dwarfed australorp?? pics

[Megs]

Hi all, i have this one freak chicken that i hatched 4-5 months ago, thought it was a australorp, but it is tiny still (pictured against pullet/cockeral 5 month old cochin bantams) is this a common occurance? i hatched it from my own eggs, had 3 nice hens and a beautiful rooster (all standard, as far as i know australorps dont come in bantam size). im SURE it has to be an australorp, i would say maybe a strange bantam cochin but it has clean legs? (i was only hatching australorp, cochin and sebrights at the time) it is black with the typical green sheen of the australorps. i did grow out several australorp cockerals to 6 months old, so hes only about a month behind them in age yet....mini

hes the all black cockeral on the left

 

[Chris09]

Can you get a better picture o the comb?

all standard, as far as i know australorps dont come in bantam size

They come in large fowl and bantam...
Chris​

 

[Goose and Fig]

Hmmmm. Even though he is clean legged- he almost looks like he's got cochin feathering on his back. Are you sure ou don't have a cross? Looks like he has the australorp black legs though. Crazy!
I like him!

 

[Megs]

really? i have never heard of or seen bantam australorps before this, i did some research and im wondering if one of his parents (the hens he came from werent sq birds, but the rooster i got for them is quite nice) could have the possibility of producing bantams? i dont know anything about the genetics, but hes a tiny cockeral, i should weight him, what i have read says bantam australorp roosters are tiny (approx 3 lbs, compared to hens at 6 lbs).

no chance hes a cross, all my breeds are penned seperatly (and the standard australorps are about 1000 feet away from the bantams at the oposite end of the property).

there is him closer up

 

[HBuehler]

I have the same thing but in one of my Rhode Island White pullets..hatched the same day as the others and about half the size but healthy and fine...having raised animals for 30 years I know it just happens sometimes.It doesn't mean he's a Bantam he's just cute.Just think how boring life would be if everything was the same for all.

 

[Megs]

o well hes such a cutie that i think ill make him a pen of his own and give him a few random ladies. i have a cute medium sized white mix breed hen (who loves to go broody, so if she wants to ill let her hatch eggs with him) that is a cross between my grandmothers red star/rhode island red type hen X with my bantam polish rooster (gave her the roo after his flock got attacked by an owl

broke through chicken wire (my pens are now made from heavy duty knucklehead wire), and a sebright hen (who gets picked on to badly by the other sebright hens to be with them, but who bullies any smaller chickens with her!) who i think he can have

 

[Chris09]

Well I hate to tell you but there not pure australorps at least he isnt..
He has all most a pea comb... Australorps should have a single comb......
Sorry..
Chris

 

[Megs]

all the parents had single combs and look like/were sold to me as pure australorps. i dont think it looks like a pea comb, he is a runt so who knows what growth problems he has

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

http://www.edelras.nl/chickengenetics/mutations2.html#gen_mut_dwarf

I don;t see anything that looks pea about the comb--looks pure single comb to me.

 

[antiemm]

I have five Cuckoo Maran pullets all hatched from the same parent birds at the same time. Four of them are big and perfect and one is a runt. She was never ill that I know of and always gets her share of food.

I also have a Golden Campine who had a pretty bad case of coccidiosis as a chick. She is perfectly healthy now but grew very slow and is tiny even for a Campine. It seems there are a number of gut ailments that cause stunted growth in chickens.

Who knows, it could be a conginetal defect, a genetic anomaly or illness of some kind.

He's awful cute....

am