DonyaQuick
Songster
This is Monster, one of four 12-week-old BRxBO cross chicks I hatched this summer. I feel like everyone is surely going to say Monster is a big ol' boy, but this bird has really been confusing me on a few points.
Monster is over 3.5lbs. Might be closer to 4; hard to get an exact reading on a wiggly bird and my scale usually weighs light in those cases. Monster already has a frame equivalent to a couple of my 6lb, 1.5yr BO hens - just missing the extra bulk and fluff. None of the other chicks of either gender are this big. Monster's comb and wattles had a bit of rapid growth up to about 2 weeks ago but now seem to have pretty much stopped. Meanwhile, Monster's growth seems to be accelerating away from that of my other chicks, including a white cockerel from the same parents who looks like a proper mini-roo already. Monster looks very immature by comparison, just massive. Monster has also squatted for me twice this week. Given I have an egg-laying hen who did the rooster wing dance for a while in her younger days, I don't put much stock in a squat by itself, but it's still not what I was expecting.
I thought Monster was getting saddle feathers in, but several times I've been faked out and now what I'm seeing does look different but still looks kind of weird. Although they are narrower than the other saddles they just start to frizz out after a bit and look fuzzy more than pointy. No shine, no clear point. I've put an arrow by one in the pic below. I have a white cockerel from the same batch of chicks that already has a nice blanket of very shiny, very pointy saddles, just like the big roo that was his dad. These things Monster has just don't look the same. But they don't look like regular big round pullet feathers either.
(I also realize there is another thing that looks pointed in the upper right, but it isn't what it may look like - that's one of those narrower feathers but it had the end broken off so the pointy thing is actually from the side of that feather)
Monster is over 3.5lbs. Might be closer to 4; hard to get an exact reading on a wiggly bird and my scale usually weighs light in those cases. Monster already has a frame equivalent to a couple of my 6lb, 1.5yr BO hens - just missing the extra bulk and fluff. None of the other chicks of either gender are this big. Monster's comb and wattles had a bit of rapid growth up to about 2 weeks ago but now seem to have pretty much stopped. Meanwhile, Monster's growth seems to be accelerating away from that of my other chicks, including a white cockerel from the same parents who looks like a proper mini-roo already. Monster looks very immature by comparison, just massive. Monster has also squatted for me twice this week. Given I have an egg-laying hen who did the rooster wing dance for a while in her younger days, I don't put much stock in a squat by itself, but it's still not what I was expecting.
I thought Monster was getting saddle feathers in, but several times I've been faked out and now what I'm seeing does look different but still looks kind of weird. Although they are narrower than the other saddles they just start to frizz out after a bit and look fuzzy more than pointy. No shine, no clear point. I've put an arrow by one in the pic below. I have a white cockerel from the same batch of chicks that already has a nice blanket of very shiny, very pointy saddles, just like the big roo that was his dad. These things Monster has just don't look the same. But they don't look like regular big round pullet feathers either.
(I also realize there is another thing that looks pointed in the upper right, but it isn't what it may look like - that's one of those narrower feathers but it had the end broken off so the pointy thing is actually from the side of that feather)
