I have a mystery!! (Pics)

[Doll Maker]

Well maybe not a mystery, but I sure am stumped! Our Australorp babies will be three weeks old tomorrow. There are wing & tail feathers everywhere and even a few escape artists in the batch.
Now then, we had a bitty one in the group and I just knew she wasn't going to thrive, but thrive she has. I swear she looks at least a week behind everyone else and isn't more than half the size of the others! She is just getting her wing feathers in good and no sign of any tail feathers, just a cute little fuzzy bum. She's feisty as can be and will push her bigger brooder pals out of the feeder if SHE wants in! I don't think there is such a thing as a Bantam Australorp, and other than her size she looks just like the others (without tail feathers <g>). I find myself wondering if she isn't younger than the others. I would think we would have lost more birds than we did (we lost two at the very first) had the others been beyond day old when they shipped. Oddly enough, it was two of the larger chicks we lost. Any thoughts?? Is that even possible?? Or is this little one destined to be a teeny tiny Australorp??? HA!! Think I have the start for Bantam BA's?? LOL

 

[RAWR]

you might..lol

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

Nah - she'll probably catch right up. I had a blue Wyandotte that was SUPER tiny, even smaller than bantams that were her same age, but one day she just shot up, and now she is the same size, or a little bigger than her gold laced counterparts!

 

[Pet Duck Boy]

She doesn't look that small, just a runt. I have a runt with my 5 sex links. It's half the size of the others but is catching up pretty quickly. My runt is just as active as the others.

 

[Tiramisu]

Every chick progresses at its own pace

that one is just taking a bit longer to start growing out feathers.

 

[mommathea]

last year I had a runt black sex-link. Today she is the biggest bird in the yard.

She was quite later in maturing and laying eggs think 7mo, she almost became dinner this fall, but I was to 'chicken' to do the deed. She now lays very pretty almost pink eggs.