Meat bird wheezing question...please help

[Darkesroh]

My mom has about 15 white cornish chickens and they are almost 6 weeks now. She has one that has started wheezing is this a sign of heart trouble or other issue? She wants to know if she should just butcher him now or if its ok to wait. She separtated that one from the rest unless its another issue. Does anyone have any advise they could give? Thanks

 

[199787]

I just finished 29 birds at 8 weeks and 3 days. One of the 29 began a wheeze around 6 weeks old. It still foraged and ran around the field with the rest of them and made it fine to processing. The wheezer was a chubby one for sure, but otherwise seemed perfectly fine. I may well be a sign that they are having some issues, but if it acting normally, I would let it ride it out to processing day.

 

[Darkesroh]

Ok I will let her know. He is eating and acting normal. He is one of the heavier birds they grow so quickly its amazing. Thanks for the help!

 

[199787]

Are you feeding 24/7? If so I would strongly recommend pulling food for 12 hours at night. I only fed mine a few hours in the morning and a few in the evening. They had to look for bugs and eat grass the rest of the time. They were all roosters, and pushing 10lbs at 8 weeks. The average dressed weight was 6 lbs.