Chicken sadness

Its been a tough week- more for the new chicks than for us despite my efforts to keep them alive. Last Wednesday was the fateful day that 50 cornish rock chickens (along with 4 turkeys, 15 Buff Orpingtons, and 25 red broilers) were hatched, placed in a box and shipped to us. 2 other families had their order in with ours to save on shipping. I picked them up at the post office early Friday morning. I got home and opened the box to find one of the cornish rocks already dead. I divided up the rest of the birds according to the 3 separate orders and in so doing noticed 2 more cornish rocks looking rather poorly. I quickly created a “hospital” out of a laundry basket but to no avail… they both died that night. In the course of the last week 28 of the 50 cornish rocks have died. The other breeds are doing fine though. I’ve had 1 chicken and 2 turkeys become “spraddle legged” where they slip when walking and tendons in one leg tear making them unable to stand. After loosing the first turkey, I did some research and learned that tieing their legs together helps them to stand, hop and eat until the tendons can heal. So, I now have the chicken and other turkey with pretty purple ribbons tied around their ankles. A man from the hatchery (someone with all knowledge and no diplomacy) just called and said that cornish rocks are hard to ship though couldn’t explain why we’ve never had a problem before. We were already doing an experiment between the red broilers (a less hybridized breed) and the cornish rocks (the commercial standard meat bird). I think the red broilers are going to be OUR standard from now on!