My buddy bought 2 dozen chicks. Supposedly day old. Any how within 2 days he has lost 10 of them. He purchased them at the local TSC store. They are going to replace them, which is a good thing. My question is are the Cornish Rocks hard to raise. This is his first bunch in a number of years, so he does have experience. Any help or thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[cassie]

You shouldn't be having that kind of trouble with them. Maybe they had a hard trip. I'll tell you how we start ours. We use a red heat lamp with a guard about 18 inches above the floor. If the chicks are huddling on top of each other under the lamp they are too cold so we lower it a bit. If they are getting as far away from it as they can they are too hot and we raise it a bit. We cover the shavings with newspaper the first day. We have the water warm for their first drink and put three tablespoons of sugar in it per quart for the first three days and then plain water from then. We have the feeders full and sprinkle feed on the papers so we are sure they can find the feed. We feed turkey starter because we can't get broiler starter. We add a vitamin supplement the water called Broiler Booster we get from Murray McMurray but I am sure there are others on the market. The Booster seems to help with leg problems. After about the fifth day we take the feed away for twelve hours. We take it away at seven and put it back down at seven. We are no experts but this works for us. If you are losing babies it might not hurt to put some terramycin in the water for about five days or so. Hope this helps.

 

[vortec]

I will go ahead and warn you, to tell him not to continuously feed them after one week. They will literally eat themselves into a heart attack. I found one of mine dead 2 days ago because I did not know of this until it was too late. What you do, is feed them 12 hours and then take the food out for 12 hours. I don't know if you already knew this or not, but I just want to make sure because I don't want this to happen to anybody else. Hope this helped.

vortec

 

[grizz78]

I will pass this onto him. I know he was feeding them from the get go. He said they were eating good. Maybe too well.
Thanks

 

[vortec]

Quote:
I don't think he has done permanent damage yet but if allowed several weeks of continuous eating, they will end up like mine, one dead and one dying( hope he makes it one more day and we can cook him, just need time ) Glad I could help.

vortec

 

[chicklips]

If they are only3 to 4 days old then it may just be a problem with the hachery or the place of purchase.

 

[Hens_And_Chicks]

Did they have pasty butts?

I know my local Rural King did not keep the chicks adequately watered - a couple times when I was in the chicks were bone dry - not a good thing!

They might have been stressed - who knows - I'm glad you are getting a replacement though.

 

[the_great_snag]

Are the chicks comfortable? If they are not warm enough, or too warm they can die.

Another thing is to make sure they are drinking and eating on their own. I always dip their beaks a time or two after I put them in the brooder to make SURE they know where the water is.

Also, due to their gluttonous nature, broilers are perhaps more suspectible to eating their bedding and jamming up their digestive system when they are very young and stupid. They should have paper towels laid down over their bedding the first day or so, with feed sprinkled about. Once they are eating and drinking reliably and on their own, the paper towels can be removed.

 

[grizz78]

I passed the information on and it sounds like he has not lost another one. I think it may have been a hydration thing or over eating. I think they were more than a day old and were not fed or watered.

 

[Hens_And_Chicks]

Quote:
Ok - I don't think I understand.

Who? did not feed and water them?