Now I'm scared...PLEASE HELP

[quiltnchik]

after seeing this post:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=201629

These chicks are IDENTICAL to the ones I got from TSC, except one of my roos has dark brown feathering on his wings and around his neck, while the others have the red or red spots/speckles in their wing feathers. They all have the cream color around their heads. Please tell me these AREN'T meat birds! I don't want to have to kill my babies!

 

[Me + Peeps]

even if they are meat birds you don't have to kill them and some meat birds lay very well too.

 

[SpringChickens]

Post a pic of your chicks... that will do the best for you. There are quite a few breeds which look somewhat like that. The broad breast is the best indicator of a meat bird.

 

[quiltnchik]

Me + Peeps :

even if they are meat birds you don't have to kill them and some meat birds lay very well too.

Well, these will never lay since 6 of the 6 I bought are roos, but I want to make sure they're not the type of birds that get HUGE and have to be slaughtered before they die at a young age from getting too big...​

 

[annek]

How old are your birds? If they are meat birds they will be a lot larger than laying chicks are at that age. Why don't you take some pics of your babies, tell us the age and maybe a little more about them. I don't know anything about the cornish x, other than they taste good. Tastes like chicken...

 

[quiltnchik]

Quote:
My birds are 7 weeks old and IDENTICAL to Sam's birds. The only thing I have to compare them to are the 2 NHR pullets I have, which are much smaller than they are.

 

[SpringChickens]

Sounds like you might have meat birds... sorry

Maybe put them on craigslist if you don't want to eat them yourself, or be prepared for them to start dying shortly.

 

[annek]

Well, hopefully they are not meat birds. From what the other thread said they didn't look like cornish x because they had nice feathers and their legs were not stocky. What were they supposed to be?

 

[quiltnchik]

Quote:
TSC had them in a bin marked "White Leghorns" but that's obviously not what they are. I sent a not-so-nice email to TSC and they replied and said the District Manager will be contacting me concerning my complaint (I complained about the fact that 6/6 are roos and that they're not WL as listed). I just don't know WHAT they are at this point, but don't want to have to slaughter them. My son has also become really attached to one of them and that's the one we were planning on keeping...

 

[luvmychicknkids]

My mother has a little girl she got from TSC that she THOUGHT was a White Leghorn.....but boy oh boy she isn't. She is HUGE, heavy....yeah. However, she is definitely not a meat bird. Maybe yours aren't either. I am thinking hers may be a White Rock or something else.....LOL Obviously she has to be something. So don't give up hope. If they don't have those huge, fat legs and that almost impossibly heavy breast, I wouldn't panic yet. Do they fly at all?