we purchased three BO chicks a while back when they were about three weeks old...thankfully got three hens from the straight run bin. all was going well until they hit about 2 months old, when we found one almost dead and very "lame" not really interested in anything. medications never really perked her up, but she pulled through thanks to a lot of TLC from the wife, took her to the food and water everyday, made sure she got her own little pile of scratch at treat time, just alot of love(now she follows her around like a lost little puppy)Anyway, her 2 sisters are about 5-6 months old now large beautiful hens about at POL, and she still loks like shees maybe 2.5 months old. Has anyone had anything like this happen, will she pull throuhg it again and just mature slower, and is there anything i can do to help her along the way???
Hi. Since, she probably came from the same flock of good genetics, her offspring will be good stock . But, she probably won't ever be as big as her two sisters. As, for helping her along the way, just keep giving her your tlc, a good ration of her scratch, some greens, and clean water. She will lay. I'm rooting for you.
I think I might give her grower food rather than layer pellets. You can give all your girls grower feed as long as you add free choice oyster shells as a side dish. BOs are strapping girls and the added protein might be helpful to all, but especially the runt. I also might lay off on the scratch. I know they love it, but feed is more nutrient dense and better for them in the long term. Good luck.
You might give her a little vitamin boost, with a few Poly-vi-sol without iron, infant drops along her beak every day for a little while, and see if that doesn't help support her growth. As far as the scratch, yes they do love it, but when I realized it was like feeding candy, I switched over to black oil sunflower seeds, and almost never feed plain scratch anymore. It's a higher protein alternative, and though they may initially act like you are trying to poison them, they will most likely learn to love it. My girls scramble all over each other trying to get at it now.
You could even feed game bird feed. It has an even higher percentage of protien. I got some pullets that were supposedly two months older than my original pullets and when I got them home I started questioning the age since the "older" pullets were smaller than my original four. After feeding a mix of grower and game bird feed they just shot up. They are now the same size as my original four and I am thinking of supplementing their feed one more time to help them catch up some more.
