Too skinny???

[jessied1227]

I've been noticing my girls have been a bit thinner around the breastbone than I really feel they should be.

They are all 4 1/2 - 5 months old. I can clearly feel the breastbone on several of them.
We free range them through the day and give treats, plus they have free choice to layers mash 24/7. How often should they be wormed, and could this be the cause?
I just got a 50 lb bag of diatomaceous earth and plan on mixing it with their feed when I open my next 50 lb bag of layer's mash. I figured I would wait to introduce the DE until I knew I had the right mixture of 2%.
Or am I being over-worried and they are just growing girls? They are all really active and look fine.

Thanks-
Jess

 

[panner123]

Lay mash is O K, but with lay pellets you don;t watse as mush and it is the same product. My chickens seen to like it more than the mash. I don't know about anyone else but if I don't give my chickens cracked cornm they almost stop eating. The way I mix my feed is 8 bags of lay pellets, 8 ages of cracked corn and 1 bag of oster shell. Mix it all up and let them have it. With this they get any thing they can catch. They LOVE the bugs in and atound the dead trees on the side of the hill. and a grass hopper doesn't stand a change on my property. They are just like kids, the more they run aroundm the more you have to feed them.

 

[jessied1227]

Wow. What would be the parts per pound on that? Like ?? pounds pellets to, ?? pounds of cracked corn, to ??pounds of oyster shell?

And what do you all store your feed in? I am having trouble finding a suitable container large enough.

Thanks-
Jess

 

[panner123]

A bag is 50lbs., so I mix 400 lbs of lay pellets & 400 lbs of crach corn with 50 lbs of oyster shell. Because of the number of chickens I have, this last about 2 weeks. I store my feed in plastic garbage containers, each one will hold a little over 100 lbs of feed. With the lids that snap on I can keep all the animals out of it. These are the big plastic ones that hold 35 gals. They come in different colors if you want to keep your feed seperated. I mix my pellets & corn, keep the oyster shell & chick starter seperated. My chickens get the shell only to increase the egg shell strenght. They get many things from being free ranged that I have no idea what it may be. I do know they LOVE it that the black berries are now getting ripe. Bo insect of bug gets pass them.

 

[chickiebird]

I've been concerned about my girls and boy too - when I pick them up I can clearly feel their breastbones, and don't seem to have enough flesh on their chests - but what does a well-nourished chicken chest feel like? Is it normal for the breastbone to be very pronounced? My birds are silkies, and about 5-6 months old. They don't seem to eat much of their pellets - what can I feed them to put some meat on their bones?

 

[jessied1227]

Holy cow!!!

I only have 12 chickens. How many do YOU have, LOL??

Jess