MaryOos
Chirping
- Jun 1, 2015
- 50
- 27
- 81
I have 5 Columbian Wyandotte chicks. 1 had a more charcoal marking than yellow, 2 had some dark marking but not as much a the first. And two were mostly yellow with soft grey rumps. The hatchery chick video shows that Columbian chick can look very different and, honestly, when I opened their shipping carton I though I had 3 different breeds.
Well, the same seems to hold true for their size and feather development. The darkest chick is feathering out much faster than the others with very little chick fluff left. The 2 very light yellow/ grey chicks are still mostly chick fluff on head and torso. The upper/ shoulder half of their wings is nearly bald with random tiny feathers starting to develop. The lower/ tip half is feathered out now and they have half the tail feathering as the darker chicks. The medium colored chicks are right between as far as development.
But the strangest part of all is the size difference. All 5 feel frightfully boney in the chest even though I know they are all very good eaters. My dominiques and faverolles (all also hatched May 18) all feel healthy and properly filled out. Just growing pains/ uglies difference between breeds??? But the strangest of all is the size difference between the yellow/ grey chicks. One is the smallest of the 5 Columbians while one enormous compared to all 16 chicks. The enormous one is the one pictured on my profile pic. First she grew giant feet for her size. Her legs were extra long and gangly as well. She was a yellow ball on stilts.
Is this normal for Columbian Wyandottes to vary so widely? My dominiques feathered out first and very evenly and at the same pace as each other. My Salmon Faverolles followed suite. I can't tell any of the Faverolles apart at all. But the Columbians are all so different and boney and gangly. A friend who has been raising chickens for years says she has never seen a layer with such huge feet and thinks maybe they slipped me a broiler. She has also never seen such a varied over-all size. This bird is getting the black lacey collar around the neck like a Columbian. But then I know Delawares are very similar, are short lived, and often considered broilers. Could they have slipped me some Delawares in place of Wyandottes? I would love to know what anyone with Columbian Wyandotte experience might think.
Also, she is growing so fast that just over night I can often see a huge difference. This morning was probably the biggest growth spurt yet, doubling her size to the other same colored chick. The photo below (and my profile) were taken June 3rd (15 days earlier). Her wings still look much the same but she has some tail feathers and a few other random feathers coming in, including tiny black feathers around her neck.
This is a photo of the darkest chick taken at the same time. She is mostly covered in feathers now while the one above is way behind in feathering. The dark one has also always been the more slender one of the bunch.
Well, the same seems to hold true for their size and feather development. The darkest chick is feathering out much faster than the others with very little chick fluff left. The 2 very light yellow/ grey chicks are still mostly chick fluff on head and torso. The upper/ shoulder half of their wings is nearly bald with random tiny feathers starting to develop. The lower/ tip half is feathered out now and they have half the tail feathering as the darker chicks. The medium colored chicks are right between as far as development.
But the strangest part of all is the size difference. All 5 feel frightfully boney in the chest even though I know they are all very good eaters. My dominiques and faverolles (all also hatched May 18) all feel healthy and properly filled out. Just growing pains/ uglies difference between breeds??? But the strangest of all is the size difference between the yellow/ grey chicks. One is the smallest of the 5 Columbians while one enormous compared to all 16 chicks. The enormous one is the one pictured on my profile pic. First she grew giant feet for her size. Her legs were extra long and gangly as well. She was a yellow ball on stilts.
Is this normal for Columbian Wyandottes to vary so widely? My dominiques feathered out first and very evenly and at the same pace as each other. My Salmon Faverolles followed suite. I can't tell any of the Faverolles apart at all. But the Columbians are all so different and boney and gangly. A friend who has been raising chickens for years says she has never seen a layer with such huge feet and thinks maybe they slipped me a broiler. She has also never seen such a varied over-all size. This bird is getting the black lacey collar around the neck like a Columbian. But then I know Delawares are very similar, are short lived, and often considered broilers. Could they have slipped me some Delawares in place of Wyandottes? I would love to know what anyone with Columbian Wyandotte experience might think.
Also, she is growing so fast that just over night I can often see a huge difference. This morning was probably the biggest growth spurt yet, doubling her size to the other same colored chick. The photo below (and my profile) were taken June 3rd (15 days earlier). Her wings still look much the same but she has some tail feathers and a few other random feathers coming in, including tiny black feathers around her neck.
This is a photo of the darkest chick taken at the same time. She is mostly covered in feathers now while the one above is way behind in feathering. The dark one has also always been the more slender one of the bunch.
