Found orphan - help with breed/sex/age and being sure it's a chicken!

[mantuamaker]

Quote:
Hi Grendel,

I'm not sure but will definitely take a closer look in the morning daylight!

~Carrie

 

[wrldlygrrl]

Cluck cluck...no gobble gobble here!

 

[TroutsChicks]

a wwww, you will make a great chicken parent!! chickens are like crack! lol I would say a black australorp about 4 weeks old, mine are 5 and looking really feathered out, i see some fluff around the neck and some patches on the wings. Now you know they are social creatures and she will need a friend.....

gotta love chicken math. ( mine LOVES cheese )

 

[chickensbythesea]

Welcome to BYC! Certainly hope you keep her and stick around!

I would suggest trying to find her friends of around the same age/size, it will make it less likely someone will be seriously bullied. Craigslist, or the local threads can be a huge help with that. MA has a pretty active thread, check out Where am I/Where are you? (And parts of eastern MA are still quite rural! They're all sandwiched between the cape and the farming part of RI though)

I am pretty confident he or she's an australorp. I can't tell for sure in these photos, but if the eyes are dark brown/almost black, and the soles of her feet are grey (opposed to white, yellow or peachy), she's an australorp.
I definitely am not thinking ancona, the legs/beak have excessive black, the legs look to be the wrong color, there's not enough speckling, and the eyes (especially in the top pic) look pretty dark.
I'm not a minorca buff, but I think based on her frame (she looks rounder?) and temperament, she's probably not. They are notoriously flighty and not known for being friendly, since they're a Mediterranean breed. (Same applies with anconas.)

It's clear from how raggedy their tail already is that the first part of life has been pretty rough on this chook. You guys have done it a huge service so far, and I really hope you do wind up keeping them. Good luck.

 

[Obyli]

Yep, White Leghorn as it is!