Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

This was weird, I let them out of their coop this morning, the usual rush- the rooster looked fine and was doing his hen dance. I went into the barn to get some scratch and by the time I went back out, there he was on his back. At first I thought he was dust bathing (odd), but then he twitched and his eyes closed- all the other chickens were looking at him, they knew something was wrong. :sad: I'm guessing heart attack- no other signs or symptoms. I knew the cornish cross did this, but a 6 month old dark cornish? Is a bad heart prevalent in the pure breed? Are they not a long lived breed? I'm very sad about this, but I'm grateful that I didn't hatch out any chicks from him. Interestingly he was the smallest and lightest of the roosters and actually a poor representative of the breed. But he was gorgeous all the same.
Slim .
On the plus side the hens will probably be happier with just the Buckeye rooster, as will the Buckeye rooster.

Sorry to hear his. Look for a bluish tinge to the comb and wattles, can be a sign of heart attack in birds.

Thanks KB I didn't think to look for that. But I'll carefully look at my Cornish hens to see if any combs don't look right, in case they have bad hearts too.

sorry to hear....the fact that he was on his back means it was definitely a heart attack....it's called "flip over disease" in the meaties. it's a classic heart attack symptom in the birds. they duck their heads, and roll forwards and because they don't catch themselves they end up feet up in the air...they're gone before they finish the "flip". i lost a cornish that way. and my first ever group of meat birds i lost all 16 turning on the light one evening, scared them, every single one of them flipped. i autopsied several, and all had ischemic hearts-heart attacks.

Was he flopping around? I'm thinking either heart attack or choked to death on a pebble or something. Only way to know for sure is to necropsy if it was choking or heart attack it will be easy to tell. Yes, heart attacks happen occasionally in standard Cornish, or any other breed, and it does tend to run in families.

He went pretty peacefully so I don't think he was choking. I'll have to be vigilant and gallop any future breeders around the paddock. It just came out of the blue (no pun intended) he looked so healthy, there was absolutely no indication he had any trouble at all but I'll watch carefully from now on.
WLLady that must have been dreadful- losing all of them :-(

It's so unfair! I hate culling, and the one rooster I WANT has to drop dead. Not the ones I don't want! AArgggghh.

Sorry for your loss Robbie. Are your hens related to him?

Ugh!! Sorry to hear this. I know you love your Cornish birds and big plans for him.

Dark cornish? If my project ever gets off the ground and successfully hatches anything i can save a cockerel for you....

Thanks Cuttlefish, Sandy and WLLady. The hens came from the same hatching eggs so it's likely there is some relationship. WLLady perhaps in the future I will take you up on your offer- he was just so beautiful, I miss seeing him in the yard.