Meat Chick Problems

[LauraSBale]

HI Everyone
I'm new to the forum

I had egg girls years ago and never had a problem.

my neighbor and I went in on 16 meat birds and 9 egg girls.
we started them on the electrolyte powder w/ probotics, for 3 weeks

they are 5 weeks old now. they egg girls are doing great.

this is my first time with meat birds,. Well, we have lost 6 of the meat birds,

the first was 3 days after getting them.
then a week later lost 2 more, and then lost another, and another, and just 2 days ago lost another one.

the was no signs of any thing, no pasting or breathing problems.

we moved them into the coop last Thursdays and they seem to be doing fine, except for the one that died 2 days ago.

though i have noticed with meat birds, that there poops are more watery, then the eggs girls, they were on the same feed, and when i went back to get more feed, they said the meat birds could go up the next feed, and i noticed it got worse, so i mixed 50- 50 of the started feed with the new feed, and some ground up corn meal and oat meal, that seemed to help some with there poops.

I don't want any more to die, so are we doing something wrong with the meat birds
with there feed or something else
it just wired because the eggs girls are doing great.

Thank you
Laura

 

[arlee453]

Hmmmm....what are the temps where you are? If your meat birds are Cornish X (big white eating machines..) then they are especially succeptble to heat stroke and heart problems due to their enormous growth rate.

 

[LauraSBale]

were in Mich

temps have been in the high 70 low 80's

I had them in the growing box for 4 1/2 weeks. i did lamp heat, and keep the temps like they said to do.

 

[Richard]

I am far from being an expert by any means .But with my meat birds I was told to use Broiler feed the whole time.I let them have food 24/7 for the first 2 weeks after that I only let them have food for 12 hours per day.Out of the 26 I started with I lost 1 at 2 days old and I culled another at 4 weeks old for leg problems. When it got hot I placed a fan in the window on the south side (sunnyside)of the coop blowing out and opened the window on the northside (shadyside) of the coop to draw in the cooler air .This helped alot

 

[LauraSBale]

I read that they had to have broiler feed, when i picked them up from the mill that ordered them for us. they said they could have the starter feed.

I will go the other mill by us and see what they have.

 

[belibutn]

We just finished processing the last 20 or so of our meat birds. We kept ours on 20% protein chick starter the whole time. For the first 5 days they had access to food the whole time. One day 6, we started restricting their feed access - taking it away at night, for 12 hours or so. Out of the 36 we had, we lost 4: two due to shipping concerns, 1 we culled because of leg issues (we think he had dislocated his hips) and the last ate itself into oblivion. I think that the problems you might be having are related to the last death we had. They will eat nonstop if they have the chance to do so, and will 'flip' seemingly die for no reason, other than I expect a freaking heart attack.

Make sure you restrict the amount of time they can get access to food... Sure they will mob you in the morning when they see the feeder, but at least it makes they get some exercise at least once a day

 

[LauraSBale]

maybe thats the problem

we have been making sure they have feed all the time up until they were put in the coop.

now we have been giving them feed in the morning and letting them out for the whole day in the chick run out side and then when we put them in for the night, we give them more feed.

and i just started giving them scraps.

Oh Potato's can they have that, i remember they can only have part of the potato, but dont remember what?

 

[belibutn]

potato skins are bad, if I remember correctly... or they have to be cooked at least. the scraps we gave ours were watermelon and cantaloupe rinds with the occasional tomatos

 

[greyfields]

Three things:

1) The broilers should be separated and given a specific broiler feed from the egg laying breeds.

2) Broilers drop dead through no fault of your own. It's just the way they are.

3) At that age, my guess is cocci. Even if you didn't see any of the symptons, it drops perfectly healthy birds very quickly.

You have done nothing wrong as far as I can tell. It's just the downside of raising your own meat chicken.s

 

[LauraSBale]

Yes the eggs girls are separated from the meat birds.

well i think i may have found some of the problem was over feeding.

I went to grain store, and more than likely i over feed,

plus i picked up some broiler feed for them.
so i well see what happens

and if it could be cocci should i medicate?