putting weight on?

[asthrngal89]

I recently threw two roosters out of my april hatchlings out of my coop to free range ..they were keeping my girls from eating food!! They would literally lie dwn beside te feeder and guard it! Now im trying to put a good amount of weight back on them before the cold weather sets in.. u can feel breast bones when picked up! So picked up some cracked corn to add to their feed.. will this help? I was als thinking n getting bread at discount to feed them too..they get veggie scraps almost daily along with feed .. help??! Thanks in advance!

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

I recently threw two roosters out of my april hatchlings out of my coop to free range ..they were keeping my girls from eating food!! They would literally lie dwn beside te feeder and guard it! Now im trying to put a good amount of weight back on them before the cold weather sets in.. u can feel breast bones when picked up! So picked up some cracked corn to add to their feed.. will this help? I was als thinking n getting bread at discount to feed them too..they get veggie scraps almost daily along with feed .. help??! Thanks in advance!

Adding corn is not going to be beneficial - it is lacking in the key components you want to put healthy condition back into these birds -- same with bread. To recondition these birds from the neglect they have been through you want to use a quality feed program with nutritionally dense feed. I would suggest a meat bird feed, game bird feed, etc.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I feed black oil sunflower seeds mixed with cracked corn, I use it as scratch, I agree with providing a good quality high protein ration, throw out some of the scratch twice a day, a handful, corn will add carbs and sunflower seeds give them added fat. Young laying hen shouldn't feel fat, or really any laying hen should be fat, so maybe your girls are okay.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Wait - which birds are you reconditioning? I first read it as you were trying to recondition the cockerels - is it the layers?

 

[asthrngal89]

All silkie hens I threw the two roosters out after finding them hogging the food

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

All silkie hens I threw the two roosters out after finding them hogging the food

Your solution seems rather short sighted and reactionary. Are the cockerels also silkies? What is your long-term plan to house everyone appropriately? How much space and how many birds, total, are you dealing with? Placing at least three feeding stations and locating them such that the two males can not possibly control all three at one time, cross fencing your enclosure, selling/re-homing the cockerels or constructing a second housing unit to serve as a bachelor pad would all be more appropriate solutions to the issue you were seeing.