Showing off my pet meatie... :)

[redonthehead]

In the flock of meat chickens we got this past spring was a hen that grew out pretty orange feathers... well, the kids kind of took to her, and started calling her Orangie. When slaughter time came we just din't have the heart to knock her off, so she's now our pet. Just wanted to share a picture of her since I've never seen a meat chicken that looks like this. She lives with our egg layers and is now laying some eggs herself. My only concern with her is that she's now HUGE and I don't have any way to restrict what she eats... she's holding her own though, and her legs aren't giving out. She's been through a lot - including unfortunately watching the death of her "mate" meat rooster Foghorn to a racoon family. She's a tough old girl, and alot larger than she is in this picture, but here she is enjoying some grass this summer...

 

[twister]

that is a pretty bird!

 

[SteveH]

She's pretty in the picture , and an unusual color . Is she an Ambro ?

 

[redonthehead]

@SteveH - I have no idea what she is. We ordered 60 meat chicks this past spring from a local farm store, and when they grew in their feathers she got these while the rest of them were plain old white. LOL! As much as I hated the thought I knew she was going to grow on all of us. She'll end up being with us until she dies of natural causes.

 

[eKo_birdies]

interesting!! very pretty

 

[RAREROO]

She looks like about what I got from crossing Cornish X hens with RIR and BO roosters.

 

[KCchickens]

What a pretty girl! I hope her legs never give out and she lives a long happy chicken life!

 

[redonthehead]

Thanks everyone!

KCchickens - I hope so too! She's enjoying life. After the racoon attack that took the rooster we kept with her she was quite traumatized and wouldn't let anyone near her... she's finally relaxed now and will almost "talk" to us when we go to collect eggs. It's cute. She's quite the girl... several times we've caught her limping and more than once we figured we'd have to put her down, but within days she'll be right back to normal... she's definitely a tough girl.

RAREROO - we have a BO rooster and I was wondering what we would get if we crossed him with her. Don't know if we will or not, but we've tossed around the idea.