5(ish) toe Easter-egger/Ameraucana?

LizaBlue

Songster
9 Years
Oct 26, 2010
234
5
103
Wee Acres
I bought some chicks from a local lady, and when she told me what they were, she used both the terms "Easter-egger" and "Ameraucana", wheaten and blue wheaten I think. Whichever they are, last night I noticed the little blue pullet seems to have five toes - well, sort of. One of her toes has two at the end, not like she has a full length extra toe, just a nicely formed little extra joint and claw that took me over a week to notice, even though I pick her up and pet her often. Is that too freaky, or just a minor thing? Possibly inbreeding? Hopefully a recessive gene? Anyone know if it is linked to other health/fertility issues?

I'd hate to have to cull her, but I really want to breed, not just have "pretty eggs." Between her and my 7-toed, single comb silkies, I'm beginning to think I need to start a side show animal farm...

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Sigh. Maybe I need to just get rid of all 9 of my specialty chicks, and start over fresh now that I know a little better. Then again, no one in my area seems to have even heard of a local poultry show, so why should I bother trying to keep breed standards? Just breed and sell for my own enjoyment...but I'm afraid that someone will re-sale or sell the offspring misrepresented as purer quality which could lead to hard feelings at best. If I do sell, obviously I wouldn't claim they were pure Ameraucanas or show quality silkies.
 
Well because the lady mentioned both names and obviously doesn't know the difference, they're easily and obviously Easter Eggers so it is perfectly fine to see a 5th toe on one leg. The bird could very likely have Dorking or Faverolle behind it. Doesn't matter since EE's are mutts by name anyway. I've got a total ten-toed EE chick in my brooder right now and he/she is very healthy.
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Cool. I think she may have cross bred or bought from a questionable source herself, and therefore didn't want to make me think they were pure. She has about a dozen different breeds that she keeps carefully separated, but I think she's a sucker for rescue chickens, lol, and maybe too trusting. She's devoted to her animals and definitely has a problem with "chicken math." She loves hatching too, I think, and may occasionally get an off-breed chicken in there. I got a chick from her that I thought she said was a speckled sussex, but when I went weeks later to get it a mate and exclaimed, "Oh, the girls don't have feathered legs!" she was surprised. Doesn't seem to have anything that fit the description of the chick she sold me, lol!

Welcome to my freak show: 7 toe - single comb silkies, double thumbed easter-eggers, and a mystery laced/barred feather-legged chick!
 

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