[D]

Hello everyone. Last weekend I bought four new chickens ranging from 16 - 19 weeks of age. These include a Maran, two Aracauna and a Silky-Sussex cross. This is the first time I have had young birds, the rest I've had were about 18 months old when I got them, and I was wondering how long it would take the birds to reach full size mainly out of curiosity. If anyone has an idea could you please let me know. Cheers.

[hillfooter]

Your birds will reach sexual maturity at around 24 weeks plus or minus a couple of weeeks or so.  They will be almost fully grown by then though they will continue to develop slowly and and gain weight and their feathering increase through their first year.
HF

[D]

OK cheers for that. Presumably there is likely to be a large growth spurt then between now and then? The birds are quite small and was beginning to wonder if they were bantam versions, although they weren't sold as that.

[joyfull]

a lot of araucanas (especially the lavander colour) do seem to be turning out smaller. I put it down to the latest fad of everybody wanting lavender hens that lay blue eggs so the breeders in order to cash in bred from birds that were under a year old rather than a more mature hen.
Where abouts in Lincolnshire are you D? There are a lot of us from the Lincs area - several of us have araucanas.

[D]

It just so happens that the two Aracauna I have are Lavender, to be fair though, there not my first blue egg layers - I also have a Cream Legbar. Again we were wondering about the Aracauna's size since they are even smaller than the Maran and since I've not had young birds I was wondering about the growth time.
I come from Sleaford. How about you Joyfull?

[joyfull]

Donington so not far away. Marans are a heavier and bigger chicken anyway so the size will show but not to worry araucanas have a bit of an attitude so they will be ok with the others