my birds keep dying please help thanks

[love2chicken]

I got the feed from the same person i got the chicks from and i think he said it was 16 or 18% but i got 100 lbs for him. because it was the only person i new at that time that had organic feed. is it worth buying a feed with more protein.

 

[Bossroo]

Yes !!! You should provide about 24% protein for the first 3 weeks of life, then lower to 20% until freezer camp. Feed 12 hours FULL feed and 12 hours no feed. Organic feed is often quite old and has lost quite a bit of nutritional value. This is due to it's original very high price ( often 2+ x the cost of commercial feed) plus long distance transportation costs plus the supplier's own concocted blend and as such there is a limited market for it. So it sits and deteriorates in nutrition. I would question that the chicks you received are indeed CornishX or a white feathered DP or a eggbreed Leghorn.

 

[love2chicken]

thanks for the info on the feed i just did not like the idea of them eating old dead animals. so that is why i went with organic feed. but i will look at getting some new feed.

 

[terri9630]

Quote:
Old dead animals? There may be some animal by-products in some feeds but it's nothing a chicken wouldn't eat in the wild. They are omnivores and will eat each other if you give them a chance. I had a 5 chicks escape the brooder last year and the hens killed/ate 3 of them before we found them. All of our left overs go to the chickens unless it's something really strong flavored that will affect the flavor of the eggs.

 

[Bossroo]

Quote:
Old dead animals? There may be some animal by-products in some feeds but it's nothing a chicken wouldn't eat in the wild. They are omnivores and will eat each other if you give them a chance. I had a 5 chicks escape the brooder last year and the hens killed/ate 3 of them before we found them. All of our left overs go to the chickens unless it's something really strong flavored that will affect the flavor of the eggs.

Chickens being omnivores means they will eat anything. Most people give their chickens all types of leftover table scraps including meats on top of commercial feeds. They will eat any living or dead mice, rats, toads, frogs, all manner of insects, each other, etc. that they come accross in their environment, so what is the difference? Just read the label of the feed sacks, some feeds have animal byproducts , others don't.

 

[terri9630]

Quote:
Old dead animals? There may be some animal by-products in some feeds but it's nothing a chicken wouldn't eat in the wild. They are omnivores and will eat each other if you give them a chance. I had a 5 chicks escape the brooder last year and the hens killed/ate 3 of them before we found them. All of our left overs go to the chickens unless it's something really strong flavored that will affect the flavor of the eggs.

Chickens being omnivores means they will eat anything. Most people give their chickens all types of leftover table scraps including meats on top of commercial feeds. They will eat any living or dead mice, rats, toads, frogs, all manner of insects, each other, etc. that they come accross in their environment, so what is the difference? Just read the label of the feed sacks, some feeds have animal byproducts , others don't.

That's what I said. I think. I only got 3hrs of sleep last night, with this crazy wind blowing I kept imagining my chicken tractor blowing over again and had to keep checking.

 

[love2chicken]

I know that they will eat almost anything but i don't want the commercial feed. Maybe i should have i just weighed one of the biggest ones and it is very disappointing at 1lb 5oz at just about 5 weeks. i think i will get them from a hatchery next time

 

[terri9630]

Quote:
If they are only a pound at 5 wks I'd say they aren't a cornish cross meat bird. They may be a cornish cross, but not a broiler. There is a difference.

Even with lower protien feed they should be bigger that that at 5 wks. There are several families that show in 4-H that only feed scratch (chicken junk food) and at 8wks their birds aren't much smaller than the rest at the fair. The first time we raised them for 4-H I had no idea what I was doing and just fed them a 14% layer pellet and they were 5-6lbs at 8wks.

The only problem I have with the commercial feeds are the antibiotics. A non medicated feed isn't that difficult for me to find though.

 

[rolffamily]

Last spring I raising 10 Cornish X pullets and lost one. Late summer I raised 15 Cornish X males and lost 7. I do think that the males grow even faster than the females, which is fast enough, and are more likely to die.

 

[love2chicken]

I started with 10 and now i have 7 but all is doing well. I had them i a bathtub and have moved them outside. I swear they have gotten about 1lb bigger in a week but thay arfe still small about 2 lbs at 6 weeks