Layers or meat birds??? How can I tell?

[Terry S]

Yesterday someone told me that she thought she bought laying chicks but they got so fat they couldn't move and she only got 1 egg so she figured that they were meat birds. My birds are about 8 weeks old. How can you tell the difference? Is there a difference? I'm confused.

 

[donrae]

You can always post pics, but this is pretty easy. At 8 weeks, a "meat bird"...cornish cross...will be a good 6-8lbs or more. If your birds look like normal chicken babies, at this age being, I don't know, a pound or two? then they're not meat birds.

 

[Terry S]

Thanks for the guidance. Then it looks like they're layers.

Hurray!