What's in your flock?

[Kassaundra]

Kassaundra, you might want to contact Dr. Bramwell and chat with him about your featherless bird. I recently went to one of his talks and he mentioned his featherless birds and how difficult they were. He might give you some hints and advice on how to manage yours. That might include how to breed them to get more. You can get his e-mail from this link.

http://poultryscience.uark.edu/4633.php

Thanks

 

[Kassaundra]

@Kassaundra That is really cool. You will keep us updated? I can't wait to see him/her an adult. Did you intentionally breed, or have certain birds bred to produce him/her or was it just a neat surprise?

I knew I had the gene in my flock, but in Oct I had a massacre of my flock and only a few hens and chicks survived. I knew one of the male chicks carried, but didn't think I had a female carrier left. The male carrier was low man and had to sneak breed the hens. I hoped to get a female carrier out of this hatch so that in the future I may get one, but had no clue I would get one this time. There is an outward sign if a chicken is a carrier, but what I didn't know until recently is how minor the sign could be and still be a carrier. I had checked all birds for the obvious sign, but didn't realize there could be a much, much, much more subtle hard to see sign, that I obviously missed.

 

[Kassaundra]

IMO a featherless chick would be too much trouble to keep healthy and alive. My 17 EE hens are getting beat up by only 6 roosters. I'm about to take pictures and sell 5 of my layers, and they better be the ones with most of their feathers.

These definitely have a climate limitation, and will require some adjustments to husbandry practices to account for some of the special issues they will have. I may find they are more trouble then I want to deal with, that is yet to be seen. When I started thinking about this I was and still am thinking about a meat bird (obviously DP) that does not require plucking.

 

[Wishin']

What is the sign, and what is the gene called? A no pluck chicken would be fantastic! Plucking is such a pain.

 

[Kassaundra]

What is the sign, and what is the gene called? A no pluck chicken would be fantastic! Plucking is such a pain.

Sc, or scaleless. If a bird carries the gene the scales on the legs will be disrupted, what I had thought is a line of skin instead of scales up the inside or outside center of the leg, but it doesn't need to be that obvious, it could be just extra space between scales or a small scaleless spot in the upper (scaled part) of the leg.

 

[Kassaundra]

Pics of Rudy today at 6 days old

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

Rudy is... kind of weird, but he's growing on me! That's almost like taking a few steps back in the evolution of chickens, let us know if he grows teeth!

 

[Kassaundra]

A few shots of the chicks at one week

 

[secuono]

 

[Smart Red]

I am not sure I could ever get overly attached to a featherless bird like your Rudy. Just looks a bit too sci-fi for me. I suspect my feelings would change when it came to butchering, though. Imagine, no feathers to pluck.

Hum-m-m-m, you just might be on to something. Now get a chicken with 4 drumsticks and no feathers. I might be open to working with something like that.