Feather growth Im confused...

[littlebirdoz]

Can anyone give me a primer on the feather growth to look for in males and females. I have been looking around and I cannot find anything simple. I know it will be different depending on breed but are there a few basic traits that are obvious.
Sorry if this is a dumb question I just cant seem to get the gist of this.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm not surprised you are confused. There is a lot of misinformation on this forum on some aspects of that. It is breed dependent. Some things work sometimes or on some breeds but not others. Gritsar posted a link to some California University site that gave some general guidelines yesterday, but she posts so much on here I can't find that post. I'll PM her and ask her to give it to you. She''s usually pretty good about that sort of thing.

Remember what is said in that article is just general guidelines. It helps to have other chicks of the same breed to compare with, each breed is different, and crosses can be hard.

 

[dretd]

Quote:
Here is what gritsar posted--its been posted multiple times here on byc, but when I tried to go to the source at UC Davis I couldnt find it, so they may have taken it down or the original source may be different, not sure who the OP of this info was:
Quote:

 

[littlebirdoz]

Thank you! Exactly what I needed. Now maybe I can figure out these birds.

 

[gritsar]

The first time I ever saw that info. from the UC Davis was several years ago. It was posted by Gindee77.

I cut and pasted it into my word perfect program because I know the frustration of trying to go back later and find something on a universitys website, only to have it gone.

 

[gritsar]

I had to dig back several years, but here is the OP:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=48329

 

[Pele]

That is an excellent guide! However I agree that you have to be careful, because breeds do differ vastly sometimes.

For example, I have been pulling out my hair over the feathering pattern of my Barred Cochins recently. One feathers exactly like the chart predicts - very slowly with pins coming in late, and the tail even later. BUT my other one at the same age feathered quickly and exactly like a pullet.

 

[tarragon]

Quote:
Sounds like me and one of our barred rocks. She developed a comb really early, and it's pretty red. But, she didn't feather slowly, her tail matches the pullet description, feathers are all rounded not pointy. She is now 10 weeks old and I still wonder......

Her black/white ratio is about 50/50. She's not as black as some pullets her age (from other folks pics) but she's not as white as others roos. Her wing feathers are all the same length, I don't see any hackle or saddle feathers forming, she has dark legs, not yellow, her head spot matched what a pullet should have, she was sold as a pullet, but still I wonder......that darn comb.......