Does Anyone Know a Worry-Free Way to Exercise Obese Chickens?

[SpeckySussex]

One of our chickens is really fat, she's a dual-purpose breed (Barred Plymouth Rock) but is only going to be used for 4-H, being a pet, and egg-laying. She's not very friendly and gets stressed out when we try to get her some more exercise. Almost none of our other chickens are this fat! She weighs about 7 pounds. The others are about 5-6 pounds. Any Ideas?

 

[NatJ]

One of our chickens is really fat, she's a dual-purpose breed (Barred Plymouth Rock) but is only going to be used for 4-H, being a pet, and egg-laying. She's not very friendly and gets stressed out when we try to get her some more exercise. Almost none of our other chickens are this fat! She weighs about 7 pounds. The others are about 5-6 pounds. Any Ideas?

What breeds are the others? She might just be bigger because of what breed she is.

For Barred Rock hens, the American Poultry Association says the ideal weight is 7 1/2 pounds. Of course not all of them do weigh exactly that much, because some just are bigger or smaller even when they are not too fat or too skinny.

Adult chickens come in many sizes. For comparison, here are the ideal weights for hens of a few other breeds:
Brahma, 9 1/2 pounds
Rhode Island Red, 6 1/2 pounds
Blue Andalusian, 5 1/2 pounds
Leghorn, 4 1/2 pounds
Hamburg, 4 pounds

(I actually got those weights from hatchery websites, but I've checked before and they are quoting the American Poultry Association. The chickens sold by the hatcheries are often a bit off in size: the small breeds tend to be bigger than they should be, and the large breeds tend to be smaller than they should be.)

She's not very friendly and gets stressed out when we try to get her some more exercise.... Any Ideas?

More exercise is probably fine, whether she is actually fat or not.

If the chickens are allowed out to free range, they will tend to get more exercise while wandering around and foraging, as compared with what they get when they are shut in a coop and run. I don't know whether that is a possibility for your flock or not. If they must stay inside a run, then giving them things to do in the run can encourage exercise.

Chickens like to scratch around looking for things to eat. You might try giving the whole flock more things to scratch in. For example, considering what time of year it is, maybe give them a big pile of dead leaves in their run. They can dig around and re-arrange the leaves over and over, getting a lot of exercise. They will eat little bugs and tiny bits of leaves, but should not get enough to cause any problems. (I would not recommend giving "scratch grains" to encourage exercise, because those usually cause a lot of eating and very little actual scratching!)

You can also check what you are feeding them. It usually works best to feed a complete chicken feed, as much as they want to eat, and avoid or strictly limit high-calorie treats (like corn or "scratch" or mealworms.) It should be fine to give greens and vegetables and things like that (low-calorie plant foods), as much as you or the chickens want. High protein foods are fine if they are low in fat, but don't give high-fat foods if you are worried about chickens being overweight (Mealworms are an example of a food that is high in both protein and fat. Fish is an example of a food high in protein but usually low in fat.)

 

[SpeckySussex]

What breeds are the others? She might just be bigger because of what breed she is.

Sorry, When I said others, I meant the other Barred Rocks....
We also have Brown Leghorns, Light Brahmas, and Speckled Sussex.

 

[SpeckySussex]

Also, I was told by a friend that when a chicken is too fat you can barely feel their pelvic bone and feel fat around it, which we can....
I'm not expert though so I won't be too surprised to be proven wrong....

 

[NatJ]

Sorry, When I said others, I meant the other Barred Rocks....
We also have Brown Leghorns, Light Brahmas, and Speckled Sussex.

It is common for there to be differences even among chickens of the same breed.

Also, I was told by a friend that when a chicken is too fat you can barely feel their pelvic bone and feel fat around it, which we can....
I'm not expert though so I won't be too surprised to be proven wrong....

Chickens usually do store their fat in the abdomen, especially just under the skin, so that might be correct.

If she is too fat, exercise will probably help her.
If she is not actually fat, exercise will probably not hurt her.
The same goes for the other chickens in the flock.
So either way, it should be fine to encourage exercise by things that affect the whole flock.

I don't know of any way to cause just one chicken to get much extra exercise. I don't think chasing her around would be a good idea. Using some kind of treat to encourage her to follow you might give her exercise, but it sounds like this particular chicken wouldn't want to follow you anyway. If you do try it, the "treat" should be something low-calorie like greens, or try making some of the normal food into wet mash by adding water. Most chickens love wet mash, and will eagerly follow a bowl of it, but it doesn't make them fat because it's just the normal food (and they eat less dry food if they ate more wet food, so it usually comes out to the same amount by the end of the day.)

 

[K0k0shka]

You can add some "exercise" by hanging a desirable but low-calorie treat (like lettuce or cabbage) somewhere hard to reach, where the chickens would have to jump or climb to get to it.

 

[Ursuline Chick]

Here, when we have St. Patrick's Day parades, cabbages are thrown from the floats. It's not uncommon to catch bags full of them. Enough to make sauerkraut, give some to homeless shelters, stuff some to freeze, and keep some for chicken ball.
DH drills a hole in the cabbage and we hang it just high enough that chickens have to jump a little to get a bite. It is really funny when a few of them are trying to bite the cabbage and it is swinging all over the place. It does keep them moving around.

 

[SpeckySussex]

Thanks!

 

[saysfaa]

You can move her around without chasing her by working the edge of her flight zone.

Find how close you can get without her moving away, then kinda press there. Just enough that she drifts off. The pressing may not be moving closer. Instead, it may be looking more directly at her or standing more squarely facing her or raising an arm a bit.

If you do it slowly enough, she will get tamer eventually.

The downside is this is quite time consuming.