A Heritage of Perfection: Standard-bred Large Fowl

[3riverschick]

I don't have one, but it's pretty obvious when you see it.

It's one of those suck it up and cull it moments.

HI Joseph,
Ok, I went looking around for more diagrams of slipped wing and I finally understand the diagram in the SOP.
I had the wrong idea of what slipped wing was, so I didn't see it in the line drawing. All the descriptions say 3-4
feathers are involved. Not so my birds. Only one primary feather was involved. And it did stick out like angel wing.
That's why I thought angel wing and slipped wing were the same thing. None of the texts I read said anything
about angel wing being solely in waterfowl. That's where I got confused until Walt weighed in. Ok, so could it have
been a twisted feather , see quote below ( bold text is mine).
American School of Poultry Husbandry
By T. E. Quisenberry
Page 9
http://tinyurl.com/pcze8ab
This represents a slipped wing. The first three or four flight feathers of a wing are not folded up and under the wing
proper when the bird has its wing in place by the side of its body. These feathers show from the outside and are
very often twisted. This is a very serious defect and one that should never be bred from. In the majority of cases
birds produced from such stock as this will be poor egg producers. Never use such a bird in your breeding pen,
if you can avoid it.
===================
Best,
Karen

 

[3riverschick]

The American Breeds of Poultry: Their Origin, History of Their Development ...
By Frank L. Platt Page 73 http://tinyurl.com/k7ey7qn
(Bold text mine, can it be this simple?)
The wings should be found to be well formed when the wing is opened out; the formation should be so perfect, and the muscle^ sufficiently strong, to fold the wing back correctly and firmly. When there is an open space between the primaries and secondaries when the wing is opened, the defect is called a split wing. When the primaries fold on the outside of the secondaries, the defect is known as a twisted wing, and such a specimen is only fit for market. When a single twisted feather grows in a wing, it is well to pluck it and let another one grow to take its place. When a primary or secondary feather is plucked because of off-color, the wing should be cut on shape because of missing feather.

 

[fowlman01]

To bad you don't have a picture of it on your birds. At what age did you cull them? In some breeds the wings grow in strange but straighten out as they mature. If they stuck out that may mean they were not going to straighten out.

Walt

 

[3riverschick]

To bad you don't have a picture of it on your birds. At what age did you cull them? In some breeds the wings grow in strange but straighten out as they mature. If they stuck out that may mean they were not going to straighten out.

Walt

Hi Walt,
I culled them at 26 weeks. Now I wonder if I had just pulled them out, if they would gave grown back in correctly? Ok, so it wasn't slipped wing. And tho it looked like angel wing it wasn't because that is only seen in waterfowl. So that leaves a single twisted feather which stood out like angel wing but is a different problem than angel wing. Am I close?
So much to learn...
Karen

 

[MagicChicken]

I'm in the "build the barn" stage of "build the barn then paint it" with my Black Javas. I have a seven month old cockerel I am tempted to keep for breeding next year because he is a sturdy bird with a more rectangular back than most of my cockerels and his tail is wider than most. Problem is he has a disqualifying amount of white in his tail, a purple sheen, and his undercolor is white. I have some long-backed, wide-tailed, dark-eyed, dark-legged, beetle green pullets coming along I could pair him with next year. So far this guy is my best bet in terms of body structure. The other cockerels coming up have pinched tails and other structural issues.

Building the barn first is the main idea, but I am choking on the idea of building the barn with a bird that has a disqualifying color flaw. DQ's are usually DQ's for a reason.

If I use this bird with white in his tail, what kind of problems am I looking at down the road? Will that white become so pestilential I can't get rid of it? If I pair him with a dark bird with dark undercolor will it compensate for the white in his tail?

Thanks for any advice you can give me. I will be culling a bunch of birds in a couple of days, and I am on the fence about this guy.

Sarah

 

[3riverschick]

Hi,
I went back and fixed post #33. Re-captioned it correctly and added a pic of "slipped wing".
Best,
Karen

 

[fowlman01]

Hi Walt,
I culled them at 26 weeks. Now I wonder if I had just pulled them out, if they would gave grown back in correctly? Ok, so it wasn't slipped wing. And tho it looked like angel wing it wasn't because that is only seen in waterfowl. So that leaves a single twisted feather which stood out like angel wing but is a different problem than angel wing. Am I close?
So much to learn...
Karen

At 26 months they should have straightened out if they were going to. Twisted wing feather seems to be what you were seeing. I have only seen that in individual birds, but it sounds as if you had this in several?? Angel wing is fairly prevalent in some breeds of waterfowl. It seems that if the bird has a propensity to angel wing, high protein feed really makes it show up. With my Muscovys I cut the protein way down once they start to feather in the wing area. If I don't do that half will have angel wing. After the wing feathers are in I bring the protein back up to make them nice an big. This could be similar in your Sussex, although I have never seen it in chickens, but that doesn't mean it can't happen.

Walt

 

[3riverschick]

At 26 months they should have straightened out if they were going to. Twisted wing feather seems to be what you were seeing. I have only seen that in individual birds, but it sounds as if you had this in several?? Angel wing is fairly prevalent in some breeds of waterfowl. It seems that if the bird has a propensity to angel wing, high protein feed really makes it show up. With my Muscovys I cut the protein way down once they start to feather in the wing area. If I don't do that half will have angel wing. After the wing feathers are in I bring the protein back up to make them nice an big. This could be similar in your Sussex, although I have never seen it in chickens, but that doesn't mean it can't happen.

Walt

Ok, we will call it twisted feather. Yes, three chicks. 2 males didn't straighten out at 26 weeks and culled. Their sister had it to a lesser degree and not hardly noticeable a year later . I kept her for the egg flock. I didn't have them on high protein crumble. Interestingly, the three chicks were the only ones hatched and brooded by a hen ( their own dam) last year. ( all the rest from the other hen were hatched in incubators & raised in brooders) They hatched out early Feb. 23rd, 2013. It was so cold. I kept waiting to find dead chicks from the cold every morning but the dam did a great job bringing them up. I wonder if the twisted feather could have been from nestling under their dam? Thanks so much to all of you who had helped me with this issue. I sure appreciate it!
Best,
Karen

 

[fowlman01]

Ok, we will call it twisted feather. Yes, three chicks. 2 males didn't straighten out at 26 weeks and culled. Their sister had it to a lesser degree and not hardly noticeable a year later . I kept her for the egg flock. I didn't have them on high protein crumble. Interestingly, the three chicks were the only ones hatched and brooded by a hen ( their own dam) last year. ( all the rest from the other hen were hatched in incubators & raised in brooders) They hatched out early Feb. 23rd, 2013. It was so cold. I kept waiting to find dead chicks from the cold every morning but the dam did a great job bringing them up. I wonder if the twisted feather could have been from nestling under their dam? Thanks so much to all of you who had helped me with this issue. I sure appreciate it!
Best,
Karen

Well....that is strange. Chicks raised by hens are usually the better birds.

Walt

 

[3riverschick]

Well....that is strange. Chicks raised by hens are usually the better birds.

Walt

I wish I had been better educated about these wing issues last season. I would have taken pics
and shared then. Well, blood tells and we will see what has to say later this year when the chicks
start to feather out. Got to hatch them first. Think I will set up an incubator today and get it running.
Best Regards,
Karen