Anyone seen Angel Wing in Meat Birds? Seeing it in New Hampshires and White Rangers, wondering causes/solutions?

[FunClucks]

3/7 male white rangers and 1/3 female white rangers are affected. 2/3 male New Hampshires affected. Haven't seen it much, or it's very mild in the female NH. This is on the birds fed for a number of weeks on meat bird feed (details in thread above). They are 12 wks now. I'll upload pics hopefully sometime today. It looks to have improved a bit for some of the milder cases with the switch to 20% protein all flock, but still present. Or maybe it didn't improve, and it's just my perception on those milder cases.

The two NH I raised on 20% all flock from the beginning to now are not affected.

 

[FunClucks]

Pictures of "angel wing" in White Ranger and New Hampshire chickens, 12 weeks old, from Freedom Ranger Hatchery. I've included pics of chickens with "angel wing" and chickens without. There are various degrees of "angel wing". In quotes because this is typically seen in ducks, but I'm not sure what else to call it.

 

[FunClucks]

Here is a pic of the two New Hampshire I've raised on 20% chick starter since day one. Next to an olive egger pullet (black, 13 wks) and a starlight green egger grown hen (red tinged white) for size comparison. No "angel wing".

 

[Molpet]

Pictures of "angel wing" in White Ranger and New Hampshire chickens, 12 weeks old, from Freedom Ranger Hatchery. I've included pics of chickens with "angel wing" and chickens without. There are various degrees of "angel wing". In quotes because this is typically seen in ducks, but I'm not sure what else to call it.

Yes I have had this. I feed everyone turkey starter when I have poults. I went and looked yesterday and out of 50 hens and roosters raised on turkey starter and fed that May until poults are over 12 weeks... only one hen still has wings like that and she might have been just holding her wings like that.
I breed for size and how long they live. Mine are a mixture of CX, br, bjg, bo,...and later I added standard dark Cornish because they were dieing starting at 2y.

So I am interested to see if yours grow out of it.

 

[FunClucks]

Yes I have had this. I feed everyone turkey starter when I have poults. I went and looked yesterday and out of 50 hens and roosters raised on turkey starter and fed that May until poults are over 12 weeks... only one hen still has wings like that and she might have been just holding her wings like that.
I breed for size and how long they live. Mine are a mixture of CX, br, bjg, bo,...and later I added standard dark Cornish because they were dieing starting at 2y.

So I am interested to see if yours grow out of it.

Not sure I'll be much help - I plan to cull everyone with Angel wing as soon as I can get around to it in the next month or so. But if it occurs again, or in their descendants, I'll add that info to my post.

It seems to have gotten better since I switched to 20% for some of the birds, but not for the most extreme cases. But again, my observations are qualitative.

 

[SE_Gardener]

Has anyone had Angel Wing show up in their meat birds? Any idea what causes this in chickens or what to do about it? Should I remove these birds from my breeding population? I have 2 month old Freedom Ranger New Hampshires (dual purpose but optimized for meat) and White Rangers (CX derived 3month broiler) and I have 1-2 birds of each variety displaying Angel Wing symptoms that just onset in the last week or two. I fed them 20% chick starter for 2 weeks, then 23-24% meat bird feed for at least a month, then changed back to 20% feed about two weeks ago when I saw a varus/valgus deformity in one of the New Hampshires. (Varus/valgus for mine was when the leg bone beneath the hock joint decided to grow at a 30 degrees angle towards to the outside of the chicken.). The feeding has been a bit more back and forth than that based on what type of feed I had available and what my kids happened to grab that day, but that's the general gist of it.

I'm trying to keep a few hens and a rooster or two (best ones) of both the NH and the WR as a breeding meat flock so I don't have to buy eggs/chicks anymore, but my assessment of the genetic health of this population/these breeds is trending downwards as we go on.

Any ideas if Angel Wing is solely due to protein level in the food (is it the same as with ducks? How much protein can chickens have before this is an issue?) or is there a genetic component I should be culling out?

