Chick Not Feathering

[dianaross77]

Feathering slowly isn't a concrete indicator of sex. I have 4 Isa Brown pullets that are a month old. One we named stumpy because she feathered out so much slower than the other 3. They are sex-linked chicks so I know she is a girl and once her feathers came in, they were the same color as the other girls. Some chicks are just late bloomers. Just be patient. If you bought "pullets" chances are she is just that.

 

[SassyKat6181]

I have a batch of RIR's in the brooder now that are 2 weeks old. 12 are pullets and 4 are roos......your little one is definitely a ROO!

 

[AccentOnHakes]

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Did you get them from the same source?

Come on baby be a late bloomer....I did buy pullets(or "hens" as they were labelled,

) The thing isn't that she(it?)..it isn't just feathering slowly, it's not feathering at all, I think! I did notice some coming in on the chest, not sure when they appeared.
I just made a $5 bet with my mom that this one is a roo, still I hope I lose!

 

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

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I agree, especially this early. Give the chick a few weeks and then look for stance and growth along with the slow feathering. 6 weeks is when I've found you truly can get a good idea of gender.

 

[AccentOnHakes]

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I agree, especially this early. Give the chick a few weeks and then look for stance and growth along with the slow feathering. 6 weeks is when I've found you truly can get a good idea of gender.

Be a pullet be a pullet be a pullet
This little chickie, as of yet, has a small comb that is yellow and is pretty docile when I pick it up, but you can never tell...

As for "this early"...I honestly don't know how old this chick is. We didn't ask at the feed store, but let's assume a week when we got it. That was exactly two weeks ago, so that would make possibly three weeks...

Here's another picture I took today while they were outside;look at those tiny little wings!

"Like a G6...."
Little bugger can't stretch its wings out enough, so the wing tilts up. Maybe I should change its name from Posy to...I dunno...Jet? Though I might lean towards Miranda(my friend, who's called Miranda, in PE we used to run around like little boys pretending to be airplanes when we were doing our liners.

)

 

[KZ]

I am not an expert, but I can't believe that chick is 3 weeks old. I have 3 week old chicks who would look like velociraptors next to her/him.

 

[AccentOnHakes]

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Well...it's at least 2 weeks, which is still pretty...small for that age. The pic on the first post is from two weeks ago, so that's why I'm guessing three weeks. Yeah, but this chick has grown bigger, just not feathered.

 

[AccentOnHakes]

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The patterning on the wings of your chick seem different than mine. Mine has black kind of branching off the part in the middle. I've heard that most "RIR" sold by hatcheries are Production Reds or something similar, did you hatch that chick yourself?

 

[Nicole01]

I have a RIR that is feathering out nicely. Your little chick still looks pretty young. Perhaps it was only a day or two old when you bought it. I hope you have a she, hang on to her a bit and see. I was at the hatchery and he rarely has them returned as roo's from the hen bins. If you picked up your chick from the straight run bin, then I would say roo.

 

[Raen]

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The patterning on the wings of your chick seem different than mine. Mine has black kind of branching off the part in the middle. I've heard that most "RIR" sold by hatcheries are Production Reds or something similar, did you hatch that chick yourself?

Mine is from Ideal. Here she was at 1 week old.