I found this while walking our dogs. Is this "chicken of the woods"?
1 Answer
This is indeed Chicken-of-the-Woods - and a nice specimen! However, there are multiple species that closely resemble each other, all called "Chicken-of-the-Woods." Based on your location and the tree it is growing on (I am guessing a hemlock or pine from the bark), it is likely Laetiporus huroniensis (see Emberger, 2008), which grows on conifers east of the Rockies (Kuo, 2017).
Fig. 1. An older Laetiporus huroniensus found in West Virginia. image: Django Grootmyers (CC BY-SA 3.0)
If you might eat these in the future, please read this article (Margulies, 2006) concerning potential toxicity. Marley (2010) advises to eat only a small portion and not share your first time, and to not eat those growing on conifers (i.e., this cluster).