Slow Growing Cockerel

[twsfarm]

I had 7 17 week old cockerels which was way to many so I got rid of all but one. I had a few hens (out of 30) get hurt with 2 we had to cull which I thought was a virus but now I believe it was all the cockerels bothering them. 3 of the cockerels had big combs and wattles and the other 4 had smaller combs and wattles. The one we kept was the least roosterish looking one but I'm pretty sure he is a cockerel because of the earlier showing wattles and saddle feathers. Anyway, my question is, since his wattles and comb are smaller compared to the ones I got rid of is he just developing slower or were the bigger cockerels limiting his growth because we was lower in the pecking order? Kind of like if you put a small gold fish in a bigger pond he will grow to fill the pond. The cockerels in question is a Buff Orpington.

So glad I got rid of all the cockerels. Things are much more peaceful now.

 

[donrae]

Some orpingtons are just slow to mature. Fish grow to the size of the container due to a hormone level in the water, the same can't hold true for birds as they're in open air.

 

[MontanaDolphin]

I had 4 cockerels and all but one were the same size...large. The other one...named Pixie...was about half their size. I think it's just that some grow slower than others, because I raised them all together from a day old, so they got the same of everything. Growth was slow internally as well...I couldn't have 4 cockerels, so three ended up dinner, including Pixie. I know this is gross...but to make my point regarding internal and external growth, when I butchered them, the bigger two had testicles the size of golf balls. Pixie's testicles were the size of kidney beans.

 

[twsfarm]

I had 4 cockerels and all but one were the same size...large. The other one...named Pixie...was about half their size. I think it's just that some grow slower than others, because I raised them all together from a day old, so they got the same of everything. Growth was slow internally as well...I couldn't have 4 cockerels, so three ended up dinner, including Pixie. I know this is gross...but to make my point regarding internal and external growth, when I butchered them, the bigger two had testicles the size of golf balls. Pixie's testicles were the size of kidney beans.

It would have been interesting to see if Pixie grew to match the others when he fully matured. All of mine were close to the same size with the exception of the dominate rooster being slightly larger. We had planned on keeping the dominate one until we saw him mistreating the pullets so he was the first to go. Being first time chicken owners I kept putting off getting rid of them hoping the 3 smaller ones turned out to be pullets. I finally stopped lying to myself and things are much calmer now.