HI, all,
I have 26 dorkings, 13 weeks old yesterday. I know they aren't as fast maturing as the hatchery birds, and they seem a reasonable size for their age (not that I have lots of experience!!). But I've had a couple of incidents of tail-feather picking (pine tar took care of it) and I was wondering if that's the age, with the roos starting to mature and getting bossier, or if maybe they need the higher protein because they're trying to grow in the colder weather.
I started giving them some BOSS this past week and haven't seen any new feather picking since, but I don't want to give them too much BOSS and throw their diets off balance...if they need more protein, should I put them back on the starter/grower 20%? At 10 weeks (per the instructions on the feed bag) I switched them to grower/finisher 15%. As I said, their size seems ok, none of them have a ton of meat on them yet. Is this a natural growth pattern, or do they need a little boost because of the colder weather?
Thanks for any input.
I have 26 dorkings, 13 weeks old yesterday. I know they aren't as fast maturing as the hatchery birds, and they seem a reasonable size for their age (not that I have lots of experience!!). But I've had a couple of incidents of tail-feather picking (pine tar took care of it) and I was wondering if that's the age, with the roos starting to mature and getting bossier, or if maybe they need the higher protein because they're trying to grow in the colder weather.
I started giving them some BOSS this past week and haven't seen any new feather picking since, but I don't want to give them too much BOSS and throw their diets off balance...if they need more protein, should I put them back on the starter/grower 20%? At 10 weeks (per the instructions on the feed bag) I switched them to grower/finisher 15%. As I said, their size seems ok, none of them have a ton of meat on them yet. Is this a natural growth pattern, or do they need a little boost because of the colder weather?
Thanks for any input.