Barnevolder is so little now

[BlindChickieMom]

I got three hens. One is a Cuckoo Maran, one an Americana/Easter Egger, and one is a Barnevolder. The other two are growing and thriving, but my Barnevolder is now the smallest one in the bunch. The others do not pick on her though when I got her, she looked like her feathers had been pecked off on her back and tail by others. She likes being around the other two and they seem nice to her but they did sleep on top of her at night when they were sleeping on the floor of the coop. I wonder if that is why she is so small now and she now sleeps under the roost while the other two have learned to sleep on it. What can I do to help her catch up and thrive? I take her out in the morning and hand feed her scrambled eggs and cooked ground beef. I will soon start giving her some vitamin liquid in water starting tomorrow. The others have filled out and their feathers seem healthy while the little one's downy feathers are growing back on her back, but not the outer feathers yet from her prior life before I got her.

 

[Den in Penn]

Welcome to BYC
You didn't say how old they were when you got them. Young or smaller birds will try to sleep under larger birds, that is what they do with their mothers. If they Barnvolder is younger then it is to be expected that she will be behind the older ones. But it is possible that she is stunted or maybe a bantam variety. What you are doing by giving her a supplemental feeding and vitamins is abut all you can do if she was stunted.

 

[BlindChickieMom]

Thanks for the welcome. I am new at this. All three hens were bought together as Pullets born on Valentine's Day 2014. In the beginning, the Cuckoo Maran was the smallest, the Barnevolder was the middle sized one, and the Americana was the largest. Now both the Americaner and Cuckoo Maran are about possibly a quarter size larger than the Barnevolder and they have filled out while she still seems kinda skinny like they all seemed like when I first got them. I heard that the Barnevolder is slow to mature, but I didn't think that meant they were slow to grow.