Runt?

[oherin]

I am a total chicken newbie. I have 8 very cute EE chicks that were hatched locally. They are a week old and one of them looks smaller than the others. Could it be a runt...or am I doomed to have 7 roos and 1 hen?!

 

[teach1rusl]

The starting size of the chicks has nothing to do with who will be pullet/cockerel. If it's just a bit smaller, I'd say runt. If it's a lot smaller, then runt or possibly bantam, but I think the likelihood of them accidentally tossing a bantam is there is next to nil - so most likely a runt. It will probably catch up within a few weeks

 

[Knittycat]

I started noticing at one week that one of my BR was a bit smaller than the others, and was feathering in slower. We're up to almost two weeks now, and the difference is more pronounced.
One of my other chicks, a welsummer, was bigger than the little BR but was also feathering in slowly and was a bit smaller than the other welsummers. He was marked as a rooster.
I posted a question with the exact same thread title! And I got some responses and did some searching here and discovered that roos feather in later and tend to appear a bit smaller, although they may weigh more. SO, you may have one rooster on your hands, not seven!
Of course, your mileage may vary.

 

[oherin]

Quote:
Love the idea of only 1 roo!

 

[nuttyredhead]

I had one of those! Here she is last august....

And now...she is the biggest in the coop! (of course i do have Bantams, lol)!

 

[oherin]

Quote:
She is lovely.

 

[Barry Natchitoches]

I bought 4 Delaware chicks at about 2 days old last spring. One of them was definitely a runt.


By six weeks old, the runt was bigger than one of the others and was the same size as another.


Turns out the runt was a cockerel, and when he had some time to grow and some good chow to fill his gizzard, he grew fast and strong.


I had to rehome him at six weeks old because I couldn't take on any more boys, but he was definitely a healthy, happy boy at the time I sent him to live with another family.