I just got to the third generation of Murray McMurray Ginger Broilers, and there are genetic issues with small eggs and thin shells in all the hens I have remaining (3), one's laying soft shelled eggs often, and very low % of the fertile eggs develop to hatching (fertility has decreased drastically with each generation), so I was planning to start over with these NH and WR to see if I could get a meat bird breeding population going, but now I'm not sure if using the NHs and/or White Rangers are a good path.

I start with 28% game bird starter 50# then move to 22% meatbird and have never had a problem. Angel Wings is genetic weakness most common among water fowl or water fowl mixed in with chicken flocks likely prone to the same feed deficiencies, incubator humidity fluctuation and inability to process protein adequately. I stick with the advise of an old chicken man who said rule#1 don't breed inferior birds. The WR and Ginger are all terminal hybrids meaning high probability of genetic flaws like curled toes, cross beak, etc. They are not meant to be foundation breed stock for meatbirds. And birds that don't show those recessive defects still carry the genetics and can throw them out at any time. I maintain White Plymouth Rock roo and Delaware roo in two separate breeding flocks for meat and cross both roosters on a mix of White Plymouth Rock, New Hampshire and Delaware focused on producing F1 to grow out and process for meat. The heritage birds are heartier to heat/cold temps, bred true/truer and maintain breeding viabiity for me up to 4 yrs. I have adequate egg laying and produce males for processing at 12-13wks compared to Cornish Rock broilers at 7-8wks - correspondingly their finish weight is within 85-90% of the CRX. I cull the females at 8 weeks unless they are quality breeding candidates - they go into jars for the dogs. It has taken me three years to this point that involved multiple hatches throughout the year, rigorous selection and continual culling. So unless you're up to planning egg collection, filling incubators and can stomach culling chicks early then as pullets don't try to get into breeding meatbirds. Sounds easy but its not. The project takes a lot of time to develop, is a lot of work requiring two breeding flocks (that's 2X the feeding/watering/cleaning two coops/maintaining two runs) and it's expensive to feed these heavy weight birds manage their feed intake and maintain healthy birds 365 days per year rain or shine, heat or freezing cold. My heritage breeding is intended to be a sustainable effort - I still finish 25 CRX each year as well simply because of the feed conversion and finish meat yield of the heritage. The chicken eggs/meat I raise fulfill 100% of my protein consumption so it's not a hobby but a way of life.

 

[Molpet]

I start with 28% game bird starter 50# then move to 22% meatbird and have never had a problem. Angel Wings is genetic weakness most common among water fowl or water fowl mixed in with chicken flocks likely prone to the same feed deficiencies, incubator humidity fluctuation and inability to process protein adequately. I stick with the advise of an old chicken man who said rule#1 don't breed inferior birds. The WR and Ginger are all terminal hybrids meaning high probability of genetic flaws like curled toes, cross beak, etc. They are not meant to be foundation breed stock for meatbirds. And birds that don't show those recessive defects still carry the genetics and can throw them out at any time. I maintain White Plymouth Rock roo and Delaware roo in two separate breeding flocks for meat and cross both roosters on a mix of White Plymouth Rock, New Hampshire and Delaware focused on producing F1 to grow out and process for meat. The heritage birds are heartier to heat/cold temps, bred true/truer and maintain breeding viabiity for me up to 4 yrs. I have adequate egg laying and produce males for processing at 12-13wks compared to Cornish Rock broilers at 7-8wks - correspondingly their finish weight is within 85-90% of the CRX. I cull the females at 8 weeks unless they are quality breeding candidates - they go into jars for the dogs. It has taken me three years to this point that involved multiple hatches throughout the year, rigorous selection and continual culling. So unless you're up to planning egg collection, filling incubators and can stomach culling chicks early then as pullets don't try to get into breeding meatbirds. Sounds easy but its not. The project takes a lot of time to develop, is a lot of work requiring two breeding flocks (that's 2X the feeding/watering/cleaning two coops/maintaining two runs) and it's expensive to feed these heavy weight birds manage their feed intake and maintain healthy birds 365 days per year rain or shine, heat or freezing cold. My heritage breeding is intended to be a sustainable effort - I still finish 25 CRX each year as well simply because of the feed conversion and finish meat yield of the heritage. The chicken eggs/meat I raise fulfill 100% of my protein consumption so it's not a hobby but a way of life.

