Concerned about hens

[Elmien]

Good day. My hens eat very well. I give them laying pellets, seeds and a vegetable every day. However their chest bones are very pronounced. A vet told me the other day that it is a concern but nothing else.
My one hen weighs 2.2 kg which I understand is a good weight. Why is her chest bones still so pronounces? What can I feed them to make sure they maintain a healthy weight?
(My girls are pets and not for meat production so I only ask as a concern hen mom)

 

[Shadrach]

It's quite normal for the keel bone to be prominent. Healthy hens do not carry the same breast weight as those mass produced for meat for example.

 

[Elmien]

That's very good news, thank you. I feel at ease now. That vet then obviously are used to poultry bred for meat.

 

[Ebony Rose]

You can tell a lot about the health of a chicken in how they stand and walk. If yours are actively scratching around looking for delicious bugs and such, have clean butt feathers, and don't seem to be moping (wings kinda saggy, head hanging down or off in some corner by themselves as if sulking), they're usually in good shape.

 

[Elmien]

Wonderful, that's good to hear. My girls are all very happy, busy and chatty. They love to explore and peck and scratch around. The one had a bad chest infection so I took her to the vet for antibiotics and she recovered fully. It was that vet that told me that it is not healthy for the chest bone to be so prominent.

 

[Ebony Rose]

Compare her bones to other hens in your flock perhaps, that should give you the truth of the matter. If they're all acting happy and they're all as 'bony', then chalk the vet's words up to being over exposed to meat birds

 

[Elmien]

Yes all of them are 'bony'. So I agree that the vet just don't understand pet hens. But at least she knew chickens in general to treat her correctly for the chest infection. Thanx for everybody's imput

 

[Willowspirit]

Yes all of them are 'bony'. So I agree that the vet just don't understand pet hens. But at least she knew chickens in general to treat her correctly for the chest infection. Thanx for everybody's imput

And you are fortunate to have a vet that will see and treat chickens at all i think.

 

[Elmien]

Definitely. We do not have many of them.

 

[Alaskan]

Good day. My hens eat very well. I give them laying pellets, seeds and a vegetable every day. However their chest bones are very pronounced. A vet told me the other day that it is a concern but nothing else.
My one hen weighs 2.2 kg which I understand is a good weight. Why is her chest bones still so pronounces? What can I feed them to make sure they maintain a healthy weight?
(My girls are pets and not for meat production so I only ask as a concern hen mom)

Do they get to eat as much of the layer feed as they want? Is it left out all day for them to free feed?

Feel all of your girls. A healthy layer should be close to picture 2. Picture 0 is underweight, and 3 is overweight. 1 isn't too bad... but picture 2 is the goal.

(Diagram from Chickens for Dummies)