"Robert Short held a white pail as his mother, Laurie, drove the family truck home Tuesday from the chicken house on their farm in Laurel. Inside the pail was a yellow chick with four legs.
The bird appears to be healthy, chirping like any other chick. The Shorts even let the chicken walk around their kitchen - on two legs, although the second pair were visible.
Laurie Short said they found the chick last week among the 16,000 birds they are raising.
"It had climbed up into the bird feeder, and when my husband went to pull it out, the extra legs got caught," she said.
Laurie said her husband, Buddy, claims to have seen some three-legged chickens and a few dead four-legged ones. But 13 years of raising chickens never prepared her for a baby chick walking around with an extra pair of feet.
"It's not unusual to see them off-color," she said. "But this was really unusual."
The Shorts have debated for the past week what to do with the chick. Laurie Short said they keep the chick isolated for fear the other chickens would peck it for being different.
Short said she called the Delaware State Fair for a possible exhibition, but she was turned down because of the short notice. However, "The Chicken," as the Shorts call it, will be transported to live with Laurel resident Lee Butler, a friend of 10-year-old Robert.
"I'm the type of person who picks the chickens up on the side of the road," said Julie Butler, Lee's mother. "I call them 'Perdue Refugees.' "
Along with two black chickens and a gray one also exiled from the Shorts' farm, the four-legged chick will join the Butler's animal menagerie, which includes geese and goats. The chick will stay unnamed until they can think of the appropriate moniker, Butler said.
Laurie Short said they are glad the bird will be close by.
"We tried not to give it a name because we were afraid we'd get to attached to it," she said. "It's too late."
