I have no idea what I'm doing.

[Arly]

Four-ish weeks ago my father took my kids to lunch and came home with...chickens. I had only vaguely talked about getting chickens so I was wildly unprepared. I now have these fowl beasts in a brooder, and books, and even a coop. The tags at the store, and the sales guy, all claimed these birds were Leghorn, but some of my friends are suggesting they might be Cornish meat birds. Can somebody help a girl, who has no idea what she's doing, out, please?

 

[NatJ]

The tags at the store, and the sales guy, all claimed these birds were Leghorn, but some of my friends are suggesting they might be Cornish meat birds.

Yes, they look like Cornish cross meat birds.
The store had the wrong tags, and the sales guy was wrong.

So you should plan on raising them for another month or maybe two months, then butchering them.

In that time they will eat a lot, drink a lot, and you will need to keep them safe from predators and from bad weather (too cold, too sunny or hot, too wet, too snowy.)

In the photo with three birds, I think there are two males (combs bigger and redder) and one female (comb smaller and paler.)

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum from Louisiana. Glad you joined, just wish it were in better circumstances. Since you've kept them alive this long you are doing OK.

Those do look like Cornish X. A big sign is those bare spots. They often grow so fast their feathers can't keep up. And I agree, two boys and one girl.

If they are Cornish X what do you want to do? if you are into butchering them they should be ready in another two to four weeks. You probably don't want to go any longer than that, they could start dying on you. Might anyway before that, they grow so fast their hearts or skeleton sometimes can't keep up unless you restrict feed.

If you don't want to butcher them I'd start finding them a new home now. I'm not sure where you are located but if you are in the US you might try Craigslist. Maybe check at the feed store to see if they can help, maybe even put up a notice on their bulletin board if they have one. Maybe go the "buy sell trade" section of this forum and post an ad with your location and CX birds in the title to get the attention of the people you want to see it. Maybe go the the "Where am I? Where are you!" section of this forum and find your state or country thread to chat with your neighbors. They may take them or help you butcher them, maybe sharing the meat.

Not sure what kind of help you want or need, just let us know. But those are almost certainly Cornish X. Some people at feed stores know what they are doing with chickens, some not so much. Looks like you were unlucky.

 

[CNJ]

If you cut back on their feed, they will live longer. They are meat birds, so you need to decide if you want them as pets. There is a meat bird as pets topic under meat birds, some members raise them as pets, others eat them.

 

[NatJ]

If you cut back on their feed, they will live longer. They are meat birds, so you need to decide if you want them as pets. There is a meat bird as pets topic under meat birds, some members raise them as pets, others eat them.

True, but for someone new to chickens, I would suggest raising these birds as meat birds, eating them, and then if they want pet chickens get a breed that is more suitable as pets.

I agree that a decision needs to be made soon--if they will be meat birds, make plans for butchering. But if they will be pets, start limiting their food now, before they get so big and fat that they die anyway.

 

[AA Maple]

If you want them to even live for 2 months you'll want to start taking the feed away from them for 12 hours a day by around week 4. They will literally eat themselves to death if you allow them free access to feed day and night.

I've read reports of people keeping these (on a strict diet) for a year or three, but it's not really fair for the birds IMO. Sort of a shame though as they're generally good natured.

On the bright side, after 2 months you sort of get the feel for if you like keeping chickens or not, bear in mind typical pet/layer/ornamental breeds are a lot less messy.