Anyone have just a really tiny CornishX?

[IcarusSomnio]

Hello everyone!

I finally got back into chickens again after losing my flock to a very determined fox. I currently have five CornishX, four Rhode Island pullets, and three straight run turkeys in the brooder. Four out of five CornishX - about two, going on three weeks old I'd estimate - are HUGE. One little bird who looks to be a pullet is really tiny, however, about a quarter of the size of her siblings. She's a touch bigger than my RIR pullets. I'm halfway convinced she's not even really a CornishX because she has a lot better fuzz coverage, but shows some of the same chunky build. Very weird, but she is healthy and eats well. Anyone have this before?

I figure I'll just keep her as another egg bird and maybe hatch a few chicks in the future. I've been reading about caponizing and I think the CornishX with a nice dual purpose rooster like a Delaware (maybe an Orpington?) would make for some tasty little Capons.

Honestly I cannot wait to get a nice Caponizing kit put together and start practicing on some fresh dead cockerals. These CornishX chicks are so nasty, I'd rather raise a normal dual breed for a little longer than have to deal with all this poop again! I'm cleaning the brooder daily because the stink about bowls you over.

 

[havery]

Where did you get them from? It's definitely possible something like a leghorn got mixed in if you purchased them from a feed store, all those fuzzy yellow chicks look pretty identical the first few days of life! I had a couple Cornishes (both pullets as well) that were smaller than the others, but it wasn't that big of a size difference and they were definitely still noticeably larger and wider than their standard breed brood mates.

 

[SIMZ]

We had a batch of meat birds and a few had what I suspected was coccidiosis. One of them simply didn't grow well at all. She was always WAY smaller than the rest. It did well and ran around, but just didn't grow (yet kept that stockier look of a cornish).

It seems that I remember reading at one time that a bird can survive cocci, but may have stunted growth. I always thought that's why the one was so small.