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[JM]

One of the girls escaped to next door again this afternoon, and when I picked her up, my neighbour said that she looked very thin.

 

She (chicken not neighbour!) is the smallest of the three - her keel (breast bone?) is very prominent when you pick her up, but she eats for Britain and is really perky. I have noticed that she's not laying every day, and her eggs are smaller than they have been. I'm due to worm them in a week or so - I'll start that tomorrow instead.

 

So - how do you tell if they are the right weight? And is worming worth doing earlier than planned??

 

Thanks

 

Jill

[Daphne]

its an inexact art! We just go by picking them up and compare both the weight and feel of them with last time and each other. Some hens are a good 'handful' whilst others are naturally smaller. And of course different breeds/hybrids are made differently. Mind you, we've had 2 hens who were always light with a prominent keelbone - neither were very hardy and both died young. If you ever get offered the choice of LF hens to buy and can handle them I would always go for the one which feels 'chunkier' (as long as its not fat of course - you need to be able to feel the keelbone a bit).

 

I would worm asap as that is a classic sign of beak stuffing but not appearing to maintain a good body weight. I would use flubenvet, not VermX.

 

You could always pop them on the scales.....even fill in an excel spreadsheet.....weekly weigh-ins......think I'd better go for a lie down

[Guest]

Hi

One of mine is broody and as I am constantly picking her up and putting her off the nest she has plucked a lot of her breast bone and looks oven ready! However I dont think she would be a meaty bird she is a bag of bones! She is healthy etc and wormed...bright eyed eating etc etc She is a speckledy....your bird had the energy to disappear to the neighbours sounds ok to me

 

I think the types I have are not table birds?? We probably all see the supersized supermarket birds??

 

indie

[JM]

Thanks for the comments.

 

She certainly looks and acts healthy - but I will worm them all starting tomorrow anyway.

[Egluntyne]

Laying hens are generally on the thin side, with a prominent keel bone.

 

It won't do any harm to worm her.