While everything you say is true.....
I breed for meat mutts dress out around 5lbs at 16 wks. CX pullet was the basis and various heritage added, including standard dark Cornish .... for what I consider to be a sustainable hobby.... Even raising CX myself or having a flock of layers is not cost effective .
I trade turkeys and eggs for grass fed beef and pork. I do buy fish, some veggies I can't raise and fruit at the store.
Poultry feed I buy, this time of year they eat very little. Otherwise I'm mostly self sufficient .

 

[Tervuren]

I have a Red Broiler from McMurray and he started showing angel wing this last week at 8 weeks. I’ve been feeding them Naturewise Meatbird (22%) and have been transitioning them over to Purina Flock Raiser (20%) this week. If I hadn’t come across this post I wouldn’t have known what was up with his wings. He’s off to the freezer at the end of the month and it doesn’t seem to be affecting his quality of life from what I can tell, so not a huge problem for me.

 

[FunClucks]

I have a Red Broiler from McMurray and he started showing angel wing this last week at 8 weeks. I’ve been feeding them Naturewise Meatbird (22%) and have been transitioning them over to Purina Flock Raiser (20%) this week. If I hadn’t come across this post I wouldn’t have known what was up with his wings. He’s off to the freezer at the end of the month and it doesn’t seem to be affecting his quality of life from what I can tell, so not a huge problem for me.
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Crazy, right? Glad I could help. I couldn't find anything on here about it in meat birds, and was really surprised to see it in mine. Doesn't seem to affect quality of life unless they're trying to fly someplace, so yeah, probably not a big deal unless they're raised outside of confinement/predator protection.

 

[FunClucks]

Processed two of the worst of the WR with angel wing today (~13 weeks?), along with a 6-8m old ginger broiler. Had to skin the GB since he was so old and the plan is to pressure cook him. Lots of stiff connective tissue, legs were hard to skin.

Very pleased with the WR. I think of all the broilers I've tried so far, they are my favorite. They are a nicely proportioned bird, where the breast and leg meat are both huge and pretty much equal to each other, very similar to CX but more heart shaped breast. I'll get some pics and weights in the next few days after rigor has passed and I repackage them. The skin was somewhat delicate. Wing claws were present. Easy to pluck. Wasn't an issue for me, but for those with large hands, the body cavities seemed smaller than 8-9 wk CX. Very healthy organs and internals. On my sample size of two, the WR appear to have larger lungs than 8-9 wk CX. Not enlarged, but they go farther down the ribs. Also large-ish gallbladder, 1.5" long x 3/8" round.

They keep lying on their hocks, but are walking well and easily, and as I mentioned, most of them are still flying up on top of the 32" dog crate. My adult egger hens have been enforcing the pecking order periodically, which means the meat birds get some exercise. None have been lost from heart issues or other illness/disease. No one so far has gotten stuck on their backs. I did have one fall into the 5 gallon water bucket when someone (not me) left the lid unsecured, but luckily it was only half full, and I rescued her in time, and she was fine. She couldn't fly out because she couldn't open her wings enough to flap, or I think she would have done that. The WR and NH like to fly up and perch on top of the 5 gallon waterer and feeder. Saw some evidence of pressure sores/bumblefoot on hock joints forming (may have just been a missing scale or two, hard to tell), but no evidence of bumblefoot on foot pads. The heaviest chicken was the one with the worst Angel Wing. I was pretty bummed about it, but figured he probably wasn't going to fertilize many chickens anyway due to his weight. I should have raised some WR on 20% for breeders but I didn't think to do it.

Almost processed the worst NH with angel wing today, but he was too light. Figured I'd give him a few more months. He too was the heaviest NH rooster. They are definitely a heritage bird (~5m to process) instead of a 3m broiler.