Three of Five doing well, but.. the other two are slackers.

[MikeEyre]

I wrote up a msg a while back on here about one of my BR's with a powdery white colored small comb and small wattles, and a RIR of mine also with small comb and wattles.. but no whitish colors like the BR. I have five chicks total, all 24 weeks old now. One of the RIR's layed her first egg about a month ago, the other BR about 3weeks ago, and the other RIR about two weeks ago.. bu still nothing from the remaining BR or RIR. The two non layers have distinctly small, underdeveloped combs and wattles in comparison to the rest, whose are all bright red and large.. do I have two duds here? They just don't seem to be evolving any further along as far as growth, and there's no eggs from these two. The other three are fairly regular now as far as that goes. I have searched and inspected this BR with the whitish comb and there's no mites, bugs, etc on her.. it's just the way she is. None of the other birds have anythign like that either, so I rather think there's two separate things going on here.. the weird color, and the non-developing aspect. Can anyone out there comment on this with some thoughts? Have you ever had a chicken that just.. well, seemed stunted in growth and never went anywhere from there? Curious..

 

[fordmommy]

Hummm????

Could you post a pic???? That may be helpful. But I also think that if you are sure on the age of these birds in question....than they must be girls. The small ...er....ish...comb and wattles tells me this. Plus, if you know that the one BR is a girl and is laying, than you would notice a difference in apearance. The males have long skinny tail feathers. Defenently look different from the female at this point. You should notice this easily. So, I think you may have to wait a little longer. Chickens are funny that way.

They can't read.....

so, when we say they should start laying between 18-22 weeks......how are they to know......

But seriously.....every chicken is different. One may start at 18 weeks and one may start at 30 weeks. Be patient my friend. Take a pic and post it here. Then you can set you mind at ease.


P.s.

 

[wildorchid053]

i don't know why but my little RIR was so tiny.. 1/2 the size at 6 weeks so we figured a female runt. it ate good.. ran fast like a road runner.. very healthy.. then one day about 4 mos.. it crowed.. the 3 other roos that came with it were well over 5 lbs and this one was barely 2.. well it has been 7 mos now and all of a sudden this runt has taken off.. in the last month it has almost grown to the size of the others.. nothing has changed.. feed water nothing.. so i guess it was a slow starter.. maybe that is what you have?

 

[MikeEyre]

Hey all.. OK, I should have posted some pictures right off, so let's start again. Here's a sot of one of my known laying birds, inthis case, my biggest BR of the two I have:



And here's a pic of the smaller one, with the whitish colored comb. It's not a great pic, but the darned bird kept moving around.

And finally, here's a good shot of the RIR I have that's also not laying. She also has a very underdeveloped comb compared to the rest, but does not have the whitish colored comb. Here's a pic of the bird in question:



They are physically the same size BODY wise as the rest.. just the combs and wattles of these two above-mentioned birds.

 

[MikeEyre]

Bump

Nothing? Anyone have anything like this? Slow growers? Etc?

 

[theFox]

Give them more time.

The pictures of the two that aren't laying indicates they are fine birds but just not quite to the lay point yet.

Every bird is different, I still have a bird I'm waiting on and her sisters have been laying for almost two months.

 

[MikeEyre]

Great news! Well, sorta. Thanks for the reply.. I was just wondering if there was something wrong with 'em.. and if there was still hope for some eggs. I'd still keep them, cause I like them just for who they are.. but was wondering if there was just such a thing as a lame chicken.

 

[Dora]

I can't believe I read this post, because I was in the middle of asking exactly the same question. I bought two pullets in mid-July from a reputable poultry farmer. Both supposedly born in March (which would make them about 30 weeks old now). The Barred Rock was much smaller than the Cuckoo Maran, but I was told that was due to the difference in breeds. The tiny BR has always been a bit awkward and gawky, and still doesn’t seem mature enough to lay. I am wondering whether she is retarded. I've been getting 6-7 eggs per week from the CM since mid-Sept. I'll be interested to see what advice you get.

 

[feathersnuggles]

Me too, I've got 1 out of 5 that hasn't started laying yet and she's a blue wyandotte, about 29 weeks old. I got her, along with the others, on May 2 as day-olds (probably more like 4-5 days old). Anyway the four layers started laying as early as 19 weeks old on Sept. 12th (the first hen) and the 4th hen started laying 9 days ago.

My non-layer is a big healthy-looking girl with a very red comb & wattles. She just isn't even squatting yet, so I'm...you know.

Are your underdeveloped white-combed pullets eating well? Are they filling their crops with feed and are those crops full at night? Check their crops when they're on the roost, and compare with the layers' crops. If they don't have plump crops, you could offer them some additional protein, in order to see if they just need a nutritional boost to catch up with the others. I did that with one of my girls (the one who started laying 9 days ago, matter of fact). In September I noticed she was visibly smaller than the rest and not developing as quickly and getting more timid by the day. (and she had been the biggest of my chicks). She wasn't sick. So I started giving her daily scrambled or hardboiled egg, sometimes mixed with a little plain yogurt. I fed this to her, separated and out of the view of the rest of the flock. Over a month or so, I started noticing she got bigger and stronger, her comb got cherry red and her feathers got really glossy. What I did for her was to just give her a "leg up", so that she eventually was able to more aggressively feed herself in the presence of the bigger birds. Her size looks good now, and she lays a large, perfect egg every day.

I'd try giving some extra protein, out of sight of your other birds. Make sure it's a high quality protein, tho. They need that most of all, for growth and development.

 

[theFox]

My birds are 27 weeks old.

The one that isn't laying is a big Black Jersey Giant, her two sisters were among the first of the girls to lay. Our girls started on September 15, the first to lay was a Golden Comet. The two Jersey Giants started the next week.

She just started squatting last week and I expect to see her lay shortly. Her head gear is just getting bright red, even tough enlarging red head gear is a sign of maturity I have a blind White Rock that lays regularly that has a very subdued set of head gear.