"Louisiana "La-yers" Peeps"

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Hello JD welcome to the Layers thread.
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Cody we had a couple of our CX that we let go to about 9 weeks or so and they were already at 10lbs They were on restricted time schedule for their food. Fermented feed is what they were on until the last 2 weeks when we added increasing amounts of scratch to add a bit of extra fat on them. MAN were those delicious chickens! We soaked all of them in water/sea salt brine for a couple days. We then rinsed well, drained and froze the ones we weren't eating right away. The worst part about them is the quantity of poop. So keeping them clean needs constant monitoring. They just lay asking mostly, so if it's poopy they could get tender skin on their breast where they rest...... Hardly any feathers to protect their skin. I even have some a bath towards the end one time because even with constantly taking care of bedding and surroundings they just got gross. Barely feathered, clean pink butts lined up in the shade on the grass, just chilling. Very comical. Also watch the bottoms of their feet towards the end....6 weeks and on. Sometimes even with restricting eating time they got pressure sores on the bottoms of their feet from just being so heavy. We never had any problems with bones though. I think the vitamins and the fermented feed helped out a lot with that.
 
So my terrible looking little broody Cochin hen has continued to have her feathers in an awful state. She was relentlessly broody. And she just was not getting any of her feathers back in. She had lost or broken off all her tail feathers and all on her head and part of her neck. Some in my family were even urging me to cull her, saying she must have bad feather quality that was just showing up now that she is getting a bit of age on her. She did look a FRIGHT! But I just couldn't cull her, and I had suspicions about why her feathers were like that. I kept watch on her weight, skin, have her vitamins and made sure that she never had any parasites. Anyone that didn't know how closely I watched her would have thought she had a terrible case of feather eating mites. Finally (since my girls I want to hatch eggs from are molting instead of laying) I decided to break the broody, by putting her up in a different cage. Completely different surroundings. Boy was she MAD!!! 3 days up there.. I could see her mood change. Tiny points started showing in her skin and I knew my suspicions had been correct. Fiercely broody to the point that she has not come completely out of that hormonal state. Every single time I have a broody hatch out eggs, 2 days later they are dropping feathers like crazy, feathers everywhere! And then they take care of their babies and grow in their new feathers and everyone is good. But for some reason this time she had not made that hormonal transition. The good new is that even more if her feathers are flying everywhere. And she is covered in pin feathers and eating like a piggy. We have her a once over yesterday and she still was losing more. She is going to look like a new girl in a few weeks!

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This girl is not going to be allowed to be hanging out in that nest box until she is good and feathered.
 
Long day here. I didn't feel well enough to do anything but wander around the house and yard. I moved a section of boards and cooked a good supper, but that was just about it.

The weather was perfect, though! Warm enough to burn off some of the mosquitoes, but not muggy at all. Mr. Camping started work on a tractor for the camp chicks. It's basically going to be a "playpen" for a few to live in at a time, so the kids can see them more often. Everyone else will live in the "ugly" tractor, I think. We'll see. Next year I'm getting the big coop, no matter how many fits I have to pitch. :p

Going to work on some crochet now. I just can't bring myself to do the laundry or dishes today.
 
LemonMeringue said:
Cody we had a couple of our CX that we let go to about 9 weeks or so and they were already at 10lbs They were on restricted time schedule for their food. Fermented feed is what they were on until the last 2 weeks when we added increasing amounts of scratch to add a bit of extra fat on them. MAN were those delicious chickens! We soaked all of them in water/sea salt brine for a couple days. We then rinsed well, drained and froze the ones we weren't eating right away. The worst part about them is the quantity of poop. So keeping them clean needs constant monitoring. They just lay asking mostly, so if it's poopy they could get tender skin on their breast where they rest...... Hardly any feathers to protect their skin. I even have some a bath towards the end one time because even with constantly taking care of bedding and surroundings they just got gross. Barely feathered, clean pink butts lined up in the shade on the grass, just chilling. Very comical. Also watch the bottoms of their feet towards the end....6 weeks and on. Sometimes even with restricting eating time they got pressure sores on the bottoms of their feet from just being so heavy. We never had any problems with bones though. I think the vitamins and the fermented feed helped out a lot with that.
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Lemon thank you for clueing me in on what to look for. I've read a little on restricted feeding of these birds. Up to three weeks old I let them have all the food they want then 12hrs on and 12 off is this right? I read to start them off on high protein. I bought a bag of 24% game bird starter. Is that too high? I can mix this bag with 20% chick starter if I need to. I wasn't planning to ferment the feed. I'm going to try to let them out to range as much as possible. I'm glad I only have 15 birds the amount off poop doesn't sound nice.

Oh yea, that's interesting about your broody hen. I learned a lot from your posts.
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Cody A said:
Lemon thank you for clueing me in on what to look for. I've read a little on restricted feeding of these birds. Up to three weeks old I let them have all the food they want then 12hrs on and 12 off is this right? I read to start them off on high protein. I bought a bag of 24% game bird starter. Is that too high? I can mix this bag with 20% chick starter if I need to. I wasn't planning to ferment the feed. I'm going to try to let them out to range as much as possible. I'm glad I only have 15 birds the amount off poop doesn't sound nice.

Oh yea, that's interesting about your broody hen. I learned a lot from your posts. :)
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We also have used the higher protein. I think it helps with their bones. If you don't ferment and you get too much waste you could just put the amount you want to feed with water. And since they tend to pig out as soon as you put down the feed damp food would be less likely to cause them to choke on it. We started restricting by about 14 days. You will see why we did once you see how fast they grow! Lol. I tended to put out feed at 8am and they would eat and rest then get up to clean up the remaining food. I put down more at about 4pm which they were able to get cleaned up by 7pm. Along the way we just adjusted the amounts according to their appetite so they stayed in that time schedule. I used a vitamin every time from McMurray hatchery that is made for the meat birds. Maybe you could look that up on their website to get an idea what is in it. I think that is what helped us not have any skeletal problems. But I bet Poultry Red Cell or Poultry Nutri-Drench would work just as well. TSC has those at most stores.
 

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