Whats your Mortality rate. When and Why?

[Mr.Grantly]

I just got wondering today what everyones death rates are in the cornish cross birds. I am up to 8% today (4weeks) and am getting a little mad. They just drop dead. I walk through them all morning and night and everyone seems bright eyed and what not. No visible signs whats wrong so I blame every death from here on out on "heart attacks". Is there any way to tell if thats the case ? Has anyone documented a difference between full feed and restricted feed and death rates?

Grant

 

[chickenbike]

I am curious about this as well because I just had two die in the last two days.

 

[cassie]

We lose about 10% to 15% but we keep them longer than most people do. We butcher them at 10 to 12 weeks of age because we like BIG roasters and we lose some because of this. Any chicken that has trouble getting around is processed at once though. We feed ours 12 on and 12 off because that is what the hatchery says to do and we use broiler vitamins in the water. I imagine you would lose more this time of year because of the heat. We raise ours in the fall and winter. Hope this helps.

 

[Bossroo]

We sometimes have a chick dead on arrival or a day later on orders of 25 at a time. Two years ago, we lost 7 in one day when the temperatures reached 117* ( for 10 days the temps ranged from 114*-117*). I have misters inside my barn that drop the temeratures down at least 10*++. I feed them just as recommended by the suppliers... 12 hours of full feed during the day then 12 hours without feed at night, and I add vitamins to their water. I have no problems loosing them to heart attacks or leg problems as some have reported. I raise them inside my barn only because we have way to many predators ( many loose dogs, cougars, bobcats, coyotes by the dozens, raccons, possums, hawks, etc.) to even consider to raise them outside. However, even then, I seem to have a 100% mortality rate starting at 1 1/2 lbs., 6 weeks, and 8 weeks of age. A few even made it to 12 weeks before they lost their heads. Come to think of it, we used to have the same 100% death rate with our RIR and BR's, but they succumbed due to loss of heads at 12 - 20 weeks of age.

 

[Rolsjo]

We received our first meat birds 5 1/2 weeks ago. 26 arrived 2 days after hatching and we lost one to shipping stress. The other 25 are still doing great.

I know we're getting close to the time when heart or leg problems will arise, but we're hopeful that we can keep them going another week to 10 days without problems. We also feed on a 12 on/12 off schedule and they live in the barn with some free range time during the day.

So to sum up, at 5 1/2 weeks our rate is less than 4%.

 

[max13077]

Mine will be 11 weeks old on Friday and I have lost 0 out of 25.

 

[jaku]

I didn't lose any out of the 53 I did this spring. I culled two, because they were acting sick, and I didn't know if it was just leg problems or an actual sickness, so they had to go. I attribute my successful batch of birds to doing them early in the year, before the heat came, and buying mill-ground food.

 

[R@ndy]

I have herd a bit of Bayer aspirin help them

 

[UncleHoot]

I lost 10 of 150 this last batch, or 7%. The last one died just hours before I could get them to the processor (easy way out).

I think I lost about 5 as chicks and the other 5 for "no apparent reason", which I suppose is a heart attack, but I've never confirmed it.

I raised them to 8 1/2 weeks.

 

[justpete]

I lost one of my 50 meat birds.

I will process them of Saturday at 9 weeks two days.

This has been a very good batch of birds for me.
The cool temps have helped a lot.


Peter