I have twelve two week old chicks - all with growing wing feathers, but only some seem to have tail feathers - is this because some are just further ahead, or a sign of something else?
What breeds are they? I have 4 different breeds, and they feathered in at different rates. My gold sex links were very slow to get their feathers, but were always large, healthy chicks.
My rooster is a month old and still has almost no tail feathers, lol. Not saying yours are roos, they do all develop at a slightly different rate. That's what I noticed with my reds.
We had one chick who had no tail feathers at all, and he was also feathering out slowly everywhere else too...I think chicks just feather out differently from each other
If they are all of the same breed it could be the first indication of differences between pullets and cockerels. If they are different breeds, I don't know. Except if you see difference in the tail feathers within the same breed, same thing with the cockerels and pullets. I have read, haven't observed it yet, that in some breeds pullets will get tail feathers before the cockerels.