Introduction and a question

Hello...... My name is Laura...... And I have a chicken addiction.
My friends and family told me I needed to find a twelve step program.
But instead I found this forum.
Now I'm happy to be amongst others that are as crazy about there chickens as I am.
And of course I intro with a question.
I can't seam to go to our local feed store without buying some baby chicks, on one of these trips I noticed some cute little balls of yellow fluff, The sigh on the cage said ?
Apparently these babies had come in with there other order's and no one knew what they were. So I got a few and took them home to grow them up. I called them my surprise birds. They are about 3 1/2 months old now and while reading and trying to figure out what they could be, I read about different kinds of meat birds, and that when some of them grow up there legs can't support there own weight. There were horrible pictures. How do I no if this is what they are?
There size isn't much greater then any of my others. (Barred Rocks, RIR, that type size) They hang out with the rest of the crew, not always at the food bowl, They spend no more time laying down then any of the others, but there are some things that are different, They have thick yellow legs, and very little comb, and they are not as friendly.
I hope you guys can help me figure out what they are.

I could be wrong but I would think if they were cornish x or meat specific birds they would be bigger at this stage but thats only my opinion. A lot of meat specific birds are meant to be butchered by 3 mos or earlier which is why I say that I think they would be bigger.

I wouldn't sweat it at this stage, just enjoy them. When you get right down to it is it going to matter what kind they are, probably not. They might be pure something or other, and they might be an exotic mix either way you're still gonna enjoy them I'm sure.

Welcome to the forum. There is no 12-step program here as we are all enablers !!!!!!!

Julie =0)

Looks like a regular old white leghorn to me.

K9, It looks just like our Cornish Rocks that we raise for meat birds. They get processed into meat at 7 weeks of age, so yours is already twice what it should be. It is really good for just a stewing hen now. As they get bigger and older, they get tougher. As a rule, they are not aggressive birds, but if you have them with different varieties, they may get aggressive. Our chickens are all free-range, but the cornish rock do not mingle. We have some barred rocks (they are beautiful) and an aracauna. Our laying hens are comets.

As hard as it might seem, you'd really be doing this chicken a favor by making some chicken stew. It is hard to see them get so big they can't hold up themselves. We had that problem with a turkey the first year we raised them and it was really sad. We had one that had gotten so big. We were told by someone that processing age of a turkey was 22 weeks, we found out later, it is really about 18 weeks. This guy was so big he could hardly walk. He dressed out at 63 lbs. Each wing was 4 lbs, each breast was 9.5 lbs. The breast alone was a meal and no one wanted a turkey that big, so we split it with some friends of ours.

I'm going to look real close at the picture, but I don't think it is a leghorn because they have feathers farther down their legs and have bigger chests. This one probably weighs about 9 lbs and we dress ours out at about 5 - 6 lbs.

Hi, my name is Jyl and I'm a chickaholic.....
They do look small for X crosses. If their legs are bad they run like little fat kids crossed with a duck. (Just shut your eyes and picture it) Not all crosses have bad legs, a friend of mine is actually using them as laying birds. We gave him a rooster to breed with them and he has gotten some nice fat chicks (they won't brood though)

The comb on your birds looks quite small and pale for a leghorn. A lot of times hatcheries will take mixed or non standard birds and use them as "warmer" chicks with small orders. They do it with ducks too. I have several that the feed store gave me after all the purchased chicks were picked up. Sometimes I never DO know what they are. But they are chickens or ducks and if they don't lay, they taste good.

By the way, WELCOME!

This could almost be the same photo. It's a white leghorn from this site:
http://www.leghorn.co.uk/

Thanks for the help, I'm hoping there leghorns. It would be nice to have some white eggs. We have about 50 chickens with every size and color of egg except white.
This would make my egg basket as colorfull as my yard.

Look back through the poultry forum till you get to the colored chickens!

Okay showed DH the pic. He knows his chickens, lets just say. He said it is a Cornish Rock. We've had all kinds of chickens with 20 years experience.

But, you could ask your county extension agent.

The legs are too yellow/orange for a leghorn.

K9, I think everyone of us has at least one of theses mystery birds! Heres mine, She does have the beginnings of a comb and she has stocky yellow orange feet and legs. They are a little longer than your bird but she has the same stand offish attitude! I got her from a friend who didnt know what the heck she was!

This message was edited Sep 8, 2007 11:17 AM

Here is another photo, did I mention she was also fast! Its hard to get her to stand still and she refuses to say "CHEESE"!

