Which chickens breeds are slow feather growth?

[Shelly0723]

I originally was going off a theory that the baby chicks I hatched in the incubator were male or female based on the feather growth patterns. 3 have super slow feather growth compared to the rest. My chickens are White Orpington, Black Australorp, RIR/wyandotte mix and RIR/welsummer mix and the roosters were RIR/wyandotte mix and RIR/welsummer mix. 2 of my baby chicks are huge, one is a slow feathering and the other is fast feathering. We believe that those are the white orp and one of the roos. The rest of my baby chicks are small, the black australorps mixes are the smallest and of those, 1 is slow feathering and 2 fast feathering. Of my chickens, are any of them slow feathering for both sexes?

 

[Shelly0723]

Here is a recent pic of 2 of the chicks I think might be males due to slow feather growth and a possible Black Australorp mix pullet.

 

[NatJ]

I originally was going off a theory that the baby chicks I hatched in the incubator were male or female based on the feather growth patterns....Of my chickens, are any of them slow feathering for both sexes?

I would not expect feather-sexable chicks from the breeds you have.

Unfortunately, feathering speed is not usually a breed-specific trait you can count on. There are some breeds that usually have one speed or the other, but even then it is not entirely predictable. In breeds that do have slow feathering, yes it definitely can happen in both sexes.

If you raised the parents from the time they were chicks, did you notice which ones feathered out how quickly?

The basic pattern to produce feather-sexable chicks: a fast-feathering rooster and slow-feathering hens will produce chicks where the daughters feather slowly and the sons feather quickly. Any other combination of rooster/hen feathering speeds will produce chicks that cannot be sexed by feathering speed.

My chickens are White Orpington, Black Australorp, RIR/wyandotte mix and RIR/welsummer mix and the roosters were RIR/wyandotte mix and RIR/welsummer mix.

I would normally expect Rhode Island Reds and Welsummers to have fast feathering, but individual birds could be an exception to that. For the others, I can't say which ones are more likely to feather slowly or quickly. If either rooster has the slow feathering gene, then he can produce both sons and daughters that feather slowly.

 

[Shelly0723]

I would not expect feather-sexable chicks from the breeds you have.

Unfortunately, feathering speed is not usually a breed-specific trait you can count on. There are some breeds that usually have one speed or the other, but even then it is not entirely predictable. In breeds that do have slow feathering, yes it definitely can happen in both sexes.

If you raised the parents from the time they were chicks, did you notice which ones feathered out how quickly?

The basic pattern to produce feather-sexable chicks: a fast-feathering rooster and slow-feathering hens will produce chicks where the daughters feather slowly and the sons feather quickly. Any other combination of rooster/hen feathering speeds will produce chicks that cannot be sexed by feathering speed.


I would normally expect Rhode Island Reds and Welsummers to have fast feathering, but individual birds could be an exception to that. For the others, I can't say which ones are more likely to feather slowly or quickly. If either rooster has the slow feathering gene, then he can produce both sons and daughters that feather slowly.

I honestly don't recall which grew feathers faster, am thinking the hens did, but as it is, it could have been the roosters. it was 7 roosters and 3 hens. This time around it might be the same again it seems. They did start crowing around 5 weeks old, so have 3 more weeks to wait.

 

[NatJ]

I honestly don't recall which grew feathers faster, am thinking the hens did, but as it is, it could have been the roosters. it was 7 roosters and 3 hens. This time around it might be the same again it seems. They did start crowing around 5 weeks old, so have 3 more weeks to wait.

If the hens grew feathers faster when they were young, then the adults are definitely not the right pattern of sex and feathering speed to produce feather-sexable chicks.

If you can keep track of which chicks grew their feathers how fast this time, it could be helpful for predicting other chicks from these parents. If this batch does turn out feather-sexable, that can happen in future too. But if these turn out to be not feather-sexable, you will know not to trust feathering with future chicks from these parents. And depending on which speed goes with which sexes in this batch, you might be able to use them to produce feather-sexable chicks in future.