Slow to feather young chicken - is this normal?

[cleopatra]

I have a 10 week old young gold sex link chicken that I bought as a pullet but that everyone is telling me is a cockeral. I have no experience with cockerals, so I'm not sure if this is normal. He has bare spots at the base of the tail where the tail feathers are coming in. Also, except for a small strip of feathers down the back, there are no feathers on the back or all the way down the sides under the wings. You can kind of see the bare spots in the photos. It's really weird looking when he lifts up the wings and it's just a bunch of pink skin. Do I have a problem here or is this just normal?

Everywhere the wing is covering is pink skin underneath.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Yep, that's a gold sex link cockerel! Girls don't get those red patches. As far as his funky looking feathers, that's pretty normal too. He looks like a normal, healthy, slow feathering cockerel to me

 

[cleopatra]

Thanks for putting my mind at ease. He/she is 10 weeks old and is still only peeping. We'll have to get rid of it eventually once we know for sure.