Enormous floppy chest--is this normal

Sour crop maybe? I think that is what I am dealing with on one of my 6 week olds... check out the pictures and look it up

Hi justlearning,

in all my years of chicken keeping I've never had a case of sour crop. Two in one batch would be extremely rare unless there's something quite wrong or they've had a lot of antibiotics without probiotics afterward. I'm sure those with more experience with sour crop could argue the point, this is just my feeling.

More likely in my view they may have pendulous crop (where weak ligaments cause the crop to sag and it also over-fills... these birds do eat a lot so that's reasonably likely) or else ascites, where the whole body tends to get full of excess fluid from over-taxed organs. If it's the latter, an early dispatch would be best to save them a heap of discomfort (and possible early death).

You can certainly freeze them and rest in the fridge later on before cooking them. That's what I do almost all the time anyway.

best wishes

Erica

I'm willing to be money that your birds with big floppy chests have Ascites aka congestive heart failure.  Do they have purplish combs?  These birds are at high risk of heart failure so I would consider getting them butchered fairly quickly.  When you butcher they will have a yellow fluid in the body cavity.  I've heard that it is still okay to eat them though.
 

It's okay to freeze them and let them rest while thawing although I rest before freezing.

I suspect that what you are seeing is a very full crop.  If you feel, you can tell it is a bag full of grain on the chest.  The greedy guts here get huge full crops and it looks like some sort of scary growth on their front.