Broiler runt??

[lisaequine1]

So we got 32 broilers from Meyer Hatchery, they are now just over 4 weeks old. There are a few that are much smaller than the rest and one in particular is absolutely tiny. This little runt is the most active one of the lot, he runs around non-stop catching bugs and eating clover. I have silkies that were hatched the same day and even they have out-grown him. Has anybody ever had this before? What can we expect to get out of him?

 

[Buster52]

It's not a Cornish Cross, is the easy answer.

 

[NovaAman]

OMG! So cute! LOL, Maybe it's vertically challenged.

 

[PGRanch]

Thats adorable! I wonder what he is

 

[Oregon Blues]

He looks like a packing peanut to me.

 

[MJFarm12]

I've got one, too. I watched her and she hardly even looks at the feed in the pen. I want to know how to get her to eat.

 

[lisaequine1]

I've got one, too.  I watched her and she hardly even looks at the feed in the pen.  I want to know how to get her to eat.

Mine has no trouble eating, never has. It is starting to grow now at a much better pace. Though it's still soo much smaller than the others.

 

[jrsckn]

Wow, that'ss a big difference; no way is that a 4 week old CX

. At 4 weeks mine ranged from 1lb 4oz to 2lb 13oz. That chick doesn't look like it has enough feathers to be a 4 week old anything

 

[MJFarm12]

Mine is 7 weeks old and about a sixth of the size of the birds that have gained normally. I've read about runts in Salatin's "Pastured Poultry..." and he thought they were just small because they were from pullet eggs or birds that were too old--called them quail sized. My dad said he thinks these birds ended up with dominant cornish genes(?)

 

[Cedarknob]

It's hard to say whether that's a CX or not. I've sometimes gotten a chick that I refer to as an FTT [failure to thrive] chick, both in CX that I've ordered and from chicks that I've hatched. If they even live past a week of age, they grow and feather very slowly, and usually die before reaching processing size from a stress the others took in stride. I recently lost a White Ameraucana chick that had, I thought, turned the corner and was starting to look more like a normal chick. It didn't make it through one of the recent days of 100 + degree days.