Fat hen

[SW31]

Hi, I’ve three chickens - 2 marans and a Sussex. One of the marans is huge; the other two hens are normal size.
The fat hen eats twice as fast as the other two and lives for food. When we got her home she was larger than the other maran and we noticed how much sturdier her legs were. How do I get weight off of her without depriving the other two?

 

[chickengeorgeto]

The only way to get the weight off of a "MEAT" or duel purpose hen is with a carving knife. Sorry but this is the truth just like the All Mighty knows it. Broiler-fryer or duel purpose chickens are bred to be and do all the things that you find disturbing. You should more truthfully expect to raise a pride of African lions on nothing but cabbages and cantaloupes than change the nature of a single duel purpose hen. At any rate almost all of a hens' fat is carried around her vent and no matter how hard you starve her she will still be herself. Chickens are not like humans who carry most of our fat under the skin.

 

[chickens really]

What percentage is your protein in the feed you use?

 

[lilmillefleur]

How many treats do you feed? I would cut out the treats as my first suggestion.
Good luck!

 

[SW31]

Ok, lets calm down a bit. I’ve got enough with Brexit so talking about a carving knife is not helping my stress levels!

Their food has 16% protein. It’s an organic feed which I import from the U.K. cause a lot of the French stuff is rubbish and the stuff on the shelves is often out of date (don’t ask me how I will be able to import uk food to France post a no deal brexit cause who knows).

I do give treats and at the moment it’s the only thing helping my heavily moulting and seriously bullied Sussex who lost a lot of weight. See diva thread for more info on her. French friends with many chickens suggested cheese to up the protein levels.

 

[SW31]

Apologies for not including - Link to diva thread

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/possible-diva.1279007/

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Those Frenchmen do like their cheese don't they?
Seriously, cheese is a very acceptable chicken food, especially if it is not too moist.
Remember that cheese is an animal based protein and at one time in the United States, (and I assume elsewhere) dehydrated milk, buttermilk, and or whey were the best commercial baby chicken food on the planet. I still like to use buttermilk as my chicks first beverage. It does a body good.

 

[SW31]

Thank you for your help, I did wonder if cheese was ok!