Eating a lot!! why?

[rcentner]

I got 2 leghorns (the guy said about 4 months old), they lay eggs already and 1 still has a straight comb that hasn't flopped over yet. They eat waaaaayy more than my other hens. Pretty much all day they are at the feeder chowing down the layena (crumble). The 6 chickens there are with are very heavy chickens (wyandottes and barred rocks) and those chickens don't eat nearly as much. The leghorns seems to be healthy..a little small, and they were debeaked at the hatchery (I guess).

Is it cause they were underweight when I got them and they are making up for lost time. I think they were fed pellet and maybe had a hard time eating the pellet since I noticed that they can't eat the large pieces of corn. The poor hens were in a really large flock with dirty water (not just the usual dirt that occurs over a day or 2) and I have no idea how they ate except the free range goodies they could pick up.
I dewormed them with wazine a few weeks ago, no bloody or runny stools. they act fine otherwise.
any ideas?
will they slow down?

 

[Aimless Farmer]

My understanding is that debeaking makes free ranging difficult, if not impossible. So it may be that these poor girls are just so thrilled to have food they can easily eat! If their body conditions were poor when you brought them home, they may just be making up for a lifetime of undernourishment. It may take time for them to recover if a heavy worm load was part of the problem.

How are their feathers? Do they look healthy?

 

[rcentner]

feathers are dirty, and the tail feathers are pretty rough looking, but otherwise just fine. They feel nice and silky like my other hens too. (when I can get a real quick touch in as they are super skiddish).
I hope that they were just undernourished. I did not see any worms, but I deworm my flock on a schedule and wanted to get them before I put them in with the flock so I dewormed them the day I got them. They are pretty thin girls and I think undersized for leghorns, I thought they should be more the size of my wyandottes?

edit: that came out the wrong way...I don't hope they were undernourished, I hope it's not sickness causing it.