Oh and K9, the only 12 step program here is the one where you take 12 steps over to the computer to turn it on and pull up DGand then the Poultry and livestock forum.
And or the 12 times a day you actually turn your computer back on after you signed off, so you can check back in with us to see what you missed! LOL!!

Oh my and yes, Welcome, Welcome to the Addicted Chicken Lovers of the World and their Enabling Co-Dependants, forum!! LOL!!!

That is a CornishX .... a meat bird. A chicken for sure but they are not long lived birds as a general rule. They can make a decent soup or stew. They eat like crazy.

I think it looks like this

http://www.backyardchickens.com/breeds/whiterocks.html

Julie

K9MomTo6, I should have read your original post closer. If they end up having a rose comb ....... If these few chickens are eating no more than the others and their combs are next to nothing and they are the same size as RIR; etc. ....... then Wyandottes are what you have ...... in white. I have had Wyandottes in 4 different color varieties ..... Silver-Laced, Gold-Laced, Silver-Penciled & Blue-Laced Red. They are common in White. Black w/ Blue & Splash are easiy acquired. They are less common in Buff (2 colors of Buff are available...pale and dark). They are close to extinct in the Partridge color.... at least in the USA in the Large Fowl category.

They could be White Rocks as well ....... depending on the growth of the combs. Kelly

That's a tough one......good debate too! :)

I'm going to vote Leghorn - but here's why - my feed store around here JUST started ordering the meat birds.....mainly because around here - most everybody does their meet birds in the fall before winter sets in.......3-1/2 months ago.....is when I got my ducks and I never saw meat birds then.....just the egg layers....and my ducks! lol :)

Anyways, you joined a GREAT group!! I always laughed with my mom telling me about all these "chicken-people"......thought she was crazy......now you see - I'm here! lol
Guess I'm the crazy one! lol Welcome to the site - you'll learn A LOT!!!!!!!!!

K9MomTo6, Not to be too disagreeable with Jean529 ..... but Leghorns are a slender breed with skinny long yellow legs and have extended large combs ..... more so than almost any breed of chicken on the planet. Leghorns are normally not near as large in weight as dual purpose chickens either (like the RIR, Rocks, Wyandottes). I've had Leghorns in white, Red & Danish Brown. They are an awesome egg laying chicken breed but extremely flightly and normally lay a large to extra large egg and ONLY white. Most all dual purpose breeds lay eggs that are brown, cream colored or are Ameraucana or Cream Legbars which both lay the pastel blue eggs. Kelly

Ok, one way to figure this out is...How much does the bird weigh? My X Crosses were all well over 4 pounds by this time of year. The friend I have who kept some of his X's still has some that have great legs after a whole year. Not the best layers...but it's kind of funny to watch these HUGE chickens with his other smaller ones. They kind of look like chicken clydsdales. (you can tell I'm not a Bud drinker, I have no idea of how to spell that horses name!)

jylgaskin, If these 3 birds are not literally hanging round the feeders ... they may be the White Rock. I had 1 White Rock hen 2 years ago. I've also had Barred Rock, Partridge Rock & Buff Rock. Only possibilities are :

1) CornishX
2) White Wyandotte
3) White Rock

The thick legs makes me suspect they are most likely the CornishX without quite the food fever as I'm accustomed to. If the comb is not "rose comb" then you can rule out the Wyandotte. If the birds are absolutely miserable egg layers ...... 1egg/wk/bird then you can rule out the White Rock & the Wyandotte. The White Rock will lay 2-3 pale brown eggs/wk. All 3 breeds will lay pale brown eggs. The Wyandottes lay darker brown eggs. They won't start laying for 3 more months age and by then it will be so cold most of the time and most everywhere that they'll likely wait till late February of 2008 to begin laying. Kelly

Ok now I'm thinking these might be white rocks, I have now ruled out Wyandotte's due to the lack of a rose comb, and leghorns because there combs are so small and pale.
With all the info and pictures I have looked through now, it looks to me that a CornishX birds look like something that belongs on a table just still has feathers on, and that you could drive a mac truck between it's legs. So here's hoping that sometime in 08 they will lay start laying eggs. if not I love a good pot of soup.

You know, I just thought of something else. Cornish X are expensive birds and the hatchery would never pack them in as "warmer" birds.

When I bought mine they were about 2.50 each. They each ate about 15 pounds of chicken feed over the summer at 8 bucks for 50 pounds. Hmm, chicken is on sale right now for 99 cents a pound.....Gosh, I think I almost broke even.

Can't beat the flavor though.

