Will my pullet keep maturing?

[TerrorBird]

I've had chickens for about nine years and haven't seen this happen with any of my past chickens, so I'm wondering if anyone has had a similar experience. I have an Australorp that has been raised with three other pullets of the same age. As a chick, she always lagged in physical development. She looked like she was weeks younger than her friends! They're almost 22 weeks old; two are laying and another has started to squat. They all have nice big red combs and wattles, but her comb and wattles are terribly small and her face is fairly pale. She seems to have stalled at this point. She's been like this for several weeks and I'm starting to wonder if she'll ever start to lay. I'm keeping her regardless because she's one of my pets. Has anyone ever had something like this happen? If so, what was the end result? Here's a picture from a few days ago.

 

[Matt A NC]

The first time I had a cochin pullet that got Cocci when 3 months old. She was treated and recovered just fine, but it runted her. She was about a month behind her sister when they matured.

The second was a Dutch Cockerel. Spot was just TINY. At 2 months old he was half the size of the other Dutch he hatched with. Other then the size he was completely normal. A float test showed no internal parasites. He was healthy, just tiny. He keep right on growing and maturing well after everyone else was fully mature and full feathered. He went through his last molt into adult feathers at 7 months old. That should have happened at 3.5-4 months old. He is perfectly normal now, just a little full of himself since he thinks he is boss.

The third was last year with a d'Uccle pullet. Squirt ended up having worms. That slowed her down. After I wormed her she took about 2 weeks to start actually growing again. The time she was sick and the time to start growing put her a good month behind her sister as well. Today she is a healthy hen the same size as her sister.

Anything can slow a bird's development down. She may have gotten slightly sick when younger and her energy went to her immune system instead of growing. She may have never even shown any outward signs of sickness. OR she just may be slow to mature for no reason other then she is different.

Matt

 

[TerrorBird]

Funny thing is, the others left her out of the silly pecking order fights when they were still chicks. When she finally got into the struggle, she powered her way to the top! She's a sweet girl. When she was still a baby, I was always worried that she'd just stop growing! She was just that far behind her friends. Her slow development will forever be a mystery. She's probably just a terribly late bloomer. Thanks for your words of wisdom, Matt!