Ruby is unwell :(

[Kiki]

I just had a thought on nutrition (starting reading @KikisGirls links, thank you!)
Since October, I have been throwing LOTS of seed to grow pasture, which I mow like a lawn. By lots, I mean pounds. Pounds and pounds and pounds. Lots of grass seed (various rye grass, Kentucky blue grass, various fescues, etc.) along with a chicken forage blend (ryegrass, clover, alfalfa, flax, field peas, groats) and additional clover, flax and alfalfa. The girls LOVE the fresh, delicate sprouts I have all over the yard all the time.
HOWEVER, they also eat a bunch of the unsprouted seed. I see now this could pose a nutritional problem. Thoughts?
In case it helps in analyzing, they go through about 50 pounds of organic soy-corn free (22% protein) feed about every two weeks or so (flock of nine hens).

I have a flock of 8 and mine go through a 50 pound bag in closer to 30 days.

I am back to where I was thinking in the beginning...they are eating too many treats.
All the seeds are treats.

 

[featherhead007]

Because of KIKI, my birds have been eating a better diet, and less treats!

 

[Kiki]

Because of KIKI, my birds have been eating a better diet, and less treats!

Your bird's health will thank you...I promise.

 

[Kiki]

Think about this...I do not know the answer.

How much is too much when it comes to a hen's weight?

Is .2 pounds considered heavy or is a half of pound considered obese?

Birds are very small to begin with, compared to humans, right?
So my thinking is that a small amount of extra weight on a bird can do a lot of damage.
Look around at humans...slightly over weight people have a lot more problems than an average size person and an obese human has (usually) an extremely higher potential to have extreme medical issues.

Excess weight, how little or how much I am not sure YET, has potential to cause deadly problems in chickens.

I can not know or tell by looking at your birds or your weigh chart if they are carrying too much weight, but the slight rises in their weight bother me.

 

[micstrachan]

I have a flock of 8 and mine go through a 50 pound bag in closer to 30 days.

I am back to where I was thinking in the beginning...they are eating too many treats.
All the seeds are treats.

Wait, but if they were eating lots of treats, wouldn't they be eating LESS feed, and not more?

We're going to have to agree to disagree on this one. My girls rarely get treats, and mostly only protein treats, not fat or carbs (in the summer they get frozen black or blueberries floating in water on the rare scorching hot day, but summer hasn't started yet this year.)

I don't plan to seed much more this year, and I guess I will need to fence off each area until the seeds sprout before the girls get access. We have a flock of juncos and a flock of some other small brown bird that gets most of the seed before my girls are out of their run, but I will still keep them from it.

I am pretty confident my flock is not overweight.

 

[micstrachan]

Look who is looking pretty perky! Ugh... it keeps posting the wrong video. Will try again in a separate reply.

 

[micstrachan]

 

[micstrachan]

Ruby managed to get up to roost. She has to do a 3-foot (ish) jump followed by two 18-inch (ish) jumps to get to her favorite spot. But Buttercup pounded on her relentlessly until she jumped down. She is now roosting with the other two lowest ranked girls.

 

[micstrachan]

Somehow I missed all these posts about the chart. Margo (Brown Leghorn) has a note by her name that says "unwell?" at the weight drop, but I don't remember what was going on. She molted twice... first on her body, then after coming back into lay, stopped again to molt on her head. Cashew (Buff Orpington) dropped weight during molt. I don’t know why Bagheera (Black Australorp) dropped weight. She is my girl who is over two years old and has never molted. Sure, I can add their breeds.

My weighing method isn’t exact, so there is some error. I use my scale, weigh myself, go outside and grab a bird, and weigh again. I bought a kitchen scale, but it is small and I can’t get them to stand still on it.

Six of the girls were only about seven months old when I started the chart. I missed Bridgette (Barred Rock) the first time I weighed, as she was molting and miserable and I didn’t want to handle her. She lost weight and took a LONG time to gain it back and come back into lay.

I don’t remember why I missed Lucky (Blue Laced Red Wyandotte); she may have been laying an egg.

Here is the updated chart:

 

[micstrachan]

I think there may be something to the protein. I don't think that is Ruby's problem right now, but I plan to do more research. So far, I haven't read anything saying high protein is bad for them, but it can cause more nitrogen and ammonia waste. I haven't figured out yet if that is a problem in their blood. It can affect the ammonia in the air in the coop.