Speckled Sussex size

[The valar]

Hello, I have studied for years and been building my coop for almost as long. Though this year I finally finished the coop and committed to the speckled Sussex breed. I ordered 8 pullets and 7 straight run from cackle hatchery and received my chicks on april 7, 2020. Everything has been great the temperament and personality of the birds is everything I could have hoped and more. The only concern I have is that from everything I can find the ss breed should mature by about 20 weeks and produce 9 pound roosters and 7 pound hens. My chickens are 17 weeks now and I was looking to cull a few roosters to eat, however they do not seem to have the size I was expecting nor do the hens. The hens are especially small compared to the roosters. Any information or experience of raising speckled sussex would be greatly appreciated.

 

[BudgieKing15]

Hello, I have studied for years and been building my coop for almost as long. Though this year I finally finished the coop and committed to the speckled Sussex breed. I ordered 8 pullets and 7 straight run from cackle hatchery and received my chicks on april 7, 2020. Everything has been great the temperament and personality of the birds is everything I could have hoped and more. The only concern I have is that from everything I can find the ss breed should mature by about 20 weeks and produce 9 pound roosters and 7 pound hens. My chickens are 17 weeks now and I was looking to cull a few roosters to eat, however they do not seem to have the size I was expecting nor do the hens. The hens are especially small compared to the roosters. Any information or experience of raising speckled sussex would be greatly appreciated.

Following because I'm getting a Speckled Sussex.

 

[NatJ]

should mature by about 20 weeks and produce 9 pound roosters and 7 pound hens. My chickens are 17 weeks now and I was looking to cull a few roosters to eat, however they do not seem to have the size I was expecting nor do the hens.

It is common for chickens from hatcheries to be middle-sized: the big ones are not as big as they should be, and the little ones (banties) are not as small as they should be.

For your chickens, I suggest you weigh each bird, and keep the biggest ones for breeding. You can breed toward larger birds. (But do check the "keepers" carefully before you butcher the others--you don't want to keep a bird that has some other major problem. You might find the second-biggest or third-biggest is overall a better bird.)