if you get a MONSTER chick, twice the size of its hatchmates...(w/pic)

[haTHOR]

is this a good thing? does it indicate to a chicken person what it would to me about a kid (my field)--that parents were very healthy, good nutrition, good physical structure, etc.?

it's a roo, i think, and an EE or an AAxEE (birds ran together, with roos/hens of each breed). it's literally twice as big as the other EE who shares its coloring (so i'm assuming they are likely at least half-siblings). it has a great personality--alert, calm, not aggressive...so much so that i am keeping him with the new FCBMs who are small and get their feet feathers picked by all the other birds.

i want to keep an EE roo. he seems like a shoo-in! is there ANY reason that an extremely large bird does not denote great health or that one should consider not using him or her in breeding?

here he is at 4 days

and he's grown way faster than the others since then...this was at 9 days.

2 wks old, towering above everyone!

 

[One Acre Wonder Farm]

Keep him! He sounds great

I hatched several chicks this year (RIR roo over EE hens). One of them was HUGE, easily double the size of his siblings. Definitely could tell he was a roo by a week old. He is gorgeous now, red with yellow legs, huge muffs and a peacomb

 

[haTHOR]

i guess it surprises me to see the size come out of AAsXEEs..aren't both those breeds on the smaller side? i know EEs are.

 

[RAREROO]

Yep

I have a pullet that was givin to be by Pine Grove ( William Bennett) and she was an accident from where a mottled java roo had bred one of his RIR hens and he hatched her with RIR chicks and she was about twice the size of her RIR hatch mates, and William has some of the best SQ RIRs so they were already huge for their age compared to other hatchery birds, and this pullet was even bigger that them.

 

[chics in the sun]

You sure some stray turkey didn't get in and have his way with one of your hens? HOLY COW that's a big chick!

 

[babyblue]

as long as there are no obvious deformitys and he moves around fine and is healthy I see no reason not to have a big bird around.

 

[pips&peeps]

Most outcrosses produce very healthy big offspring and this is usually referred to as "hybrid vigor".

Also genetically speaking, an outcross can produce a number of different size offsping. Here is some info from the book Genetics of the Fowl by F B Hutt:


http://chla.library.cornell.edu/cgi...s+of+the+Fowl&frm=frameset&view=image&seq=271

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I am thinking that most of the chicks have some bantam genes in their makeup, but the one in question does not.

Being extra large is not always healthy. Human babies who are born extra large are as at-risk as ones who are born extra small. Now I am not referring to babies who are at the small and large end of normal, but ones whose size is outside the range considered normal. Chances are that the chick, though does not have these problems.

 

[haTHOR]

that is very interesting jean. i do know that the same thing occurs in plants!

i assume mama is a "partridge" or whatever one chooses to call red/brown EEs...probably this one:

isn't she fierce looking!

so, who do you think is the daddy (hope donnie here doesn't mind me re-posting pics of his roos).

candidate #1

candidate #2
is this a blue wheaton?

 

[haTHOR]

Quote:
the chicks all come from LF, and i know that the majority of those in the pic (19/24) are either pure black java (been kept separate for decades, i know for sure) or FCBMs (jeane line, but gotten from a breeder who would likely be careful with his/her money-making ability). there are about 5 who are crosses (javaX various hens i have) and they are actually bigger than the purebreds (hybrid vigor, i guess!)

i do want to emphasize that when i say i am comparing to big KIDS i mean just that, those who, like my chick here, were born normal/average and grew fast and strong. (my kids were like this, esp. one boy).