North 40 chicks

[Tallahassee]

I recently purchased 60 cornish cross meat birds from North 40 and I have had an alarming high death rate (1/3). Had anyone else experience this issue too?

 

[Pyxis]

It looks like North 40 is a feed store, right? If so, when did you buy them, and when they did they all start dying? There's been a ban on shipping live animals due to the weather and a package backlog, but the feed store I work in part time got their chicks in anyway, somehow. We've had several die as a result.

Also important is to check for things like pasty butt on chicks which have been shipped, since that will kill them if not caught in time.

So if your brooder setup is good, they have a warm area that's the appropriate temperature and a cooler area to get away from the heat when needed, and also food and water, and proper bedding (not cedar), then I would think it might have been shipping stress. Also make sure, if you're using a heat lamp, that it's not a 'shatter-proof' heat lamp as the fumes from those will kill birds.

 

[Tallahassee]

It looks like North 40 is a feed store, right? If so, when did you buy them, and when they did they all start dying? There's been a ban on shipping live animals due to the weather and a package backlog, but the feed store I work in part time got their chicks in anyway, somehow. We've had several die as a result.

Also important is to check for things like pasty butt on chicks which have been shipped, since that will kill them if not caught in time.

So if your brooder setup is good, they have a warm area that's the appropriate temperature and a cooler area to get away from the heat when needed, and also food and water, and proper bedding (not cedar), then I would think it might have been shipping stress. Also make sure, if you're using a heat lamp, that it's not a 'shatter-proof' heat lamp as the fumes from those will kill birds.

N 40 is a farm and ranch store. They took over Big R if your familiar with them. I purchased our chicks yesterday and the most of the chicks died same day. I am figuring that the breed was not a good one and finding a hardier meat bird breed might be a better way to go. All of the laying birds we bought seen to be thriving and non have died so far.