meat birds panting one died early today, aprx 3 weeks old

[mama dixie]

I have 20 cornish cross and one died, it was not doing well last night. I noticed it panting and not wanting to move around much. it also did not want to eat. I seperated it from the others and today it was dead... I noticed some of the others maybe 3 also panting. I left the coop for a bit and when I came back they had calmed down and seem ok. I know usualy you loose some of the birds but this seems early to me. do you think something is wrong?

 

[SIMZ]

I'm not that experienced with them and I'm guessing you've looked at everything I'll mention already.

Were they too hot?
Did something stress them out? You stated they calmed down when you came back.
I see mine panting sometimes for no apparent reason. Hopefully it was just a weakness in that one chick. Have you had any more losses?

 

[bj taylor]

in a different post i read that they sometimes over eat & this causes them to pant. i don't know if it would cause them to die or not. good luck.

 

[kcjones]

my cornish rocks were panting an laying down alot , after i cut back on food an didnt leave food out all the time , they seem to not pant as much. started letting them out to get more exercice they seem better now

 

[mama dixie]

thank you for all the feed back. we have not lost anymore and I think I will start taking the food up at night now.. they are now close to 4 weeks and dont seem to be that big. I will have to check my dates. people tell me they should be full grown by six weeks mine are just starting to get fethers and are no whear near full size.. lets see I got them march the 23 so yea 3.5 weeks about... we will see what hapens.