Wow, that looks awful. I hope they also did a review on the McMurray site so they know and can try to do some better breeding or something. I was excited about these Delawares because they've gotten such good reviews. I wonder if this is a fluke or if it's common. Either way, I'm glad I saw this because it's something to consider when I choose my dual purpose flock one day.Curious if anyone has troubles with these Delaware
Found this on FB
Update on McMurray "Enhanced" Delaware Broilers. We processed 4 hens today at 11 months old. We raised these birds last year in hopes of a sustainable flock. They grew fast, were super easy to raise, clean, and docile. Great meat quality, and very tasty. McMurray says these birds will breed and can be raised as a sustainable flock. I'm here to tell you all, that is not the case. We kept these 4 hens back just to see how they did long term. They continued to grow, more like a meat bird than a Delaware. They were extremely fat and started showing signs of health issues recently, like poor egg quality. What I found inside was SHOCKING.
They amount of fat in their abdomen, around their intestines and their hearts was intense. All 4 had advanced fatty liver disease. The largest one had an entire lobe of her liver that was necrotic - a chunk had literally broken off and was just free in her abdomen. It was the texture of cooked liver. Another one had three to four crushed eggs in her abdomen. Not in an oviduct, just crushed, decomposing eggs in her abdomen. Several of her developping yolks were runny and off colored.
I am SO glad I processed them today. None of them were showing overt symptoms of serious disease, but these girls would have been dead with the first heat wave, if not sooner. They'd never even been through a molt. These are not birds that can survive long term. They make good meat birds but that's it.
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