Does growth have anything to do with gender?

[Moochie]

The second chick we hatched is growing slower than it's siblings, feather wise. Is that common with Light Sussex? His father is a Light Sussex and his mom is ??? Unknown for the moment.

 

[Tommy Sands]

that's nice!

 

[Happy Chooks]

It can, but not always. (I know, not the answer you were looking for) Cockerals do tend to feather in slower, but they gain size pretty quick.

At 8 weeks, I was given this little 50% English Orp. (thought at the time to be a boy) It was much smaller than the female, and had no feathers between it's wings on the back and very little on it's chest. This picture was taken a couple weeks later, when the chest feathers had grown in.

For comparison, this is her sister at the same age:

She now looks like this:

 

[kera!]

I think so also the tail feathers really seem to be slow sometimes.