First, put more effort into preventing heat stress.
Secondly, commercially available poultry diets are formulated to support rapid growth or sustained egg production. Some of the flock raiser type complete diets may have less productivity in mind so are less nutritionally dense in nutrients that may be problematic with birds that are slowing down. The grower feeds will be too rich in terms of every thing that promotes growth while the egg-layer feeds will have too much of the components needed for egg shell production.
I keep game chickens that once are selected to be brood fowl are managed to live several years beyond what productions breeds are expected to do. A general practice is to restrict ration size so birds do not get overweight. Secondly, when the birds are not breeding or on molt, the diet can also be allowed to be lower in protein content ( I target about 14%) so long as the protein is still balanced and vitamins are good. My older birds enjoy a diet that has more coarse grains and greens / fruit. Cut apples and persimmons are used through the fall season here. I like protein sources have at least some animal protein in them. With really old birds we would sometimes feed back boiled eggs that are crushed. Shell left on. When the birds are being bred, then a layer diet is used for both sexes and it is then they have free-choice access to eats. When in molt the protein levels are bumped up to be like a flock raiser. The part of molt that concerns me is when body and tail feathers are being swapped out. For some chickens wing feather replacement begins shortly after the spring equinox, but the protein need for that low rate of replacement is relatively low.
The weight management part is often underrated but research with other species suggest keeping weight down from being too heavy is good.
Secondly, commercially available poultry diets are formulated to support rapid growth or sustained egg production. Some of the flock raiser type complete diets may have less productivity in mind so are less nutritionally dense in nutrients that may be problematic with birds that are slowing down. The grower feeds will be too rich in terms of every thing that promotes growth while the egg-layer feeds will have too much of the components needed for egg shell production.
I keep game chickens that once are selected to be brood fowl are managed to live several years beyond what productions breeds are expected to do. A general practice is to restrict ration size so birds do not get overweight. Secondly, when the birds are not breeding or on molt, the diet can also be allowed to be lower in protein content ( I target about 14%) so long as the protein is still balanced and vitamins are good. My older birds enjoy a diet that has more coarse grains and greens / fruit. Cut apples and persimmons are used through the fall season here. I like protein sources have at least some animal protein in them. With really old birds we would sometimes feed back boiled eggs that are crushed. Shell left on. When the birds are being bred, then a layer diet is used for both sexes and it is then they have free-choice access to eats. When in molt the protein levels are bumped up to be like a flock raiser. The part of molt that concerns me is when body and tail feathers are being swapped out. For some chickens wing feather replacement begins shortly after the spring equinox, but the protein need for that low rate of replacement is relatively low.
The weight management part is often underrated but research with other species suggest keeping weight down from being too heavy is good.
