My chickens are sooo skinny!

[mertzee]

TN is still northern hemisphere. I'm in FL. Was 34 overnight, I ran the sprinklers to protect the citrus, as we had a frost warning. The cold doesn't affect the rate of lay, the ambient light levels do, and ours is declining (yours more than mine).

Oh I thought you meant like NY or Canada north…my bad.

I try to keep on a pretty steady schedule of when they are let out in the mornings but obviously I can’t control daylight. My BSLs (one in particular) do not like the marans at all. I had to build a second small coop for the marans which doesn’t allow them to get out in the daylight hardly as quick but they have been in the same conditions for 6 mos now so they have had time to adjust. The one BSL is just a bully. She doesn’t bother the other “soul sisters” just the marans.
I think I can safely say I have the weirdest acting girls around!!! Oddly enough the bully isn’t even number 1. She is number 2??!! Anyway that’s for a different thread. Should I just keep on doing what I am and they will be ok it should I change something else?

thanks so much for your help!!!

 

[CoconutCoffee]

Here's how to get an actual body condition score: http://www.poultrydvm.com/featured-infographic/chicken-body-condition-score-chart

Layer breeds are often "skinny" compared to meat breeds.

Thank you for this. Been trying to find something about chicken body condition but I must not know how to google because I get "juicier meat" results

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I recommend (though I am not an expert, have only been doing this 19 months myself), that you stick with what you are doing, give it time. If you change too much, you introduce stress which contributes to poor laying and poor flock behavior. Give it time to settle and for things to have an effect, then re-evluate and adjust as needed.