Black Giant Bantam?

[dusterbd]

I have five black giants and they are all the same age but my gears are turning as to why three of them have stayed so small. Two of them are three times the size of the other 3 and I just wondered is there some type of bantam that is black giant cause I have never heard of it. Anyone have any ideas to what it could be as to why my 3 black giants are so small?

 

[muddyhorse]

There is a huge difference in size between show bred JG and hatchery bred JGs. are they from the same place ?

 

[dusterbd]

All of them came from the same place and Were born within one day of each other. The difference in there size is huge maybe since I figured out how to get pictures on here I can in some point today get some really good pictures to post so maybe yall can tell me what I am dealing with because I don't have a clue why some are so much larger then the others.

 

[Goose and Fig]

Are the smaller ones less feathered in? Or were they? It may be what they call "failure to thrive". I'm babysitting a bantam cochin right now that is almost 2 months old. It's in with week old chicks and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

 

[dusterbd]

They have all been feathered really good not a difference in color or feathering at all just the sizes are different. I have two rir bantams and they aren't much bigger then they are in size. its really wierd.

 

[Chris09]

Where did you get them from?

What color are the bottom of there feet (all of them not just the little ones)?

Chris

 

[dusterbd]

I got them from a lady off craigs list she is really big into raising pure breeds and gets all her chickens from cackle hatchery. We bought five black giants from her and 15 buff orpingtons and the orpingtons are doing great the black giants are the only ones with size differences in them. All there feet on the bottoms are a light grey color with black spots. I have some pictures I just went and took I will load them as soon as I can. Maybe it will help...

 

[dusterbd]

This one is the largest one of them all

this is the smaller one

this one is the smallest of the five

this is the largest.

These aren't the best pictures in the world but it was really hard catching them and trying to keep them still long enough to get a picture lol. I hope these help though maybe someone can help me out with what might be wrong or if they may be a different breed.

 

[suzettex5]

Ah! I cant believe Kathyinmo hasnt chimed in on this one yet! She started a really good Jersey Black Giant thread- you should check it out! Lots of pics and breed type discussions.

I would tell you a few things (im not an expert, but I do have JBG's) The bottoms of their feet should be yellow or yellowish- if they are black, grey or tan, they are Australorps or some other mixed breed. Hatcheries sell very bad versions of JBG's. The hatchery versions sometimes have greyish foot bottoms, but that means they are either mixed with Australorp, or very bad quality. That is my understanding, and if another member knows better, please correct me!! JBG's can be very slow to grow at first, some will grow faster than others, your first pic looks over 10 weeks old, the last pics the birds look about 8 weeks or so. All my JBG's are not from breeders, some are hatchery, and you can tell the difference. I love all my flock, but once I am ready to go all Jerseys, ALL my hatchery stock is going because who knows what they really are when they dont have the breed characteristics they should have.

I was sold a hen that they claimed was JBG, but more research proved her to be Australorp. Its sometimes super hard to tell the difference. For now I really dont care, I like them all and they are laying well, so they all get to stay, but I sure wont tell people they are JBG's, when I think they are Australorps, when it comes time to sell.

Does that first bird have leg feathering? If it does, I would look up Langshans, they are kinda similar to JBG's, but have leg feathers where JBG's never do.

 

[dusterbd]

thank you I kinda figured with the way they are growing they weren't pure bred. I still love them none the less. I am new to the whole chicken thing but have fallen in love with many of the breeds. The one in the first picture doesn't have feathers on its legs it just pulled its leg up high when I picked it up. I was by myself trying to get good pictures and that was really hard. lol. I am sure if anyone could have seen me trying it would have been rolling