8 week old chicks not feathered out

[snaffle]

My chicks are 8 weeks old and still have large areas that are not feathered out.
Is this normal?

They all heave wing feathers, some have larger areas on the body.
Most of them still have the downy fluff on their necks.

 

[Alethea]

They're probably ok. The feathers come in bits and pieces, the neck seems to be last. Then they moult.

 

[teach1rusl]

My little ones are 6 wks. Four of them are feathering out pretty well, but I can tell that one of them will still have some scraggly places by 8 wks...she's just so far behind them for some reason (all hatched within a day of one another). I'm not sure why some feather out so quickly, while others seem to take forever.

 

[sheila3935]

sorry but boys tend to feather slower than girls. Maybe the slower one is a boy.

 

[EMaker]

I've had a group of all pullets do the same. Sometimes chicks feather our more slowly than others. It *can* be the sign of a cockerel chick, but not always. I've had plenty of slow feathering pullets.

 

[fiddlebanshee]

I wonder if there is also a difference between breeds. My 5 breeds are feathering in at very different rates. The welsumers go at lightning speed, at 2 weeks their wing feathers are almost totally in and their tail feathers are growing rapidly too. On the other hand the Light Brahma's hardly have any wingfeathers yet at all, and no tail to speak of. The other breeds (australorps/dominiques/GLWs) are inbetween these two extremes. They have a decent amount of wingfeathers and a little bit of a tail to come through.

I don't think that all three of the light brahmas are boys. That'd be too much of a sexing error at the hatchery. So perhaps it is also breed dependent.