Chick With Delayed Feathering?!

[juliecox]

Hello,

I have a bunch of barnyard mutt chicks. They are about 4-6 weeks old now and all but one are doing very well. This 1-month-old chick is just not feathering out. He's huge now, about 6" tall, taller when he stretches up and tries to look intimidating. But he looks like a just-hatched emu or something! Huge and downy, and naked and knobbly in spots! His wing feathers are all stunted looking. What is it I'm seeing? Is he ever going to feather out, or should I cull him before he gets really ugly and sickly, if he isn't ever going to feather? *winces, because that would be HARD.*

Thanks!

 

[Sjisty]

He is pretty ugly-cute! Some breeds take longer to feather and roos feather more slowly, too. Give him time - he might just be the ugly duckling that grows into a beautiful swan.

 

[Maryallison]

awwwww, give the little guy some time

 

[gritsar]

He'll grow out of the ugly stage. My Thor did:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=220205&p=1

There's a baby pic of Thor there.
Your homely little guy will grow out of the ugly stage soon enough; and yes, I do think it's a little guy.

 

[TK Poultry]

give the little thing some time in my recent hatch i have a few that are a little behind the others all will be well in the end

 

[juliecox]

Thanks, guys! Wow, Thor is one beautiful rooster! Should I keep him inside under a light until he feathers out? He's bigger than some of the fully feathered ones who are already outside! It's quite warm out here in Texas, with overnight lows of around 75 and highs in the mid-90's.

 

[JewellFarm]

Give him a couple more weeks. Pay close attention and see if you see any changes. Cockerels are generally slower to grow in feathers, but not that much slower. I had a GLW similar to yours, and it never did grow feathers. The down part just grew longer and it had bare patches all over it. Not pretty to say the least.

Is this a hatchery bird? Or known breeder?

Anyway to make a long story short, I finally figured out it was a genetics issue and made the decision to cull at around 7-8 weeks. I hope that is not the case with yours.

Good Luck

 

[JewellFarm]

I went back and found a couple of pics of my GLW. You know if yours gets to this extreme you have problems, but I don't think yours is this bad.


Oh and before ppl start commenting, NO this is not a feather picking issue.

 

[juliecox]

He's just a barnyard mutt. I got him along with 9 other mutts for cheap from a lady with a backyard full of other mutts as an experiment, to see how hard it really was to raise chicks before I spent a bunch of money on nice, purebred chicks.

 

[Hozer]

I have a blue copper marans cockerel that is way behingd the rest in feathering out. They are 2 months old.

He looks kinda funny with a feathered out head and a chubby little bald body. Kinda like those featherless chickens. The cool thing is he has a lot of copper on his head and neck.

I'm away at work for 2 weeks. It will be interesting to see how he looks when I get back.