meat chicks

[bluebirdfarm]

hi,
we have jumbo cornish rock chicks . some of them have bare butts and i'm not sure if they may be pecking their but or not , thought i saw one of them do that . is this norm ? only some of them have barish butts the others are fluffly .just wondering.o btw , they are 10 days old now.

 

[AussieSharon]

wait til they get bigger. They will have big bald patches where their feather growth can't keep up with their rapid weight gain.

Mine are 6 weeks old and half bald. UGLY!!

 

[bluebirdfarm]

oh btw thanx auusiegirl for your reply. i kinda thought that might be the case. they certainly are not the most beautiful birds i have seen , but i am not keeping them for their
looks ! GOOD THING , HUH?

 

[bluebirdfarm]

how many do you have , we have 103 , one died , i think it got somthered , we have them in a pretty big area , but she was found kinda flattened out near the side of the boxed area .
i only wanted to get 50 but dh said to get 100, so i did. crazy me ;_)

 

[mmajw]

They grow so fast that there feathers don't keep up and they also produce such a large amount of their own heat that it is probably just as well.

Cornish X are known for heart attacks and that might have happened to one of yours.

 

[bluebirdfarm]

thanx mmajw,
i see you have silver laced wyandottes , i special ordered two with my 25 brown eggers from MMM. i think one of the 25 is a jersey giant , do they have black beaks when they are pips ?

 

[mmajw]

Yes they do have black beaks. They are cuties.

 

[hdchic]

My Cornish x are 3 weeks old today....I started out with 52 from MMM, and have had 6 pass on...not bad I don't think. I too have noticed their body heat, and their constant eating...lol. And the bald butts? oh yeah, they are just getting tail feathers in...this whole thing is a major learning experience for me!

 

[AussieSharon]

I only have 11. I can't imagine having 103 of those pooping machines. LOL
I think my next lot I'll get brave and do 25.

 

[hdchic]

aaww, c'mon, jump in the deep end...all the cool kids are doin it! LOL