I am an owner of 12 heritage chickens in rural NJ. Recently a neighbor of mine decided they too wanted chickens, so I helped them setup their coops and brooders. Our neighbors then went to Tractor & Supply and purchased 3 Cornish Rock Hens. My question is about wether or not they are exhibiting normal behavior. 1. They refuse to eat anything but their store bought food. You could throw a blueberry at their heads and it will not stop them eating the store food. 2. There is nothing wrong with their legs but they will still don't move that much and at times will poo then just sit down in it. 3. They are very flighty. Are they okay? They just seem much dumber than my birds.
Quote:Really, flighty? That is not a common occurrence in them. Other than that it seems normal from what we had. Where did you get your heritage chickens? Good luck,
Thank you for your answers. That's kind of what I thought and have to find a nice way to break it to my neighbors who wanted pets. They seem flighty, but I ordered mine from a hatchery and they decided that I was their mother. So, all other chickens seem flighty I went halves with my father and bought chickens from McMurray Hatchery. I bought 7 buff Ops, 2 Jersey Giants, 3 Dominques and 2 Royal Palm turkeys. They all arrived healthy and with wonderful personalities.
We had a Cornish X courtesy of my daughter's school egg-hatching project and she was healthy and smart! She grew to be about 20+ pounds with no leg problems or health issues. Limited her food (fed 2x/day with fruit/green/bread treats now and then) and let her free-range the yard for a few hours each day. She also had 2 RSL friends to keep her active. She was actually pretty active, loved to follow us, just like a puppy. Chick-Chick lived until she was 14-months old and would've lived longer had someone not taken a stick to her.
Quote:I just got 2 RIR, 2 Golden Comets,2 Barred Rocks, 2 Black astralorps and one white leghorn, all healthy and sweet! Murray Mcmurray is a very nice hatchery.
