chicken runt?

[cloverhillsfarm]

So I may have made a bad choice when I bought chicks this spring. New Country Organics feed store is nearby and they were offering a few different breeds of day old chicks in February. I have no idea what hatchery they came from. I know-bad idea, right? But, in the fall I ordered 7 day old chicks from My Pet Chicken and had a terrible experience. I spent over $100, only to have 1 die the day after she arrived and 2 turn out to be roosters. So, I only have 4 laying hens and we really wanted about 6-8. Unfortunately, getting small orders of chicks from the well known hatcheries is either impossible or very expensive. The local store let me order 4 day old sexed chicks for the bargain price of $14. Now they are almost 4 weeks old. 2 are supposed to be welsummer females and 2 "ameraucanas," but they are really EEs. One of them is TINY. She is less than half the size of the other 3. I think she is an EE, but honestly the breeds look so similar that I'm not entirely sure. She was always smaller than the other 3, but only by a little bit when we first got the chicks. Now it is like I have a 1 wk old chick in with 4 wk old chicks. She appears healthy, eats/drinks normally, seems to be getting her feathers at about the same rate or just a bit slower than the others. She does not have any deformities and no injuries from the bigger chicks. They don't seem to treat her any differently. Are chicken "runts" a thing? Is she a bantam? Is this anything to be worried about?

 

[Spartan22]

So I may have made a bad choice when I bought chicks this spring. New Country Organics feed store is nearby and they were offering a few different breeds of day old chicks in February. I have no idea what hatchery they came from. I know-bad idea, right? But, in the fall I ordered 7 day old chicks from My Pet Chicken and had a terrible experience. I spent over $100, only to have 1 die the day after she arrived and 2 turn out to be roosters. So, I only have 4 laying hens and we really wanted about 6-8. Unfortunately, getting small orders of chicks from the well known hatcheries is either impossible or very expensive. The local store let me order 4 day old sexed chicks for the bargain price of $14. Now they are almost 4 weeks old. 2 are supposed to be welsummer females and 2 "ameraucanas," but they are really EEs. One of them is TINY. She is less than half the size of the other 3. I think she is an EE, but honestly the breeds look so similar that I'm not entirely sure. She was always smaller than the other 3, but only by a little bit when we first got the chicks. Now it is like I have a 1 wk old chick in with 4 wk old chicks. She appears healthy, eats/drinks normally, seems to be getting her feathers at about the same rate or just a bit slower than the others. She does not have any deformities and no injuries from the bigger chicks. They don't seem to treat her any differently. Are chicken "runts" a thing? Is she a bantam? Is this anything to be worried about?

She could be a bantam, or she could be a lot younger than the other ones that were mixed in the same bin.

 

[ChickNanny13]

2x

 

[cloverhillsfarm]

I don't think she could be younger, at least not more than a day or so, as the store only ordered one large batch that all arrived on the same day (customers had to pre-order, not like Tractor Supply where they get multiple shipments over several weeks). After looking a little more closely, she is actually a welsummer, as she has yellow legs and partridge feathering. Do bantams just occur sometimes or was this a chick mix up? Guess it doesn't really matter as long as she is ok. My LO will get a kick out of tiny eggs. I assume a bantam will be okay living with the full sized chickens since they will have grown up together?

 

[gimmie birdies]

You have to get more than you think you need sometimes.

I bought these chicks from a lady who ordered chicks, and 2 passed away during shipping, so the hatchery sent her another 25. Since she lived in town, she sold me 23 of the 25 for 1 dollar each. They are welsummers, EE, and novogen (brown eggers) the EE have the green legs. And the welsummers have the stripes.

I gave the rooster chicks to the ma hen (at 4 weeks) because the roosters were hogging the food, and the good beds, in the brooder. The love their mom, even though they just met. (6 under her)