Slow feathering

[kenya]

Slow feathering? What's your experience? Male or female?

[windwalkingwolf]

Well, in my flock of little mixed mutts, the girls seem to get their primaries before the boys, so in any given batch of chicks 1-4 weeks old, almost anyone running around with a long tail is female while boys are still sporting round fuzzy rumps.

[KimChick]

That seems to be the way with ours, too. The tail feathers are the last to grow, especially on the cockerels, and mine were hatched at the end of May.

[kenya]

Hard for me to tell with the silkies as they always seem to have that tuff of fluff at their tail.

[Jaye]

In my flock of mixed breeds, it seems to depend on the breed. I don't really pay too much attention to tail development early on anymore. Although it's fun to speculate.