Ugly Babies?

[silkiechicken]

They have a massive girth to them and are round in shape. White + round + wide set legs + large poops + fat yellow legs = meat chick. Even white rocks don't look like that as chicks, and it is in part their lack of feathers that helps ID them. Rather, it's not lack of feathers, but a massive body which feathers can't cover well.

 

[Kellichick]

WELL CRUD!! What's my options for these babies then? I was after egg layers, not meat chickens.....

I feel really stupid right now, because I bought these from a local hatchery as White Leghorns.....

 

[silkiechicken]

Eat them... seriously. They really are not meant to live long, can have leg problems, can have heart problems, can go down and just die if you don't eat them as intended. Keeping them as pets can be done, but personally... not worth the work to keep the bird healthy enough alive.

 

[Caliphe]

They actually look like my leghorns though.. so ... I dunno. Can you take some more pictures?

 

[Patchesnposies]

silkiechicken is right. They are cornish crosses. They are sweet, and sort of doofy. They have a charm all their own. lol They aren't very aggressive and will be very friendly, especially if you feed them.

They will have tons of problems if you don't eat them when they are ready. (6-8 weeks) My children made the mistake of naming two of ours who for various reasons endeared themselves to them, and we never could eat those ones. They lived to be 18 mos, but the last 4 were hard. They just couldn't get around much and both finally died of heart attacks. I vowed I'd never let the kids do that me again.

They cannot grow enough feathers to cover their girth by the time they are ready to butcher. They will look scruffy all of the time when they are young. Ours did eventually grow feather all over their bodies and laid eggs. The quality of life at the very end was poor.

 

[silkiechicken]

Quote:
Are you coming to the spring oregon poultry swap in canby?

Hope your leghorns are really leghorns... Leghorns are much skinnier.

 

[Caliphe]

Quote:
Are you coming to the spring oregon poultry swap in canby?

Hope your leghorns are really leghorns... Leghorns are much skinnier.

Taking a closer look at her pictures, I see what you guys are talking about. Her chickens have an enormous amount of pink skin showing, like bald patches. Mine never had that. They also aren't super chubby like that. Here's some pics of mine:












As for the poultry swap in Canby, I don't know if I could convince my husband to drive that far! We're in Gaston, so it's a bit of a hike. Maybe you could PM me the details! A poultry swap sounds like great fun and I would love to go!

 

[Kellichick]

I am so upset about this. If I quit feeding them medicated food starting tomorrow, how much farther does that push the 8 week butcher date??? They've been on medicated chick crumbles the whole time, as I thought that I had leghorns......

 

[Caliphe]

I feel for you right now. How heart breaking.

 

[BackyardFarmMama]

This brings up a question I have been wondering about. How can I be sure the breeds I get are what I order? Especially as I know nothing about chickens at this point besides for what I've read (though I've read a lot)