What in the world is up with these chicks?

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TheLittleGarden

TheLittleGarden

In the Brooder
5 Years
Mar 8, 2014
31
2
32
I have 12 chicks that are 4.5 weeks old, and a few older kids, and all are feathering out and growing like they should, except my two bantam light brahmas. my bantam buff brahmas are feathered out, but these two light babies barely got their wing feathers at 3 weeks. In fact, they had NO feathers until almost 3 weeks. Their backs still show no sign of feathering out.

I've raised chicks every spring for 6 years and am just confused. I've never seen this. I'm not especially worried because it is two of the same breed, so perhaps it is a breed thing and they are happy and healthy, but is this normal?

They are straight run and I thought I read somewhere brahma roosters can feather out slowly, but this seems a little extreme.


Can you pick out my featherless baby in the middle of the flock?






Left is my light brahma with no feathers, right is one of the buff brahmas, all feathered out...


The two buff brahmas with one of the light brahmas
 
I've got five salmon faverolles that are about the same age as your chicks. Four of the five are roos (of course, grrrr!) and while the pullet has all her body feathers, the males are in the same stage as yours. So may be a combo of breed and sex.
 
Thanks for the insight. This is the first time I went with straight run chicks since we are outside the city limits, finally. I got 2 of each breed and was hoping Mother Nature would be kind to me and I would end up with at least 1 hen from each, lol. But I think I'm resigning myself to the fact they are likely both roos.

Two of my "frizzles" are also definitely cochins. Lol. It's always a bit of a surprise when bringing home new chicks!
 
TheLittleGarden said:
Thanks for the insight. This is the first time I went with straight run chicks since we are outside the city limits, finally. I got 2 of each breed and was hoping Mother Nature would be kind to me and I would end up with at least 1 hen from each, lol. But I think I'm resigning myself to the fact they are likely both roos. 

Two of my "frizzles" are also definitely cochins. Lol. It's always a bit of a surprise when bringing home new chicks!
Click to expand...


Yeah, I specifically got my first shipment as all pullets so I could get a jumpstart on egg production, but most of the rest of the chicks that I've gotten this spring have been straight run...and I've had awful percentages of roos. I can keep a few, but I can't have 80% of my flock male!

I think the frizzle gene isn't passed on to every offspring. Can't remember the exact pattern of inheritance, but normally-feathered chicks are a part of every clutch.
 
Some breeds Feather more slowly than others. I'm not aware of your specific breed but in my flock my Barred Rocks are feathering much faster than my laced wyannadotte, and my silver penciled Rock. They don't even have tail feathers or nubs yet. I remember reading on the hatchery site that they were slower to Feather so I'm not worried. My Golden Buff is keeping up well with my Barred Rocks. So a lot of it could be breed dependant. I wouldn't worry.
 
Thanks for sharing. I'm not terribly worried, just pretty curious because I haven't seen this before and its my first time with straight run so trying to figure out if it is perhaps tied to gender. But they are just as active and crazy as my other babies, so I'm not too worried about health.
 
Last edited:
I think you're right. I'm assuming these guys were breed from a silkie/cochin maybe and just ended up with the cochin genes bc my other two frizzles have the cochin fuzzy legs. I also have a black sizzle who has straight feathers, and I think is a roo. I'm hoping to do some egg hatching depending on what roos I end up keeping and which ones turn out to be hens.
 

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