not feathering so well...

[bibliophile birds]

out of my 22 5-week old chicks, 3 just don't seem to want to feather out. 2 of them are Brahma cockerels (i'm almost positive) and one is an EE pullet (again, almost positive). their wing feathers and some chest feathers have come in like all the rest, but they still have large patches of down where all the others have feathers. i had read that cockerels feathered slower, but this seems especially long. they really need to go out to the coop for good by next week, but i wanted to wait until they were almost completely feathered. i could have put them out the end of last week if it weren't for those three.

is this normal? is there anything i can do to speed them along?

 

[Tala]

Quote:
Seems normal to me. Cockerels often DO feather out slower, but it's not a guarantee.
Usually putting them outside actually makes them feather out faster. I just keep a lamp on at night (you can use a timer) or all day if your temperatures require it. Mine are in the sunlight and pretty well feathered out so they don't need the light in the daytime anymore.

I had a little BSL cockerel go from:

to THIS: in practically no time at all! (about 1.5 weeks)

They have all been outside since they were 3 weeks old, now they are about 5.5 weeks. You can see I have a lamp still on them in the covered area. They go there to sleep if they are cold.

 

[bibliophile birds]

mine have been going out for several hours every non-rainy day for the past 2 weeks, but it hasn't seemed to help those 3 very much. i mean, they have more feathers than they did 2 weeks ago, but not a LOT more.

they don't seem particularly bothered when it's chilly, but i'm always there to bring them in when i notice they are starting to huddle up. they only have heat on at night since they are in the basement, which is unheated. i guess i'll rig up the heat lamp outside this weekend and see how they do.