This juvenile bird was dumped in the alley behind my house. It had been enclosed in a flimsy box, got out, and then hid between my neighbor's garage and garbage cans. I'm assuming the people who dumped the bird were trying to rid themselves of a chick from a school hatching project that grew past the cute stage into the "what are we going to do with it?" stage. Since everyone in my neighborhood knows I have laying hens, I'm sure their intentions were that I would take it in and raise it.
This does not look like a laying hen to me, nor does it feel like one when I pick it up. It looks and feels more like a meat bird such as the famous Cornish X we all buy in the supermarket. If it is a meat bird, I'll take it to the live poultry butcher because I understand they are not particularly long-lived birds anyway. But I'm not sure yet if is a meat bird or one of the heavier dual purpose breeds. I'm hoping someone here can help me figure out the breed.
I posted these photos on my local (Chicago) chicken group and it was suggested by a farmer that it *could* be a Plymouth Rock. She suggested measuring the length of the legs since Cornish X have been bred to have shorter legs. I measured from as close to the body as possible to the hock. Leg length from body to hock on this bird was about 3 inches; on my mature New Hampshire and Speckled Sussex laying hens, leg length from body to hock is about 5 inches.
The chicken has been held in my quarantine coop away from my own birds for 13 days now. It is losing its juvenile feathers and growing into its adult feathers, but its eyes are still the hazel of a juvenile bird and not the tawny gold of an adult. It is still making chick sounds. Poops look normal and there were no mites on the bird.
I weighed it and it is 4.75 pounds. The breast is very broad and full, and the feathers are abraded away in that area, suggested that it sat on it's breast a lot. That could be because it was confined to a too small cage, perhaps. It's feathers were soiled and it had a lot of poop stuck in the feathers around it's vent, so I'm thinking that was the case.
Even now it seems to sit down on it's breast a lot, although that could be because is has nothing to do most of the day since it is in a quarantine coop with lots of food and water and no need to forage. While it as plenty of room to stretch, scratch, and dust bathe, it doesn't seem very inclined to do any of that. I noticed it panting in the higher humidity days we had earlier this week, although my own flock wasn't bothered at all.
While cleaning it up a bit today, I listened to it's breathing which sounded pretty heavy. I'm not sure if that's because it was afraid of me or if it suggests a potential respiratory problem. We're pretty sure it is a pullet, and if it is a heritage breed I'm tempted to try adding it to my flock of New Hampshire Reds and Speckled Sussex.
Please help me ID this breed. Thanks!
This does not look like a laying hen to me, nor does it feel like one when I pick it up. It looks and feels more like a meat bird such as the famous Cornish X we all buy in the supermarket. If it is a meat bird, I'll take it to the live poultry butcher because I understand they are not particularly long-lived birds anyway. But I'm not sure yet if is a meat bird or one of the heavier dual purpose breeds. I'm hoping someone here can help me figure out the breed.
I posted these photos on my local (Chicago) chicken group and it was suggested by a farmer that it *could* be a Plymouth Rock. She suggested measuring the length of the legs since Cornish X have been bred to have shorter legs. I measured from as close to the body as possible to the hock. Leg length from body to hock on this bird was about 3 inches; on my mature New Hampshire and Speckled Sussex laying hens, leg length from body to hock is about 5 inches.
The chicken has been held in my quarantine coop away from my own birds for 13 days now. It is losing its juvenile feathers and growing into its adult feathers, but its eyes are still the hazel of a juvenile bird and not the tawny gold of an adult. It is still making chick sounds. Poops look normal and there were no mites on the bird.
I weighed it and it is 4.75 pounds. The breast is very broad and full, and the feathers are abraded away in that area, suggested that it sat on it's breast a lot. That could be because it was confined to a too small cage, perhaps. It's feathers were soiled and it had a lot of poop stuck in the feathers around it's vent, so I'm thinking that was the case.
Even now it seems to sit down on it's breast a lot, although that could be because is has nothing to do most of the day since it is in a quarantine coop with lots of food and water and no need to forage. While it as plenty of room to stretch, scratch, and dust bathe, it doesn't seem very inclined to do any of that. I noticed it panting in the higher humidity days we had earlier this week, although my own flock wasn't bothered at all.
While cleaning it up a bit today, I listened to it's breathing which sounded pretty heavy. I'm not sure if that's because it was afraid of me or if it suggests a potential respiratory problem. We're pretty sure it is a pullet, and if it is a heritage breed I'm tempted to try adding it to my flock of New Hampshire Reds and Speckled Sussex.
Please help me ID this breed. Thanks!
