wondering why ??

[mikesbigroo]

i had got 12 RiRs and 12 barred rocks as young chics, lost a couple and rest are doing great, the question is i have 3 that never grew much, they are about a third in size as the others, i had removed them early on and it just seems like there growth is stunted, is that possible, they seem fine eat well, just was curious if others have ever had growth problems with there chics, they are about 6mts old now

 

[Mahonri]

I have a leghorn that was always smaller than the rest. She lays small eggs, but she is consistent.

 

[cherylcohen]

We have an ameraucana that is much smaller than rest, I contribute it to the fact that she runs around constantly like crazy. High metabolism in a chicken if it's possible?

 

[genabeana]

This is probably a dumb answer but could they be banties?

 

[cherylcohen]

not in my case

 

[Ridgerunner]

Where did you get your chicks? Do you know much about their ancestry?

There is no such thing as a pure breed chicken. All breeds were developed from mixes or mutants, followed by selective breeding. It is very possible after only a few generations of breeding to have offspring from a half bantam- half full sized fowl that is almost all full sized fowl, but those genes for bantam may still be in the background. And if the rooster is always of the same breed, the offspring will really look like the rooster's breed

By always breeding to a full sized rooster.

1st generation - half Bantam - half full sized
2nd generation - 1/4 bantam - 3/4 full sized
3rd generation - 1/8 bantam - 7/8 full sized
4th generation - 1/16 bantam - 15/16 full sized

Then, if you start breeding within this flock, the bantam gene will sometimes express itself.

I don't know if the bantam gene is dominant or recessive, so this may be totally wrong. But I'll throw it out as a theory for the experts to debunk.

 

[mikesbigroo]

no , sure of that
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[mikesbigroo]

Hey ridgerunner,, thanks for the info,, makes good sense to me
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