Eggiweg
In the Brooder
Hello, first time poster here!
We have a small backyard flock of four hens, all about 1 year old. We keep them for eggs (and entertainment).
We have recently been thinking of culling one of our girls who seems to be struggling, just wanted some input from all you more experienced folks. Here’s some background - Ginger was sold to us as a Rhode Island Red, but as she grew and developed it has become apparent she is actually more likely a red colored meat bird of some type. Her body shape is completely different from the other three (a Marans, a California White, and an Easter egger). She is wide, with much thicker legs. She easily weighs twice as much as any of the other three. She is clumsy, and seems to have trouble jumping on and off things (she does manage to get onto the roost every night though). She does lay (started about six months ago) but has frequent soft shell eggs, often on the poop board, like they fell out of her during the night or something.
They eat organic layer pellets from a local mill, have free access to oyster shell, and I have even been giving her a “special breakfast” of a tiny piece of bread with calcium citrate powder on it. She is the only one who has ever laid a soft shelled egg.
On top of all this, she is lowest in the pecking order. Poor Ginger.
I guess I’d just like to hear your thoughts - any advise/suggestions? What would you do?
I know she wouldn’t have lived this long if she had been sold as a meat bird and raised for that purpose. We have given her as good a life as she could have hoped for, but I don’t want to keep her alive if her body isn’t up to it. Also, the frequent soft shelled eggs make me nervous. We aren’t squeamish about culling her, but it will of course be sad.
We have a small backyard flock of four hens, all about 1 year old. We keep them for eggs (and entertainment).
We have recently been thinking of culling one of our girls who seems to be struggling, just wanted some input from all you more experienced folks. Here’s some background - Ginger was sold to us as a Rhode Island Red, but as she grew and developed it has become apparent she is actually more likely a red colored meat bird of some type. Her body shape is completely different from the other three (a Marans, a California White, and an Easter egger). She is wide, with much thicker legs. She easily weighs twice as much as any of the other three. She is clumsy, and seems to have trouble jumping on and off things (she does manage to get onto the roost every night though). She does lay (started about six months ago) but has frequent soft shell eggs, often on the poop board, like they fell out of her during the night or something.
They eat organic layer pellets from a local mill, have free access to oyster shell, and I have even been giving her a “special breakfast” of a tiny piece of bread with calcium citrate powder on it. She is the only one who has ever laid a soft shelled egg.
On top of all this, she is lowest in the pecking order. Poor Ginger.
I guess I’d just like to hear your thoughts - any advise/suggestions? What would you do?
I know she wouldn’t have lived this long if she had been sold as a meat bird and raised for that purpose. We have given her as good a life as she could have hoped for, but I don’t want to keep her alive if her body isn’t up to it. Also, the frequent soft shelled eggs make me nervous. We aren’t squeamish about culling her, but it will of course be sad.