Could my chickens be too fat?

[ziggywiggy]

I recently butchered one of my roosters and was blown away by how much fat was in him. His quizzard was covered in fat and his abdomen had a solid chunk about 1/4" thick and as large as my hand.
I'd be happy if I were raising them to eat but, that is not my goal now.
I'm feeding them Flock Raiser-20% protien. Should I be concerned, or as my wife suggests, do they put on excess fat during the winter? Can chickens get too fat?

 

[Hollywood Chickens]

are they free range?

 

[Wifezilla]

Fat like that usually comes from a lot of corn. Are they also getting a lot of scratch?

 

[ziggywiggy]

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Three hours a day but, there's not that much to eat free range now.

 

[ziggywiggy]

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Not really. A 50lb bag of scratch lasts 4 turkeys, 2 guineas and 18 chickens over a month. I just feed it more as a treat than anything. Of course, the roosters do seem to eat more than everyone else.

 

[davidb]

maybe your just giving them a little to much of everything

 

[ziggywiggy]

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Maybe. But some people provide food 24 seven. I know what you're saying. I do give them table scraps. For some reason I thought they knew when to stop.

 

[Wifezilla]

Corn causes them to eat more than they need while storing body fat around the internal organs.

 

[phalenbeck]

One fat boy may not be a trend. I have one porker girl.

 

[BarkerChickens]

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I agree. We butchered 22 roosters this summer. One was full of fat, but he was the only one. In addition, he did not look overweight whatsoever (alive or plucked). His gizzard was covered in a thick layer of fat (probably similar to what you saw) and he had lots of fat around all of his organs. We figured that either he was eating well (though normal weight?) or maybe just genetically predisposed to being fatty.

What breed was he?