Hi Mamachook, and welcome to the Forum.
Oh dear, poor girl! Several of us have experience of exbatts but I don’t think an 8-week-old single broiler has come our way before!
Some thoughts for others to discuss, I hope;
- Did the farmer give you any ideas about feeding her? Normally, 8-week-old chicks would be just coming off high-protein chick crumb and moving on to growers mash, which is formulated to ensure slower but steady growth until they’re ready to lay, and has less calcium than layers mash because they don’t need this until they start having to make eggshells, and it can harm their kidneys if given too early. So normally she should be eating growers pellets for the next 10 weeks. I’ve no experience with broilers, but I expect she was being fed a very high protein diet, possibly with growth enhancers, to enable her to put on weight very rapidly for slaughter at 8 weeks. Totally different from ‘normal’ chicks and their management! I don’t know what she should be fed, but probably she shouldn’t have the same as adult birds for some weeks yet. What are you giving her?
- Because they’re bred simply to put on weight, rather than to develop normal strength in their legs and muscles, broilers often have problems standing and walking on their immature legs as chicks. This may be problematic with your bird, as she adapts to normal life. They’re not bred to be active, a lot of sofa-surfing is the best way to put on weight, as we all know from experience.
- socialisation. It’s always more difficult to introduce a single bird to an established group, as bullying is likely, and as she’s only a 8-week-old chick, even if physically large for her age, this may be difficult. Combined with the problems of feeding her suitably, separate from the adults, I’m not sure how you give her the socialisation with other chickens which will be essential for her, especially as she’ll have been raised in a large flock and it will be very uncomfortable for her to be on her own. What a pity he only gave you one bird. If you had two, you could have perhaps set up a separate coop for them, and tried to bring them on and cater for their special needs over the coming months.
- Outdoor life. I expect she will have been raised in a barn and thus not acclimatised to outdoor temperatures. This is always a problem with poorly-feathered exbatts as well, especially at this time of year when temperatures are dropping. Nevertheless, if you decide to keep her, she will need to live outside, and as the weather is fairly mild at present for October, this should happen sooner rather than later.
There are some welfare issues connected with raising broiler birds, as you see, connected to their genetic engineering to put on weight extremely rapidly in their very short lives. I can understand your willingness to adopt this girl, but it won’t be very easy! I shall be very interested to hear what others think, and news of how you are managing, and I don’t want to seem discouraging, but feel we need to discuss what’s actually involved in order to help you.
