Up to size, and many other things.

[delawaregirl09]

I guess I have two issues to discuss here.

My first one, is size. I have some birds from reputable breeders, and i swear they are 2/3 of the size they should be. LF Cochins are big hefty girls, right? Well, not mine. She is small in comparison to those I have seen, Maybe it comes with age? Idk.

But, I feed a 16-18% Protein feed from a good age to whenever I sell. As chicks, they eat teh typical chick starter. I do give them treats occasionally, but not every day. Am I skipping a step, or missing something that stunts their growth...? I have no idea if I sound stupid ro not, but I need to know why my girls aren't the right size. Two years ago, I had a B.O girl who was 2/3 the size of her sisters. I bought one B.O and he kept the rest at his farm, and when I went to pick up some eggs, I was amazed at the difference.

My other issue is feed waste. I raised to the feeder to above their backs, and then a little higher, but they still scratched fifteen pounds worth in the first day. I just don't know what to do! Should I limit the feed, only put a tray full in their each day? Any advice is welcome!

 

[HEChicken]

Sorry I don't know anything about cochins so I won't touch your first question, but on the feed, I found that switching to pellets made a huge difference in the amount of waste I had. I hung my feeder and switched to pellets. For the most part they don't bill much out but if they do, I just pull the feeder up out of their reach and wait for them to clean up before I lower it again. Tough love, ya know?

 

[drumstick diva]

do they need a worming??

 

[delawaregirl09]

Whoops, forgot to mention that I used pellets

I do raise the feeder out of their reach to clean up the mess, but no matter what I do... nothing changes, lol. Thank you very much, HEchicken.

Diva-- Thats a good question, they could need worming, but I worm my flock as much as the label says mostly, no change.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I put black rubber feed pans (wide ones) underneath my metal feeders. I sometimes don't even hang them up anymore- a lot of feed is caught in those pans. Granted, some does get billed out on the ground, but not much. I use the 12 lb metal feeder with the narrow lip. This doesn't work so well with the wider lip.

I also place a metal pan on top of the feeder to keep them from jumping inside the feeder if I don't hang it.

For my silkies now I use a plastic or metal pan within the wide rubber pan. They scratch some out into the rubber pan every day.

Mites and worms can cause weight loss and should be ruled out (as drumstick diva said). I never could find a mite on mine when I had an infestion, though.

Here is an older picture that shows what I mean:

 

[delawaregirl09]

As far as the size goes, their weight is pretty good, but I mean like height and stuff.

That feed pan idea is excellent, I'm going to have to try that.