Interesting! I noticed in the summer (when I had broodies) that their chicks seemed to eat less. The broody chicks were being taught how to run, scratch, roost, avoid mean hens, & obey mama, while the human raised chicks only learned how to eat & drink. Definitely in the 1st week, the human raised chicks looked bigger & stronger. Yet the broody raised chicks seemed to mature faster in "chicken knowledge." We sold those particular human raised chicks, but I know what you mean.I noticed today that from the twelve 3 week old chicks, the six being raised inside are a good 2x larger than their six hatch mates being raised by their momma, and have 3x the feathers. Does anyone know why that might be? I have a chick feeder of chick starter outside for all the chicks, which they do eat, and they also eat the flock feed that their momma breaks up for them, and whatever else. The inside chicks only get the chick starter.
Only 5 are in the picture, but they are all the same size.
I kept a couple pullets from March (human raised) & 2 from July (broody raised). The human-raised pullets are still lower in pecking order (even though they're older) than the 2 broody-raised pullets. The broody happened to be at the top of the pecking order, so her chicks were given a lot of prestige. At 8 weeks, they still slept on the top roost right next to mama & the roo. (We call them our millennials because they never moved out) Now they sleep on the 1st or 2nd roost, but the March pullets sleep on the 3rd roost or the other set of roosts which doesn't have a window. ( where the "losers" must sleep ).