Is it a possibility she could be a mutt. Or do hatcheries not deal with any mutts???

jylgaskin, CornishX go for $1 each at the Co-Op here locally. They are the cheapest chick to drop into a box as an extra. The easiest means of determining the breed here is to telephone the "store" and ask where they get their chicks. That hatchery will have a catalog. The catalog will have a limited variety of breeds. We may be able to eliminate 2 of the 3 breeds with one phone call. At 3.5 months a "rose comb" is not evident. It takes 6-9 months before the combs are visible enough to see the difference between rose comb or regular comb. I still think the CornishX is the most likely and the White Rock is a distant 2nd. White Wyandottes are common but some hatcheries just don't get the demand adequate to have a huge variety. Hatcheries don't send out mutts ...... unless you consider Easter Eggers to be mutts ... I do. There are other white dual purpose chickens but the probability of any other breed being a freebie ..... is miniscule; such as White NJ Giants. Kelly

Obviously you know soooo much more about chickens than I do. I'd love to have a source to get my cornish X so inexpensively. Evidentaly chickens are more expensive in Michigan.

CornishX are the most popular chicks sold nationwide. Volume is the reason the cost less. Your local source may be charging a flat price for all of the breeds. We can get mixed roos here at the Co-Op for 75 cents ..... 4 years ago they were going for 50 cents. For what its worth ... I may well know more about chickens than you but it doesn't really mean anything to me and probably no one else either. I just type what I know to be factual and was not trying to step on anyone's feet. I do know CornishX day old chicks sell in tub loads by the hundreds weekly at both major farm supply outlets here in our valley for $1 each. The other chicks of various breeds sell for $1.50 to $2.50 each. Our local Co-Op brings roughly 15 different breeds from both Ideal & McMurray and Phinney (locally) between March and late-May.

Check the prices at McMurray. The cheapest by far are the "frying pan special" which are white leghorn or Highland 55 (whatever that is.) They're 36 cents each when you buy 100 vs $1.15 each for straight run Cornish X if you buy 100. That doesn't include shipping.

I ordered my chicks from Ideal this year and every single one of the six extra chicks they sent was a white leghorn rooster.

Our local feed certainly doesn't sell any chicks for 75 cents unless perhaps you're a poultry farmer buying them in very large numbers. This is a huge poultry farming area. Actually, I think all of the poultry farmers work under contract with the large poultry companies and are provided chicks by Tyson or whatever company they have a contract with.

I think the cheapest chicks the feed store had were a bit over $2 each and those were white leghorns available in a tub at the store. They would order for you but it was actually cheaper for me to order myself.

You're lucky to have such an inexpensive source of chicks. Unless they're buying many thousands of chicks, they might be selling them at or below cost. That could certainly be possible if they're hoping to get your feed business.

Hart, You're certainly correct about the frying pan special. I too mentioned them but it was assorted roos. They sell dirt cheap. Our Co-Op sells the chicks at cost to encourage feed sales. I've compared their prices with Ideal and McMurray ..... they're always within a reasonably close proximity price wise. The CornishX are purchased in lots of 300. The other breeds in lots of 50 or 25. I think we all know how many people want to fry up an egg laying roo like a White Leghorn and why McMurray & Ideal are nearly forced to give them away ...... at every opportunity. It is a pity they can't figure out a way to hatch 95% pullets. It is sad to learn how many are euthanized or sold to pet stores as snake food. A CornishX is several times better tasting than a skinny roo which is why Tysons and every other chicken factory uses them.

What do they do with the euthanized chicks?

Welcome Laura!!
If your family wants you to join the Chicken Anonymous 12-step Program, you've come to the wrong place!! ....Sorry, you're officially livin' it up at the Hotel Chicalifornia! You can checkout any time you like, but you can never leave!

Enjoy!! ~:>
Glenda

Patchouli78, I do not really know. As long as the birds are euthanized humanely this is perfectly legal. Being forced to dispose of a up to 1000 roo chicks a day extra ....... that need feeding ..... they probably go in a pit with 12 inches of dirt on top or into biodegradable bags. The bags would go into a dumpster which goes to a landfill. That is probably the lowest cost.

McMurray selling roos at $0.36 each is just meeting overhead ....... electricity, box, filler, sexing, labor handling, depreciation on incubators and buildings. They're not making a penny ... they just prefer to ship the birds vs. disposing of them in the final option available. You can bet they love chickens as much as anyone. Kelly

Some day I would like to be one of those chicken sexers at the hatchery. Just for a few days so I could love all the little chicks as they went by. Of course, being an addict myself, I'd lust take all the little roos home!