Please help---question about F.Rangers/lame chicks/weight gain

[mommainpa]

(Background---This is only my second time raising broilers. Two years ago, we did a very healthy batch of Buckeyes---only lost one. They were tasty, but scrawny. This time, we upped to Freedom Rangers due to the good reviews I had read.)

I received a batch of 51 Freedom Ranger chicks two weeks ago. One died upon arrival. I coddled three through a few pasty bums & they all started growing like crazy.

After one week, I culled one due to a leg problem. His leg stuck out at a funny angle from the hip socket & he couldn't walk.

Last night, I noticed a chick with leg difficulties. He wasn't walking on his feet; he pulled himself along with his legs. I decided to wait until morning to see how he was.

This morning, I go in and there are FOUR of them doing this no-walking, dragging themselves around thing.

My interests are quality of life for the birds I raise and bottom line in regard to cost.

Questions:
1. Is this due to rapid weight gain?
2. Could I be feeding them too much?
3. Do I cull them now? (The rest will be going into tractors in a month. I don't know how these ones would ever keep up with the rest of the batch.)
4. How does this compare with your experience of mortality with Rangers? I have read about heavy loss rates with Cornish Cross, but to be honest, I wasn't expecting to lose this many of the Rangers.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer!
Shayne

 

[ChikeeMomma]

I had a Dixie Rainbow (free range meatie) do that same thing to me last year -- all of the rest were very healthy. This little chick came normal and over a three week period, progressively, became worse (maybe some sort of neurological problem?). Once it came to it dragging itself along, we culled it. Now having four of them do this is a little odd -- so maybe someone has some input. My birds were to be for meat only -- so I wasn't going to put a bunch of time and effort into something that probably wouldn't make it or be normal again. Plus, I wouldn't have wanted to eat such a lame chicken.

I have had one Cornish X loss this year. I culled it because at the two week mark it wasn't doing well. So it's a wash so far for me -- I had the same amount of DRs and Cornish Xs and have lost the same.

 

[blueskylen]

i am wondering if you had them vacinated

 

[mommainpa]

When we ordered from JM Hatchery, I didn't see vaccinations as an option on their website---so, no.

But now, I'm wondering if I'm killing them by having food available too much. I never removed the food when we did the Buckeyes, because they're a slower growing bird.

I thought that the Rangers didn't gorge themselves like the Cornish, so I haven't been removing it.

 

[ChikeeMomma]

I may be wrong, but I didn't think that you needed to remove the food from them, either. I never removed food from my DRs. I don't think that they generally have leg problems like a Cornish X could.

 

[mommainpa]

I just got off the phone with the folks at J. M. Hatchery. She said that the chicks do not usually suffer from leg problems, that Joel usually attributes problems to a lack of nutrition in their feed.

They recommended getting a vitamin supplement into the water a.s.a.p., and switching over to the broiler feed. She said that there is a chance that these chicks can be saved if I can get vitamins into them.

We'll see. I'm headed to the feed store now.

Thanks for the help! I'll update later.

 

[ChikeeMomma]

Yup, they do benefit from a broiler feed. That's what I fed mine -- 24% protein all the way through.

 

[Chicken411]

Quote:
What were you feeding before? How much protien was in it?

 

[JohnL11935]

What is on the floor of their brooder? Are they suffering injuries from slip and falls from something like newspaper?

 

[frozen1]

try the vitamins in the water it helps! I give it for the frist two weeks or so, tryed with out once had leg problems.