Uh ... help ... maybe ... babies eating too much?

[Tracydr]

I'm feeding a homemade ration this time and offering flock raiser more as a supplement. The homemade ration is made of sprouts, kefir, scrambled eggs, apple cider vinegar, nutritional yeast and a bit of kelp. Egg shells for phosphorous and calcium ( in addition to calcium from kefir). Plus, weeds that I throw in the tractor. Maybe I'm imagining it but I swear these guys have drier poop and aren't drinking as much. They're growing very well, about 3/4 of a pound now at two weeks and very healthy. Currently, I have six, plus some red broilers, productions red Pullets and some red packing peanuts. I'm really liking the red broilers. They're starting to fall ever so slightly behind the Cornish but not by much. I'm excited to have a slower grower but not too slow. I'd love to be able to keep a couple red broilers and try breeding them, crossing to perhaps a WLR Cornish?
I get 6 more today as to warm the box for some other chicks I'm having delivered.

 

[Jloeffler]

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I am so sorry to hear that you lost so much of your flock. I hope the treatment you are trying works quickly so that you don't lose any more.

 

[pinkwindsong]

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I am so sorry to hear that you lost so much of your flock. I hope the treatment you are trying works quickly so that you don't lose any more.

oh my goodness how many did you have? how old were they? ..
the more I get into chickens and now these broilers.. I think that i will do the duel purpose birds there is something like the red Cornish.. not the crosses the original meat/ dual purpose birds.. i met a man with some at a chickenstock and was very interested but I knew we already had the Cornish cross on order... I didnt realize there were so many things to go wrong with them..

I had three of my sick chicks in the house in a big dog kennel and lost one last night. but by accident.. my son had turned off the kitchen light an tripped and fell into the kennel and the bowl from their food conked him on the head.. the flock in the grow pen seam to feel much better today.. a couple sniffles but they are eating and drinking.. the two I kept up that seamed to not have any symptoms are happy and feeling good today.. just have these 2 swollen head chicks.. ( looks like they were stung by a bee) but do have appetite and drinking ..

so what ever this is came in like a lion and hit hard but seams to be slacking off already.. yeahhh. and I too think that what ever it was may have been triggered by the stress of going out to the grow out pen where they didn't have a light and it was totally different then anything they had known..


does anyone else do the original meat birds .. not the crosses??? what do you think of raising them instead?

Pink

 

[Clay Valley Farmer]

I started with 100 Broilers in this batch and lost about 12 as chicks. From what I have seen that was not exceptional and losses of up to 15% are common though most times fair out losing 10% or less. This loss of about 1/3 of the flock though at 6-7 weeks is a dissapointing mess.

Wondering about necotic enteritis, could explain the high mortality and there may have been a contributing factor with me feeding less medicated starter and then going to a more grain based diet. From what I was reading the slower to digest higher fiber foods can set up conditions in the intestines making the chickens suseptible to it especially if there is a cocci infestation.

Live and learn....

I didnt realize there were so many things to go wrong with them..

Yeh, animals can be very humbling, and all the diseases in the text books can make it seam not worthwhile, can't eliminate every possibility of having problems so I guess the best we can do is stay informed and do as much as we can to keep the flocks healthy.

As for dual purpose for meat there are many that swear by that approach, but the ecconomics of it don't work well in most cases. The bottom line is it takes 4 times longer and at lest twice the feed to raise a less meaty dual purpose chicken. Then for most people who are accostomed to store bought chicken the DP chicken tends to be a little tough and stong flavored. If you like the taste and texture of traditional chicken or have a niche market for it and lots of preditor controlled land with free range forage it becomes more attractive.​

 

[pinkwindsong]

(as for dual purpose for meat there are many that swear by that approach, but the ecconomics of it don't work well in most cases. The bottom line is it takes 4 times longer and at lest twice the feed to raise a less meaty dual purpose chicken. Then for most people who are accostomed to store bought chicken the DP chicken tends to be a little tough and stong flavored. If you like the taste and texture of traditional chicken or have a niche market for it and lots of preditor controlled land with free range forage it becomes more attractive.)


as far as the flavor.. ok this is a newbie talking.. I have heard people mention this before.. oh this breed taste this way this one taste that way... don't they all just taste like chicken???? or do they have a more wild game bird taste? what is the difference..


and even with your losses you still feel it is a good investment to go with the fast growing crosses rather than the slower d.p. birds.. ?? humm very interesting..

pink

 

[Clay Valley Farmer]

If losses are contained to 10%-15% or so broiler hybrids are still going to out preform dual purpose for meat production.

The loss I am having now I would say is exeptional, more dead last night and resorted to some antibiotics to see if anything can be salvaged. This could just as well happened with a flock of dual purpose chickens though.

For the taste/texture, sometime cook up a dual purpose 6 months or so old and a cornish X both cooked the same way and judge for yourself.

 

[pinkwindsong]

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thank you so much for your time and your lessons and advice.. I truly appreciate it..

)O(
Pink

 

[erinszoo]

The meaties are now a week old and eating like piggies. I have to clean out the brooder about three times a day to keep up with the poo factor. We only have 14, one died in first 24 hours. They are growing fast and are at least twice as big as the egg layers we bought at the same time. We separated the 10 egg layers from the cornish x four days ago and the cornish x go through three times the food and water with the poo level to match. I'm only having to clean the egg layers brooder once a day.

The cornish are very very active and run around like crazy and climb on the bricks we have in the brooder. They are also very ugly. They have big butts and look like their feathers are all falling out but from what I've read, that's normal too.

It's interesting to watch the contrast between the different kind of birds. Thanks for all the posts.

 

[pinkwindsong]

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Oh I know what you mean, they have great big bald,,,, "Trunks" hahah... I was worried at first too with the lack of feathering but shoot feathers dont grow as fast as their weight gain.. whew.. I am Im with ya on the poo patrol.... ,,,

mine have outgrown this cage and two more and are now in a big grow out pen Ill take a pic tomorrow of it and them... would you post pics of yours as well.. yours are 3 weeks behind mine.. we've hit the can manage their own body heat stage.. yeah.. they have a dog house that they are all in tonight its going to drop in temp this weekend.. so Im glad they can snuggle up and keep warm.. I have found out that I am not good with heat lamps. huimmmm nope.. almost caught my whole coop with all my birds inside.. not good..

this would have been 2 weeks old.

)O( Pink

 

[ScottyHOMEy]

" . . . feathers dont grow as fast as their weight gain . . ."

Ayuh. For all the selective breeding that's gone into developing them, that's the one factor that hasn't been overcome. My first experience with them, their look was a little startling at that stage. I reasoned it out the sme way you did. the layers I'd bought at the same time (same hatch date) were feathering out at about the same rate with no more than the usual variance one might expect from their being of different breeds. But the CornishXs just had so many more "acres" of skin to be covered that both their down and their emerging feathers looked almost grotesquely sparse until they get serious about feathering in/over in another couple of weeks. Mine did provide the satisfaction of progressing so that they tok the appearance of a healthy, full feathered bird their last three weeks or so before going to freezer camp.

I used the cleanliness of that handsome feathering as my gauge for the frequency of coop cleaning needed. Proud to say mine were among the cleanest birds at the processors that day.