Black feathers on Buff Orp roo

[ninjapoodles]

One of the Buff Orpington roosters, about 4.5 months old, that we got from MMH, is starting to show a couple of black feathers in his tail. At first we thought he'd found some grease somewhere, but now it's more obviously entire feathers. Otherwise, he looks just like all the rest of them.

Is this common? Or even common in hatchery birds?

 

[okiemommy]

idk about your buff orp with black feathers, but your inbox is full

lol

Hi!

et for spelling

 

[ninjapoodles]

ACK! What do I do? Uh...going to see.

 

[okiemommy]

jus click on each message and then go down and click delete if you don't want it.

 

[KKluckers]

That is quite common with hatchery buffs. Some freckling in the tail feathers is okay. If your not showing and just have a backyard flock he should make you a good rooster. If you are showing or wanting to breed to APA standards you dont want the black.

 

[ninjapoodles]

Quote:
Thanks for the response! You know, with our background showing horses and dogs, I won't be surprised if, somewhere down the line, we don't want to show some chickens. And I know that our next purchases of chicks will be from private breeders instead of hatcheries (unless we're just buying frypan specials, or something). I do appreciate the hatchery birds for what they are, though. Good providers, and if we lose some as we're learning, we're not out a huge investment this first year.

This particular rooster is going to be dumplings in a couple of months, so his tail-feathers aren't of critical importance.

I was just curious.