Thanks for all the replies on the other thread. I still thought that they were meat birds even after all the replies. I figured it could not hurt to start the poor starving critters on laying pellets since I would need to eventually anyway. So they are now on week one of the pellets and are filling out nicely. The other birds are getting bigger and fatter by the day also. I figure in another week they will be ready to process. Sadly they are now starting to show signs of breaking down. One is limping and the other just lays around in the pen only getting up to eat and drink. I keep a nice wet pile of shavings for them in the pen to lay on. They like this and seem to pretty much stay there. I called my mother and asked her what feed she use to feed her hens. This being over 20 years ago she told me she used a pelleted feed. Well I can only remember the scratch and scraps. Thank you for your insight and now my birds are while not healthy start a better life until the end.