Tail Fan

[pdaugherty]

What's the most tail feathers anyone has seen in a fan? The most i've ever seen is 18 in any mature tom. We had a kid kill one this past youth weekend that had 19! I've never heard of that many and just wanted to see what yall had heard of or actually seen.

[Byhalia]

18 for me     

[Muzzy61]

You know, I've never counted them. Now i can't wait to get home and count one.

[Steve]

I never bothered to count 'em either - I just figured they were all there. Is there anything that can be told by how many feathers are in a fan?

This poor guy only has 9... he must be getting ridden to hard!

[stinkpickle]

I've had one with 19 feathers.  I've heard of a few with 20.

[pdaugherty]

I never bothered to count 'em either - I just figured they were all there. Is there anything that can be told by how many feathers are in a fan?

This poor guy only has 9... he must be getting ridden to hard!

I've always been told that all mature toms have at least 18 tail feathers. Most of your old birds 4 + almost always have 18. Unless of course they've been damaged or knocked out from fighting.

[wvboy]

I have killed a couple that had 19 in them.. most are 18 .. I usually don't count them.. but for some reason I just noticed the ones that had 19 looked different for some reason so I counted them..

[Steve]

That's interesting...I always understood an adult tom to be mature when all of the tail feathers were the same length. Is there any documentation to that says that quantity also matters? I'm not doubting you, just curious and would like to know for sure.

Steve

[renegade19]

Just counted the 3 I have on display.  18 in every one.

[TRKYHTR]

21. I've killed 4 that had 20. Funny thing is they were all on the same property. GENETICS.

TRKYHTR

[RutnNStrutn]

Never counted. Now I'm going to have to start!!