Meat birds - normal losses or is something wrong with my flock?

[bucketgirl]

Normally, I raise pastured rangers. Never lost even a single chick, except once to an accident.

Decided to try, on a farmer's reco, the breed sometimes referred to as Cornish X.

I have 50 plus whatever extra he gave me. They are dropping like flies, it seems.

First one died, maybe due to a design flaw in my brooder which has since been corrected.

I have several severely undersized, one I am hand feeding just to see what happens.

However, almost daily it seems, we wake to find a dead one that was previously hale and hearty. The ones I expect to die haven't, so the dropping dead seems mostly random.

My brooder is a little bit moister than I would like, but I've added a lot of dry bedding so it's not horribly wet, just not bone dry.

So far, we've lost 5 of 50, which seems like a lot to me, especially given I'd say at least 2 are on the fence.

Plenty of clean water, fresh ventilation, heat lamp is close enough they don't spend a lot of time right in the center of it, lots of fresh food. Eyes bright and sparkling, no congestion that I can see.

Do I have a disease problem or just typical losses for birds of this type? Thanks.

 

[CMV]

CXs are very fragile birds for all their bulk and rapid growth. They are so selectively bred for rapid growth that they are lacking in several other crucial areas such as healthy organ development. Their innards are mush, especially their hearts. You will see when you process these guys just how frail they really are. The first time I saw a CX heart I was stunned. You know how fibrous and bouncy a heart normally is? Well, a CX heart is over-sized and mushy with little tone to the organ. I didn't even believe it was a heart at first except that it was the right overall shape.

So, what I am trying to say is that raising CXs is a challenge. You get a lot of loss prior to processing. I have never been able to get below 30% loss. They are just so unable to handle any stress that the slightest thing will make them drop like flies. Fortunately, the birds that actually do make it to processing are so huge and delicious that it is almost worth it.

Just keep trying, and know that the losses are probably only barely related to anything you are doing. They are just a tough bird to bring to slaughter age.

Good luck.

 

[bucketgirl]

Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply. Number 9 went into the garbage can today

I have four more that don't seem thrifty enough to walk separated into a separate environment. I was hoping this would help.

I think in the future I'll stick to Rangers...multicolored and hardy, despite being a bit on the chewy side.

For now, I just noticed when I was moving the four weakest ones to the 'hospital' (bathtub) that it let out a really foul poop. Not a normal chicken poop, but something partly black, foul/gassy smelling, and really runny. Could I possibly have some kind of disease ripping through my flock?

Thank you again for your reply...it made me feel much better. It's hard to face the fact that I might have 50 dead chickens. I was hoping the losses would stop around 10% but they only seem to be accelerating.

They are around 2.5 weeks. Maybe I should be restricting feed? I use some wonderful feed I've been very successful with in the past; a local farmer formulates it and grinds it fresh. It is the go-to feed for many small producers and home flocks in the area.

 

[CMV]

I suppose it is possible that you have a disease going through the group. If you contact the hatchery where you got the birds from, they will recommend getting a necropsy done to determine what is going on. It might be worth considering. If there is a disease running through the group and it came from the hatchery, they may help to recoup some of your losses.