Hi, I'm wondering if any of you are noticing the same thing. My girls seem solid when I pick them up but the boys don't. I do notice that they give the hens all the food all the time. Problem is It doesn't seem as if they are getting enough to eat themselves. I feed layena layer pellets to everyone 24/7 with oyster shell mixed in and at dinner time they get gamebird food now instead of scratch. I just toss it out and try to make sure it's enough for everyone. I worm everyone with Cayenne pepper in scrambled eggs. They do get yogurt on occasion and apple cider vinegar in the water which is changed out several times a day. Ducks... need I say more? All my birds are tested as well. How do you fatten up your rooster? Not for eating but to keep him healthy. I don't like feeling the breast bone. That tells me something isn't right. They also free range. Looking at them they are very handsome and healthy. I just started giving all the birds a new recipe I found in Mother Earth mag. It's Olive oil infused with garlic. You mix that with layer mash/pellets and scratch/gambird. I had neither the mash or scratch so I used pellets and gamebird food. The birds love it. It's suppose to take care of many health issue including worming. I can let you know what those issue are if you want. I don't have the article at the computer. Thanks for your help.
My free range birds do same. Roosters go roost with empty crop, spend a lot more effort displaying and crowing at night and give fertile hens in their repective sub-flocks first shot at all quality eats. My free-range roosters play a significant parental role and excess weight may be a hindurance. High ranking roosters seem most affected. This is likely reason why roosters do not live as long as hens. Roosters burn themselves up. To fatten, I isolate roosters from hens although roosters, if social strife does not prevent, can be run together. Otherwise nutrition is the same. I use intact grains in addition to layer pellets that has a significant amount of animal protein. The pepper will not control worms. If therapeutics to be used, then use the more aggressive inorganic versions to achieve short-term control.
Active roosters running with hens will not fatten up, neither would it be good for them to do so. If they have access to good quality food whenever they want it, they will be fine. If you are planning to eat them, they should be separated from the hens and "fed up" for a while.
