Meat birds dieing -- Just have to rant...

[jamieneenah]

HI,

How many meat birds do you end up loosing? I'm doing all the recommended things and my TSC meat birds either up and die or the legs break. I've lost like 9 cornish now out of about 70 cornish. And they are only at 4 weeks now.

I have about 100 hens and birds of other varieties, and the only one that died out of all of them was a pullet that the cornish suffocated.

All the other breeds of birds are doing great, the ones for meat and the hens / pullets.

The Cornish are LAZY also. Hey would rather just sit there any let you step on them than get out of the way. I have a bunch of RIR in with them, even seen one of those that will let you step on them, they are fast.

Jamie

 

[jaku]

This batch is my best batch ever. I've only lost 2 of 53, and those were birds I culled because they looked sick. The only difference I made between this and past batches is that I started feeding them food ground for me at the mill. Not only is it 1/2 the price of TSC, but I can actually SEE what's in it- pieces of corn, soy, etc. I'll never go back to prebagged feed.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

That's why we gave up on the fast growing meat birds along time ago. I'll take a heritage breed any day

Steve in NC

 

[pdpatch]

We lost 2 this year, out of 26, but we did get meat faster this year.

This years bunch didn't seem to lazy, well for Cornish cross they seemed really active, ours did move when you got close to them.

But this year we used a 25 x 8 foot pen to raise them in, with there food and water at oppisite ends of the pen. I did notice that there thighs and legs were darker then in the past.

Although we are planing to back to a Heritgate bird in the future.

Tom

 

[Chick_a_dee]

Haven't lost any yet! They're a week old today, Frey's 27, 2 extras. Ours are actually pretty active, they do sit around for a good part of the day but they also run around and play too. Hopefully we don't lose any, only time will tell.

 

[jamieneenah]

After reading many others stories about Cornish X, I suspect that some hatcheries produce much higher quality Cornish X birds than others. I've read of several people that bought at Mcmurry and were very happy with there Cornish and Jumbo Cornish. Some of those people said that the Mcmurry birds did much better than than birds from there local hatcheries.

Anyone have thoughts on that? I think that if I do Cornish Cross again, I would get them from mcmurry, just based on what I've read, no direct hands on experience with them.

Most of my birds I have now are from TSC, I think directly from a hatchery would have many advantages.

Jamie

 

[One Acre Wonder Farm]

We ordered 6 Cornish X this year when we ordered our layer chicks, just to see if we liked them enough to do more (we can't find a processor nearby that we can afford so if we feel like processing ourselves is too much that's the end of meaties for us). Well we're nearly 5 weeks in and we lost one after a few days (failure to thrive), another at 1.5 weeks (fine one day, dead in the next a.m.) and I think we're going to lose another (not as active for the last day, laying down with eyes closed a lot). DH says no more meaties.

Our local feedstore orders from Ridgway hatchery.

 

[spook]

I picked my 25 up at the local feed store 2 weeks ago. These have been active, trying to fly (looking more like a gooney bird) and very quick to see what your up to. We did lose one so far to unknown causes and another seems to be lame.

DH cannot handle assisting, so I do the processing myself, with clear intent to rent a BYC members wizzbang chicken plucker!

This is first year for tractor, not sure, some folks say the flavor is stronger with grass then just grain. So 1/2 will stay in, 1/2 will go out!

 

[UncleHoot]

I've done Cornish Roasters from McMurray, and kinda liked them, but I can't justify the expense. They grow only a little bit slower than the jumbo. I'd figure an extra week to grow them out.

I also ordered from Meyer, and I think their birds also seemed to be 9 week birds, rather than 8 week. I think I only lost a couple out of 50.

I'm currently raising X's from Townline Hathery again. This is the 4th time I've raised their birds, and at about 1 month, I've lost 6 of 150. One was due to my own carelessness, and another was a freak brooder accident. So, I've really lost only 4 to the usual "sudden death" that seems to attack these critters. They say 5% loss is normal. But these buggers really seem to grow fast, with an average dressed weight of over 6 lbs at 8 weeks. I had some that were 8 lbs dressed at 8 weeks, and a 10.5 pounder at 10 weeks! Pretty crazy growth, but perhaps with a slightly higher mortality than the slower growing Cornish X varieties.

 

[StillwaterCreek]

We ordered 25 Cornish X and 25 Red Stars from MMH. The packing slip showed they sent 25 of each, plus one extra of each, plus the free rare bird. We actually counted 24 CX and 26 RS... go figure.

The RS are doing incredibly well... they literally run all around their half of the brooder. Haven't lost a single one.

The CX, on the other hand... we've lost 5 so far in just the first 4 days. Two within 12 hours of getting them home! We only ordered 25 this time to test the waters, with plans to do 50-75 next time around. But if this keeps up, I won't be raising these birds again.

Can anyone recommend a good meat (not necessarily dual-purpose) bird that would come reasonably close to the CX in size and tenderness? If it takes a few weeks longer, that's fine.