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Very helpful conversation, thanks everyone.
I bag and collect my dry leaves in the fall and start out with a fairly large stash each fall (several dozen bags). Then I periodically dump a new bag in the run, for the chickens to enjoy. It keeps them busy for a while. I do this year round. In the summer I do the same with lawn clippings and other yard waste.
The way I use scratch is actually to encourage the hens to move more, and simulate foraging behavior. I don't use much - just one handful - but I scatter it all over the run, so they have to go and look for it. My run has a lot of logs and things, and a shrub, so the chickens have to go under, over and around things. They will turn the bedding upside down inch by inch looking for every lost grain of scratch, and will do this all afternoon, just in case they missed some
I'm not sure if the calories from the scratch cancel out the exercise of foraging for it, but that's the most reliable way to get them to move. I have built a jungle gym for them, but they are too lazy to use it... Sometimes I will tie a bunch of greens or hang a treat cage with lettuce in it somewhere on a higher branch, so they have to go up there to eat it. In the summer I cut branches from my yard and tie them up to the jungle gym, for the chickens to climb up and forage for greenery.
The ball of fat - oh definitely, that's where it goes! I need to fondle their butts and see if I can feel it from the outside. Once I cut a chicken up it's very obvious, but it can be hard to feel from the outside. If the fat only collected there, it probably wouldn't be such a big problem, but they also store fat on the liver and that's what scares me, because it can be fatal, and you can't feel for that from the outside.
The vet... I am not happy with this vet for many reasons (not just chicken-related, with my cat too). She was so set on this number, and that weight was the only way to truly judge if a chicken is fat. When, as you have all pointed out, weight is so relative and depends on so many things. She can say that it's just hard to tell if a chicken is fat, and offer other methods - like feeling for the fat deposit on the butt (lower abdomen). But she said no, over 7lbs is fat... which was a red flag to me. Another thing that she said which I find odd, is how much chickens should eat per day. She said I should isolate the "fat" hen with the health problem and put her on a diet, and that I should restrict her feed to 2 cups per day. That seemed way too much to me, so I asked her to clarify - cups, as in the measuring unit of cup? And she said yes. When I went home I weighed the crumble. Every recommendation I find online says something along the lines of 4 oz per chicken per day, or at most 4-6 oz. Well 2 cups weighs 10 oz!!! So to put her "on a diet", I need to feed this hen twice the usually recommended amount? I'm having a hard time trusting anything this vet has to say. So I'm back to square one as to whether my chickens are actually fat or not. I'm thinking of contacting their breeder and asking what his hens of this breed normally weigh when full grown...
I bag and collect my dry leaves in the fall and start out with a fairly large stash each fall (several dozen bags). Then I periodically dump a new bag in the run, for the chickens to enjoy. It keeps them busy for a while. I do this year round. In the summer I do the same with lawn clippings and other yard waste.
The way I use scratch is actually to encourage the hens to move more, and simulate foraging behavior. I don't use much - just one handful - but I scatter it all over the run, so they have to go and look for it. My run has a lot of logs and things, and a shrub, so the chickens have to go under, over and around things. They will turn the bedding upside down inch by inch looking for every lost grain of scratch, and will do this all afternoon, just in case they missed some
I'm not sure if the calories from the scratch cancel out the exercise of foraging for it, but that's the most reliable way to get them to move. I have built a jungle gym for them, but they are too lazy to use it... Sometimes I will tie a bunch of greens or hang a treat cage with lettuce in it somewhere on a higher branch, so they have to go up there to eat it. In the summer I cut branches from my yard and tie them up to the jungle gym, for the chickens to climb up and forage for greenery.The ball of fat - oh definitely, that's where it goes! I need to fondle their butts and see if I can feel it from the outside. Once I cut a chicken up it's very obvious, but it can be hard to feel from the outside. If the fat only collected there, it probably wouldn't be such a big problem, but they also store fat on the liver and that's what scares me, because it can be fatal, and you can't feel for that from the outside.
The vet... I am not happy with this vet for many reasons (not just chicken-related, with my cat too). She was so set on this number, and that weight was the only way to truly judge if a chicken is fat. When, as you have all pointed out, weight is so relative and depends on so many things. She can say that it's just hard to tell if a chicken is fat, and offer other methods - like feeling for the fat deposit on the butt (lower abdomen). But she said no, over 7lbs is fat... which was a red flag to me. Another thing that she said which I find odd, is how much chickens should eat per day. She said I should isolate the "fat" hen with the health problem and put her on a diet, and that I should restrict her feed to 2 cups per day. That seemed way too much to me, so I asked her to clarify - cups, as in the measuring unit of cup? And she said yes. When I went home I weighed the crumble. Every recommendation I find online says something along the lines of 4 oz per chicken per day, or at most 4-6 oz. Well 2 cups weighs 10 oz!!! So to put her "on a diet", I need to feed this hen twice the usually recommended amount? I'm having a hard time trusting anything this vet has to say. So I'm back to square one as to whether my chickens are actually fat or not. I'm thinking of contacting their breeder and asking what his hens of this breed normally weigh when full grown...
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Apart from the does my arse look big to you honey when having those hen only grooming sessions.
Even an hour a day can make a difference if you ensure they keep moving and forage. I take the allotment chickens around the allotments and I herd them so they keep moving. Most of the time the opportunity to explore the next foraging opportunity keeps them on the go.
