What a normal skinned chicken should look like and what indicates disease

[ChixNthings]

For several years I added new peeps and now I have too many and have started killing off some of the older ones for the table. My question is, how do I know what is normal and when should I be concerned? For example, on one bird, the fat had turned from yellow to orange and hard. Another bird had a gouge in the meat not caused by butchering; should I assume a hawk had tried to eat it or is there a disease that does that? Is there anywhere with pictures of skinned birds to know what to look out for? All acted healthy before butchering, except no longer laying.

 

[fried green eggs]

Hi &

,
I was told by a poultry vet that even if, a bird had Mereks Disease which causes tumors in the bird - it was safe to eat if cooked well as long as it was healthy when processed. But, you should post this question in Raising BackYard Chickens in the Meat Birds ETC forum.