How do you know if your chickens are fat?

[centrarchid]

I like the body of my dual purpose breeds to feel round as in well muscled under the feathers. Birds that are obese seem soft, especially in the abdomen. I have to know an individual bird to make direct use weight based on a scale. Beyond issue of breed, you will also see variation with season and breeding status, especially for hens.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I like the body of my dual purpose breeds to feel round as in well muscled under the feathers. Birds that are obese seem soft, especially in the abdomen....

Centertarchid's response is the best yet. A sharp breast bone shows that a chicken is sick. However most sick chickens are skinny and the old sharp keel bone on a sick chicken will extend to the rest of the bird, making him or her seem light.

Chickens carry their fat under the skin, especially in the gut or behind. A well muscled bird feels like it has a 6 pack of abs in its back side. A skinny bird will have two sharp hip bones. A fat chicken however will feel like a feather pillow (no pun intended) in this region. To get a better picture firmly slide the palm of your hand (fingers up) over the keel bone and all the way to the back side, pressing up against the chicken as you go. Fat hens don't lay well, fat roosters also don't make baby chicks well. To really learn you will need a scale on which you can weigh and record your chickens' daily weight in fractions of an ounce.

 

[Beekissed]

If they run like a fat lady(lumbering, chest slightly low for balance, moving side to side on their legs), they are too fat...if they run with good scissor action on those legs like a young girl, bodies level to the ground, they are fighting fit. If you watch your chickens enough and note how they look, feel and move when at a normal weight, you can also tell pretty easily what is abnormal. If you have to weigh them to determine what is normal per some book or standard, it's likely you will be doing more work than you need to do all through the years you have chickens.

Their weight changes through the seasons and as they age, so a prominent keel on a young bird is normal. A recessed keel is most likely only to be found only on a meat bird. A slightly palpable, but not overly so, keel on any adult bird is about right. You'll feel the keel more on a layer breed than a dual purpose.

The more you process your own birds, the more you grow familiar with what is fat vs. what is meat, the difference between roosters and hens regarding fat deposits, the keel shape and prominence for specific ages, breeds and sexes.

Chickens can and do overeat depending upon breed and feed availability, so it's prudent to monitor body conditioning but it's something that comes with time and experience. Watch your birds, feel of their bodies, note their mobility, their ease in getting up on and down off the roost, running, breeding, etc. Watch all that and see how you can compare it to humans with similar mobility problems and how they move when they are obese and you'll soon see it applies to chickens also.

 

[cubalaya]

beekissed had the best answer; if you watch how your birds move and process enough of them you can tell if they are too fat.

 

[Chemguy]

This is so subjective, though, and freaks folks out as most layers have an easily felt keel bone, and it's normal. We have had so many folks on here over the years freaking out because they can feel the keel bone and the bird is a perfectly normal weight. If you're really, truly concerned, weigh the bird in question.

You are 100% correct, and thanks for the clarification. It is subjective, and there is no official standard...it is all relative and varies from bird to bird. The keel bone on our best layers always protrudes, even more than what one might feel on the chickens in the grocery store.

We do periodic checks on our birds to make sure that they are maintaining weight, and it's pretty easy to recognize when a bird has lost weight. All are a bit different from each other, and our Orps protrude more than the Barred Rocks. Broodies can feel downright skeletal, and they always make it through just fine.

 

[katbriar]

Thanks to the OP for this thread and posters for their advice. This is my first winter with chickens and I felt several today to see if I could tell anything about how they were making it through this cold weather. I could feel the keel bone, which made me wonder. But since they seemed otherwise well I thought maybe it was normal.

Now I'll have to go back out tomorrow and feel for six pack abs! Thanks for all the descriptions.