Ok, I assume that chickens, like any other creature, develop on their own individual time schedules. but... I find there are some real developmental differences between my two Buff Orpington chicks that are now both a big 33 days old, or 4 1/2 weeks about... They looked pretty much identical when I got them at 4 days old. Now there is a big difference between them. Here they are from the side, This is Ophelia This is Olivia Olivia still has lots of chick fluff especially on her head and neck. As you can see in the photo below, Ophelia has pretty much lost all her chick fluff. And the Barred Rocks, which are nine days older, are all nicely feathered out. so... Why the difference? Did you notice the difference in the size of the tails? I have felt them and the tail it's self feels the same size, it is just Olivia doesn't have any long feathers on her's. But don't the Buff Orpingtons not have much of a tail to speak of? From photos I have seen of adults Buff Orpingtons they seem to not have much of a tail. Any ideas on this???
You said it right, they develop on their own schedules. I have 9 BO hens, and 1 rooster. I bought 10 sexed female chicks, but 1 of them turned out to be my rooster, "Hank" Mine are all 7 mos old now. They are all the same age, hatched at the same time. As they were growing, there was one, that was alway the smallest. But, there seemed to be a coulple that were always bigger, a couple a little smaller, etc... about three size groups. The chick that was alway the smallest, is not the smallest one now. They are still slightly different sizes. Their combs and wattles, were always a little different too, still are. Same with their tail feathers. Not sure if it is because they were hatchery chicks, and are not exactly the breed standard or what. But, I will add this one thing. I went to the NC State fair this weekend, and looked at the "prize winning chickens". Like I said, I'm not sure if mine meet the "breed standard" or not, but my chickens looked 10 times better than the winners among the Buff Orpintons, particularly my rooster. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that my chickens free range most of the time. For all I know, those chickens live in cages.
Also my Barred Rock now have a stripe of dark in their beaks, I was reading that Barred rocks are to have yellow legs and beak... but mine have dark legs, and it appears they beaks are now going to turn dark.. Is that normal??
I can only tell you with my experience. I have 5 BOs and I thought they were all female. One though was slow growing and hardly any tail compared to the others. To find out she was a he. I also found out with my LB's that the one that had hardly any tail feathers, was a rooster. Here are my BOs when they were about 4 weeks old. The smallest one was the rooster. He did have an issue when we first got him (limping, not much movement) but he got better within a few days, so that might have contributed to his really small size. this is what he looks like now Also my BRs have black on their legs and black on their beak. I used to tell them apart by the color of the beak, not anymore, the color spots change and now I tell them apart by the comb.
I do hope all of mine are hens. I can't have a rooster in our city limits. One of the feedstores says they will find homes for roosters should the 10% chance of getting a rooster come to pass. I will be watching the combs and wattles closely to see if there are any signs of them being roosters. I wish I could keep a rooster!!
We have 4 buffo's and they are almost 9 weeks old and they are all different sizes. One of them is HUGE, but we are not convinced that any of them are roos. They are at the stage where they do the chest bump thing with each other. Keeps me laughing!
