More tail on males?

norcal

Songster
10 Years
Apr 10, 2009
272
2
131
Northern California
With reds (RIR, ProdReds, NHReds), do the males grow their tail feathers faster than the females? We have two that started getting tail feathers way earlier than the other 4. Just wondering.
 
I've noticed that cockerels do get their tail feathers faster. They will also spar with the other cockerels. They are bigger and their neck feathers are longer. That is when they get their feathers. It does depend on the breed also. I've had many production red/ long tail mixes and the cockerels always have tail feathers before the pullets. Also a hint of a comb is also more visible than in pullets.

This is just in my opinion. There are some breeds you can sex just by the amount of wing feathers they have. I can't recall which is which but it has something to do with even and odd numbers. I saw that on Animal Planet one day last week. With the chicks I hatch out I'm pretty good at guessing the sex of them.

Just for my satisfaction, I'm only calling them long tails to avoid the annoying replies that calling them what they really are will cause.
 
Makes sense, I've also noticed the little pink spots under the beak (on the neck) of the same couple and at the base of their comb it's pinker. Oh well. One meatie & two roos. Maybe one of the roos will be nice enough to keep.

And I don't know what you mean about tails. If I made a faux pas, pardon a moi.
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I think all of my RIRs (or production reds, whatever) are roos.
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I got 6 from TSC, one turned out to be a meatie (roo I think), 4 RIR's of which may all be roos, and a red sexlink (ONE hen). Thank goodness for the two BO pullets I bought, hopefully they're both hens.
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