Id love to see photos. Im very visual
Sorry, I've moved away from that place, and the chooks aren't in a customized cage right now. I could do you up a sketch, or something, if you'd like.
Those do not look like chickens....
I posted the picture in another thread and all said turkeys that answered.
With crests?! I've raised many turkeys and they don't look like that! However, there was some supposed evidence that turkeys and chickens can on some rare occasions interbreed, leading to a messed up looking creature that is essentially worthless. I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand, because many other species occasionally produce hybrids with distantly related species. They do look odd, but I've had chooks basically identical to that.
The sound they're making ought to identify them.
He seems extremely healthy - beautiful feathering, healthy weight, eats, drinks, runs, recently started mounting the girls, etc. However, when he gets scared/stressed or when it's really hot and he's panting, he squeaks. Has anyone else ever experienced that? It's actually pretty loud sometimes - would it help if I got video? He sounds like an asthmatic chicken. I've never seen this before - none of my other chickens do this. It's only when he's panting hard - not when he's calm and cool and breathing normally. He doesn't crow at all yet - very quiet, mellow but acts completely normal otherwise.
I had two chickens have serious issues with having inhaled something. Often when I first got them I would notice the hatchery girls would guzzle wildly at all foods and tiny cracked bits of grain (or anything small really) would often get in their airways. Most squeaked for a few minutes then got it out. One nearly died, she made horrible squeaking braying noises with every inhalation and exhalation for days and couldn't go far. After a few days she recovered and went on to live a long life (still got her, lol); the other progressively lost airway space until she was unable to move, blue around the edges of the wattles and crest, weak from oxygen starvation, and we culled her because she was struggling so badly with every breath.
In my experience the ones that squeak have more of a chance than the ones that don't. If they don't make much of a noise, it's too deep to be dislodged easily. There's nothing much you can do in either case as far as I know.
Your rooster sounds like he might have some kind of restricted airway issue that could be damage from a previous or existing lung infection. Doesn't sound like he's inhaled anything obstructive or inflammatory. But that said he could be sensitive to something in the environment which aggravates him when it's hot; maybe something that releases pollen when the temperature rises? I don't know, just theorizing. I notice some plants wait for a certain temperature before flooding the yard with perfume. Some lung issues do permanent damage. Some are inherited so best to keep an eye on him. If his offspring do it too... I'd make him into dinner.
Best wishes with that anyway. Maybe he's just gotten into the wrong sort of ash or something and burnt his lungs a bit. I'd suspect temporary trauma unless he's been that way all his life.
The only reason I can think that somebody would do such a thing would be if the animal had a life-threatening injury and had to be put down... I suppose if they were trying to attract pigs or dogs, then why not use the meat?
That's what I thought. Maybe she had an accident during a show. She was polished and oiled and preened to a high standard. They didn't own horses, so maybe they were saving someone a grave digging task. But it's strange they wouldn't use the whole thing for dogmeat, since they had dogs. I don't know what they were up to. I have often heard of horses getting stolen but that's bizarre. Recently someone stole 500 000 head of a prime droughtmaster herd of cattle. The cops have asked the abbatiors to keep an eye out for them, but really, whoever did that one has an extensive operation going with many accomplices in high places, and most likely a good few million acres where they'll never be found. Doubt they'd steal them to kill them immediately, they'll be spotted if even one cow from that herd makes her way into a slaughterhouse. I bet they stole them to breed, really.
Had to say it. 
