New Leg Horn? Help?

[lcchickens]

Talk to me about leghorn hens. I just got one today from a friend and she is my first leg horn. She is the same age as my other chickens. about 4 months old. I am just basically looking for any info about leg horns. She seems so different than the rest of my chickens. She's huge. She waddles. She's messy (on her vent) i picked her up a few minutes ago and I noticed that she doesn't have feathers on her underside. What's up with that? Is that normal or a sign of a problem? Also, she doesn't cluck like my other chickens. She sounds like she's honking!

I'm not sure if she is laying yet. My friends that I got her from haven't seen any eggs yet but she was free range and she may have been laying some where other than the coop.

I'm mostly concerned about the lack of feathers and the honking. Is this normal for a leghorn or something to be concerned about?

 

[SIMZ]

The fact that you're describing a Leghorn as huge & waddling makes me think you don't have one.

It sounds like the description one might give of a meat chicken, though. Any pictures?

 

[lcchickens]

 

[lcchickens]

Probably not the best picture. Sorry

 

[lcchickens]

 

[lcchickens]

Maybe it is a meat chicken. I was told it is a leghorn

 

[keesmom]

Looks like a meat bird. Way too beefy for a Leghorn. She is probably having difficulty breathing which is why you are hearing honking noises.

 

[lcchickens]

Oh man. What will i do with a meat bird? I can't eat it. It's just not in me to do that. Maybe my husband would. What age are you supposed to eat them?

 

[donrae]

They're usually processed around 8 weeks old. I've taken hens as old as 12 weeks, they were the size of small turkeys at that point. They also have more difficulty walking and breathing, Cornish cross tend to be a self-terminating hybrid

. There are threads here bout keeping them as pets, but you have to restrict feed and really encourage ranging. If you're interested, do a search and look for the threads.

 

[Michael OShay]

You definitely have a Cornish cross. We always butchered ours at 8 weeks. If you wait too much beyond that, they will begin to have serious health problems due to their abnormal growth rate. The best thing you can do with her is turn her into a chicken dinner.