Does egg size determine the size of the full grown chicken?

[Saponaria]

We have an assortment of chicken breeds and they just hatched their first 4 home made chicks. LOL Anyway, my husband and I were wondering what determines the size of the chick. Unlike a uterus an egg does not stretch to accommodate the size of the baby.

So we have this one teeny tiny chick. It's clearly a banty and a small one at that. But the coloring looks like the father is our EE rooster. So will it stay tiny because he came from a tiny egg and mother or is it possible that because his father is big he will grow larger than if his father had been a bantam? Does the size of the chick at hatching have anything to do with size at fully grown?

 

[Kev]

Egg size has little to do with adult size. Chick size either.. For example some lines of Jersey Giants lay tiny eggs.. they just "grow lots" either faster or over a much longer period than other breeds. Some bantams lay a rather large egg for their size.. not necessarily a desirable trait as this can sometimes kill the hens. Bantam chicks can also come out rather largish, they just mature much faster and/or grow their body size slowly.

Crosses between bantam and standard usually comes out somewhere in between. In some crosses, the size will lean towards the bantam parent in others more towards the standard..

 

[walkswithdog]

Some of my biggest chickens came from small or pullet eggs. Some of my biggest chickens were tiny even slow growing chicks. Nope - doesn't matter at all.

 

[noplacebo]

I have heard the hen is more important in determining the size of the chick than the rooster, any idea if it's true?

It is in most species including humans..

 

[tadkerson]

Inheritance for size can be sex linked. The dwarfing gene is sex linked. Males can inherit the dwarf gene from the mother and the females can be standard sized. There are also dwarfing genes that are not sex linked. To some degree bird size is associated with the genetics of the female but that is true in broilers. I would say that size in general for standard size birds is a combination of the genetics from both parents

Tim