The term “fully feathered” can be a bit confusing for new chicken keepers. Books and the internet say to move chicks out of the brooder when they are “fully feathered,” but what exactly does that mean? What does a “fully feathered” chicken look like and around what age does it occur?
In general, a chick is considered to be “fully feathered” when she has grown flight feathers. This varies by breed and the climate of where the chick lives, but generally occurs around 4 to 8 weeks. Hybrid breeds and chickens raised in cooler climates will feather out faster than heritage breeds or chickens in warm climates.
Keep reading to learn more about when a chicken is considered “fully feathered” and why it’s important to know when your chicks are at this stage in growth.
What does it mean for a chicken to be “fully feathered?”
There is some flexibility in what different chicken keepers consider “fully feathered.” In general, a chicken that is fully feathered will have all of its flight feathers.
A chick is born with downy feathers that act as a protector from cold. These feathers are very soft and give the chicks their perfect baby chick look.
As a chick grows, these downy feathers are replaced with flight feathers.
Flight feathers are the feathers of the wings and the tail. These are long feathers that have the markings of your breed of chicken.
The flight feathers give the chicken their shape and overall appearance of a “typical” chicken. Without these feathers, a chicken looks naked and very skinny.
Flight feathers include the feathers of the wings, called remiges, and the tail feathers, called retrices.
The tail feathers are some of the last feathers to grow out fully on a pullet. My Plymouth Rock chickens had short tail feathers for several weeks before the feathers were longer and fully grown.
What does it look like when a chicken is “fully feathered?”
A chicken that is “fully feathered” will look like a grown, adult chicken.
As chicks develop they enter a stage of adolescence where they are called pullets. Pullets are gangly looking chickens and some people refer to this as the “ugly stage of chickens.” (My chickens were always cute to me, so I missed this part of raising chickens!)
Once the pullets put on their remaining flight feathers, with the tail and head being the last to feather out, they will look like adult chickens.
What age is a chicken considered “fully feathered?”
Chickens start to grow flight feathers starting at about 1 week after hatching. By about 2 weeks, a chicken will have all their wing feathers (and still waiting on the tail feathers to come in). Around 3 weeks, most chickens will have tail feathers.
The age of a chicken when they become “fully feathered” varies and is dependent on several factors including, the breed, the climate that your chicken lives in, and the time of year they hatched.
If you live in a cooler climate, your chicks are likely to grow their flight feathers sooner than if you lived in a warm climate. This design of chickens ensures they are warm enough to survive sooner in life in the cold. Before humans started raising chickens alongside us, chickens survived in cold climates by quickly growing flight feathers to protect them from the elements.
Also, if your chicks hatch during the winter or early spring, they are likely to grow flight feathers sooner than if they hatch in the late spring or early summer for the same reason.
I live in Texas and my Plymouth Rock chicks that were born in May started growing their wing flight feathers about a week after hatching. By 3 weeks, they were mostly feathered and this is when we moved them outside.
Why is it important to know if your chicken is “fully feathered?”
For those of us raising chickens in our backyards, we need to know when the chicks are fully feathered to know when they are capable of moving outside safely.
It’s important to know when your chicken is “fully feathered” because this is related to their ability to keep warm.
Downy feathers of baby chicks help to protect them from the cold to a certain extent. These feathers are not very large and don’t offer as much insulation as flight feathers so chicks need help keeping warm.
In the “wild,” the Momma Hen keeps the chicks warm by keeping them under her feathers until they have more flight feathers to keep themselves warm.
Typically, chickens raised in cooler climates will feather out faster since they need to be warmer faster.
For chickens raised in warmer climates, this process can take a bit longer. Some chicken keepers will lower the temperature in the brooder faster than 5 degrees every week to speed up the process of their chickens becoming fully feathered.
However, you don’t have to wait for chickens to be “fully feathered” with no remaining downy feathers before moving them outside if the weather is above about 70 degrees F. At this temperature, a “mostly feathered” chicken should be just fine to move outside to the big coop!
