Chickens not roosting

[Jungleexplorer]

It would be considered by most to be inhumain to let them live knowing that their life will be one of crippledness and suffering. I am so sorry to have to tell you this. The person who gave you these birds should have really explained this to you. These birds have been genetically bred to grow (develop body meat weight) at insane rates. As such their meat weight becomes more then their soft immature bones can bare. Have you noticed how soft the bones are on a store bought fryer? That is because that bird is really just a huge chick and not a fully matured bird. Normal chickens take almost two years to fully mature, but since they do put on weight very fast, their bones have time to grown and harden before they get too heavy. Most of these Broiler birds, like what you have, are butchered at just 2 months old. When you buy a whole frozen Tyson chicken at Walmart, that bird was no more then 2 months old when it was killed. Frankly, I am surprised your birds can even still walk at 5 months old.

I really hate that you were not aware of this and I am the one that has to be the barer of bad news. I feel for you. You can try to keep them, but it will be to watch them suffer. I have never raised these birds myself, but I assume if you cut their food down to almost starvation levels, you might keep them thin enough so they don't become crippled, but that is a total assumption on my part.

My best advice is this. Have someone else take care of the birds for you and get some other birds to raise. If you like big body birds I recommend, French Black Copper Maran or Black Jersey Giants. All the best to you.


Here are some of my birds.

Black Jersey Giants



French Black Copper Marans

 

[romeoz13]

I just watched those videos. That is exactly what the farm looks like we're we got these eggs from. My in laws have us eggs to eat. We took it upon ourselves to hatch them. We did not know this would happen. They seem happy and walk around But mostly sit around the yard. They lay eggs and pretty good size. Matter of fact they were double yolk I see because they are overweight. I guess we rest messed up this time. Now to think.....

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

I just watched those videos. That is exactly what the farm looks like we're we got these eggs from. My in laws have us eggs to eat. We took it upon ourselves to hatch them. We did not know this would happen. They seem happy and walk around But mostly sit around the yard. They lay eggs and pretty good size. Matter of fact they were double yolk I see because they are overweight. I guess we rest messed up this time. Now to think.....

This was a learning experience for you if nothing else - many people don't realize that there are such different types of chickens and/or the realities of production meat birds. *I* would keep them as long as they are acting like happy birds - control their diet, accommodate their inability to move up/down onto and off of things by providing a good "ground dwelling" setup for them and when they start to fail give them a good death. They have already had a longer, happier life with you than they'd have had in their intended setting - so take heart in that and use this as a learning experience as you move forward with your next flock of birds who are selected more to what you are wanting them to be.

 

[Ridgerunner]

This was a learning experience for you if nothing else - many people don't realize that there are such different types of chickens and/or the realities of production meat birds.  *I* would keep them as long as they are acting like happy birds - control their diet, accommodate their inability to move up/down onto and off of things by providing a good "ground dwelling" setup for them and when they start to fail give them a good death.  They have already had a longer, happier life with you than they'd have had in their intended setting - so take heart in that and use this as a learning experience as you move forward with your next flock of birds who are selected more to what you are wanting them to be.

I fully agree with this.

Obviously they are not destined to live a life of crippledness and suffering. If that were the case there would be no chickens to lay the eggs that eventually become the broilers. They have to eat enough that they stay healthy enough to lay eggs that will hatch. They can’t be starving to do that but they don’t necessarily have to pig out either.

They are at high risk and it may or may not be too late for yours, but I suggest you talk to your in-laws about how they feed them. What I suspect is that they are fed a measured amount of feed at measure intervals. You need to control how much they eat in a day. A standard way of doing that is to make sure there is sufficient room for them to all eat at the same time so a food hog can’t keep one from eating. Put out enough so that they all clean it up so they all get the right amount, then wait until they are hungry again and give them another measured portion. Your in-laws probably use a mechanical feeder on a timer to do this. You may have to be inventive.

I’d want to know the percentage protein in that feed and try to duplicate that. In a regular egg-laying flock that will be around 16% protein but yours may be a special case. I don’t know. They are special hens and maybe a lower percentage protein feed will work better.

I did not say it would be easy and I certainly cannot give you any guarantees, but after you said they are like family to you it may be worth the work.

 

[romeoz13]

Well two weeks ago we had an accident. One of the iChicks passed away, we believe she was the one who laid a "goose" egg, it was a triple yoke egg....but after what everyone explained we have prepared ourselves. Yesterday morning we had the "mama" pass away. She was the biggest of them all and even though we have prepared ourselves it hurt. I didn't know chickens could have feelings like they do. Let me explain..
I get up around 6 am, before work to check on the iChicks, I walk in their house and I see "mama" laying down in the middle not moving. I hesitated for a minute and began to stare at what was happening. Siri, which is the smallest iChick was laying cuddled up next to mama. iChick2 was laying her head on mama. iDuck was standing over them quaking. We have two others that are not like the iChicks, they are crème legbars. Sweet Pea and Daffadil were on their roost bar looking down at everything. I wanted to get everyone away from mama so I started to fill their food up and treats for the day. I even filled up the toy balls with worms for sweet pea and daffodil. Noone even moved a inch. Usually everyone is running towards me to get their treats but today they were silent in their places. It felt like they were all sad. I picked up mama to take her out of the house. I get home after work and to my surprise everyone was near each other. Their treats were almost full and the toy balls that are usually empty were nearly full. It was a bad day at the Moore's iFarm. I have realized that chickens and ducks do have feelings and they are more human than I have ever realized. When we first started to raise chickens and ducks, I for one did not know how attached we would get. This is one of the hardest things to see and I know its going to get harder down the road, especially with Siri and iChick2. Well I just wanted to share my experience with everyone and update you all.