Underweight or not?

[drm315]

I just got my three ladies last Saturday from a local hatchery. They are around 18 weeks. This is my first experience owning chickens and I feel like I need some advice. I want to know if my chickens look like they weigh a decent weight? They look healthy to me and are eating their food, and others extras very well. I went to pick them up last night to put them in their coop (they are getting used to living in a coop) and they just felt really thin...I could feel their breastbone. Is that normal? These are Golden Comets by the way. After looking at my pictures, can you tell if they look like a "healthy" weight?

 

[Erica]

Hi drm315,
at that age, most production layers are very light-weight. They do put on a bit more weight as they mature, but a lot of that depends what you feed them.
I would give them another month or two to muscle up a bit more, then have a feel. I have those breeds too and mine are feeling fairly weighty at around the 24 week mark.
cheers
Erica

 

[drm315]

Thanks Erica...that makes me feel somewhat better. I'll keep an eye on them!!

 

[aggiemae]

We have two Buff Oprs that started out the exact same size and now one is a lot larger than the other but they are both incredibility healthy so I decided not to worry. I do notice that the smaller one, who BTW is an enthusiastic eater, is far more active and jumpy than any of our other chickens. Since our most layed back chicken is the largest of the flock maybe Henny Penny's high strung/busy temperament uses more calories?