One of our chickens is really fat, she's a dual-purpose breed (Barred Plymouth Rock) but is only going to be used for 4-H, being a pet, and egg-laying. She's not very friendly and gets stressed out when we try to get her some more exercise. Almost none of our other chickens are this fat! She weighs about 7 pounds. The others are about 5-6 pounds. Any Ideas?
What breeds are the others? She might just be bigger because of what breed she is.
For Barred Rock hens, the American Poultry Association says the ideal weight is 7 1/2 pounds. Of course not all of them do weigh exactly that much, because some just are bigger or smaller even when they are not too fat or too skinny.
Adult chickens come in many sizes. For comparison, here are the ideal weights for hens of a few other breeds:
Brahma, 9 1/2 pounds
Rhode Island Red, 6 1/2 pounds
Blue Andalusian, 5 1/2 pounds
Leghorn, 4 1/2 pounds
Hamburg, 4 pounds
(I actually got those weights from hatchery websites, but I've checked before and they are quoting the American Poultry Association. The chickens sold by the hatcheries are often a bit off in size: the small breeds tend to be bigger than they should be, and the large breeds tend to be smaller than they should be.)
She's not very friendly and gets stressed out when we try to get her some more exercise.... Any Ideas?
More exercise is probably fine, whether she is actually fat or not.
If the chickens are allowed out to free range, they will tend to get more exercise while wandering around and foraging, as compared with what they get when they are shut in a coop and run. I don't know whether that is a possibility for your flock or not. If they must stay inside a run, then giving them things to do in the run can encourage exercise.
Chickens like to scratch around looking for things to eat. You might try giving the whole flock more things to scratch in. For example, considering what time of year it is, maybe give them a big pile of dead leaves in their run. They can dig around and re-arrange the leaves over and over, getting a lot of exercise. They will eat little bugs and tiny bits of leaves, but should not get enough to cause any problems. (I would not recommend giving "scratch grains" to encourage exercise, because those usually cause a lot of eating and very little actual scratching!)
You can also check what you are feeding them. It usually works best to feed a complete chicken feed, as much as they want to eat, and avoid or strictly limit high-calorie treats (like corn or "scratch" or mealworms.) It should be fine to give greens and vegetables and things like that (low-calorie plant foods), as much as you or the chickens want. High protein foods are fine if they are low in fat, but don't give high-fat foods if you are worried about chickens being overweight (Mealworms are an example of a food that is high in both protein and fat. Fish is an example of a food high in protein but usually low in fat.)
