Unusual crop findings??

[Buffalowingz]

Hi y'all I slaughtered for the first time. The birds slaughtered were two of my too many roosters. When I cut off the crop while cleaning them they both had a crop and stomach full of corn and packed with the shavings that is used for thier bedding. Is this normal for them to consume so much of thier bedding? I'm wondering if this is why they were slightly underweight as they had an excellent diet. They were 5 months old however. Now my dilemma is figuring out if I should continue to use the shavings for the rest of my little flock. Thanks for any input.

 

[Squishychicken]

What are the type of shavins your usin

 

[Buffalowingz]

Pine

 

[azygous]

Did the crop contents smell rank, sort of like sauerkraut? What are you feeding these meat birds? Is it free choice or do you ration feed? Do you have feeders that contain the feed or does a lot get beaked out onto the ground?

How about drinking water? Is it available all the time in a convenient spot? Is it clean and fresh?

 

[Buffalowingz]

Did the crop contents smell rank, sort of like sauerkraut? What are you feeding these meat birds? Is it free choice or do you ration feed? Do you have feeders that contain the feed or does a lot get beaked out onto the ground?

How about drinking water? Is it available all the time in a convenient spot? Is it clean and fresh?

There was no unusual smell, they get their regular scratch plus whole corn without rationing anything and lots of clean drinking water is always available in the coop. They did pick and scratch at the floor in the coop a lot.

 

[crazy4ChickensNducks]

There was no unusual smell, they get their regular scratch plus whole corn without rationing anything and lots of clean drinking water is always available in the coop. They did pick and scratch at the floor in the coop a lot.

So all your feeding is scratch and corn?

 

[azygous]

If you're using shavings in the coop or wherever they have their feeders, I suggest sand as a substrate. I went to sand in my coops and runs several years ago, and I am very happy with it. If anything edible is on the sand, they eat that and not the shavings.

 

[Buffalowingz]

So all your feeding is scratch and corn?

They got fresh veggies and some table scraps sometimes but the main diet was thier chicken feed scratch and whole corn

 

[crazy4ChickensNducks]

Could you post a link or add a picture of your feed please?

 

[123RedBeard]

I'm guessing these weren't "meat birds" ... but rather extra cockrells, what breed?

Sounds like they were hungry ... they should have been fed a "grower" type feed, or "all flock" ... scratch doesn't have enough protein, and no added vitamins and minerals added ... probably says somewhere on the bag "not a complete feed" and/or "feed as a treat sparingly"