What Did We Rescue?

[RedDrgn]

There is a long story behind these birds that's both sad and ridiculous, but to summarize, their previous "owners" kept them (illegally) in a town, and then moved out and abandoned a large flock of chickens that were all quickly killed by a number of things (cars, dogs, and people) until there were two, and a kind neighbor took it upon themselves to try and find them a home.

So we've got these two crazy birds that we know are 5-6 months old, they're apparently bantams, they are 100% flighted (a real treat to try and catch in the middle of a town, let me tell you), and the hen lays a medium-sized tinted egg. They appeared to be solid white and just dirty when we went to catch them, but they're not. The cock has small black flecks randomly scattered all over him, and the hen has some light buff-colored neck/breast feathers.

I THINK they're Old English Game banties, but I've got no experience bantams or game birds and really don't know. Any ideas?

 

[JedJackson]

Very kind of you to save them. Good job. They are probably Leghorn mixes, possibly with OEG bantams. Pure OE games wouldn't have white ear lobes or yellowish legs. They are very cute and I hope they find nice, loving forever homes.

 

[Folly's place]

Good work! I don't know for sure what they are either; OEGs, or some mixture, but they look good.
Mites or lice? Have a fecal checked too. They look good, anyway.
Bantams are fun!
Mary

 

[Folly's place]

They can really fly high, and these birds are survivors! Leghorns lay white eggs, not tinted. Mixes?
Mary

 

[HenniesInMyHeart]

I really cannot stand people sometimes...how awful! Thank you for taking in these two though! You might want to consider clipping some primaries on your banty's wings to limit how flighted they are. More pics please! <3

 

[RedDrgn]

Very kind of you to save them. Good job. They are probably Leghorn mixes, possibly with OEG bantams. Pure OE games wouldn't have white ear lobes or yellowish legs. They are very cute and I hope they find nice, loving forever homes.

We originally thought they were banty leghorns, until we got them home and gave them a thorough look-over and realized they weren't just filthy from the awful conditions they had been in, so of the color was actually theirs! So they may be our first mutt-birds.

The cockerel has actually already been re-homed to a banty flock near us. The hen we are going to integrate with our own flock, though we have to get an infected toe wound healed up on her and carry out the remainder of her quarantine to make sure she is otherwise as healthy as she initially looked. Going to take quite a while to settle her down, though, they've been on their own and on the run for a long time.

 

[RedDrgn]

They can really fly high, and these birds are survivors! Leghorns lay white eggs, not tinted. Mixes?
Mary

The cockerel flew 3/4 of the dang city block down an alley in one of his runs...absolutely incredible - thank goodness they actually are chickens and still instinctively stay on the ground MOST of the time or we'd have never been able to wrangle them!

Eggs are definitely tints (the hen was sitting on 17 of them!).

 

[JedJackson]

We originally thought they were banty leghorns, until we got them home and gave them a thorough look-over and realized they weren't just filthy from the awful conditions they had been in, so of the color was actually theirs! So they may be our first mutt-birds.

The cockerel has actually already been re-homed to a banty flock near us. The hen we are going to integrate with our own flock, though we have to get an infected toe wound healed up on her and carry out the remainder of her quarantine to make sure she is otherwise as healthy as she initially looked. Going to take quite a while to settle her down, though, they've been on their own and on the run for a long time.

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Poor thing. It's great that you're taking such excellent care of her and you found the cockerel a home, and also that you're taking precautions for your other birds. It will take patience but I think you have that in abundance. Best of luck!

 

[RedDrgn]

I really cannot stand people sometimes...how awful! Thank you for taking in these two though! You might want to consider clipping some primaries on your banty's wings to limit how flighted they are. More pics please! <3

The cockerel we re-homed as we've already got a rooster (Russian Orloff), but he's with another banty flock. That's an excellent idea for the hen (who we plan to keep and integrate with our mixed flock), as she is super skittish of people (they've been on their own and chased by just about everything according to the neighbor who wanted to find them homes). We've got her quarantined for health monitoring and a toe injury now in the garage in a large dog crate, but we won't even open that crate unless the garage door is closed because she is SO fast. Thanks so much for reminding me of that trick (one wing only, I recall)!

And yes, some people totally suck. If you can't/won't care for animals, DON'T GET ANIMALS. It's awful sometimes.

 

[RedDrgn]

Good work! I don't know for sure what they are either; OEGs, or some mixture, but they look good.
Mites or lice? Have a fecal checked too. They look good, anyway.
Bantams are fun!
Mary

Surprisingly, no mites, no lice, no fleas (nor evidence of any having been there) anywhere on either of them. Fecals visually clean and perfectly normal, so we'll just add them to our usual flock screenings and de-worming cycles unless we see something different while they're separated. Other than the hen's toe wound and being quite dirty, they were in good shape!