Guest guest Posted May 15, 2004 Report Share Posted May 15, 2004 I wrote about the big " thunder chickens " awhile back, so where is my latest status report. They are up to 7.5 lbs now, the biggest ones. There is a lot of variation in size, which is interesting. I feel a little better about the breed now. After going thru an " awkward stage " they are full-feathered and looking healthier. They have calm dispositions (never could survive outside a coop!). One thing that is important: I was keeping their food dish full all day and night, because they seem ravenous. However, that is a big mistake! They were developing leg problems, which some folks say is avoidable by not feeding them in the evening. So I put them on a " chicken warrior diet " ... they do get ravenous, then they walk all over lookling for food and that develops their leg muscles. If you keep feeding them, they just eat/sleep/eat/sleep. Now I'm using commercial food, which is corn, soy, and pork, as a baseline. It is expensive. It would be interesting to see how much work it is to grow something like Amaranth or Sorghum or Buckwheat or whatever and feed that to them. It would take a LOT of grain though. They are going thru 50 lbs a week at this point. Now if one saved, say, a cow stomach and pulverized it to feed them ... -- Heidi Jean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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