In case you want a four legged chicken...

[Supermommy486]

You can now apparently buy them:

http://austin.craigslist.org/grd/2887919242.html

 

[sparkles2307]

The link goes to a post that's removed.

 

[Supermommy486]

Uh oh. I pull it up fine, but maybe it's broken somewhere since posting it? Oh well. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[v.cyr]

link works fine for me... freaky...

 

[silkiechicken]

There was a three legged chicken hatched to a member here one year. I forgot the details though. Defects can happen in individuals resulting in extra limbs, often these embryos don't survive to adult hood, but a few do.

 

[Supermommy486]

Oh good!
Yea it definitely caught my eye. Figured it was maybe a double yolker and the one got absorbed into the other. Interesting for sure! I wonder how old it is.

 

[sgtmom52]

Uh oh. I pull it up fine, but maybe it's broken somewhere since posting it? Oh well. Thanks for the heads up!

If you can still pull it up ~ can you copy & quote it for the rest of us to see?

 

[silkiechicken]

It wouldn't be a double yolker to cause a defect like that. Embryos can't asorb each other. Often extra limbs and digits are due to developmental defects involving the hox code, which is a set of highly conserved patterning genes, first identified in flies.

The post:

Believe it or not I have a 4 legged chicken for sale. I have no clue what it's worth. I will leave this post up till Saturday and the highest bidder will get it. This is no hoax. Good luck

• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

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ETA: Old thread on three legged chicken: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/50555/tripod-update-pic-pg-21-may-try-intros-today/0_100

 

[Supermommy486]

Ahh Haha I assumed it's kinda like my Gma who has a small pair of ribs attached to hers from absorbing her twin. But very neat info! Still wouldn't buy it...might scare the kids.

 

[silkiechicken]

Ahh Haha I assumed it's kinda like my Gma who has a small pair of ribs attached to hers from absorbing her twin. But very neat info! Still wouldn't buy it...might scare the kids.

If I'm thinking right, your Gma would have been a result of a monozygotic twin; they have identical DNA and did start as one or fused at a a blastocyst or earlier stage. A double yolker would be a fraternal or dizygotic twin which do not share identical DNA. Identical/conjoined twins could occur in an egg, but it'd be a single yolk.