BRAHMA shoulder feathers?

[IrishAiden]

Hello,
I have a Isabelle Brahma rooster, he is about 16months old, went through his first molt before Christmas,
But his shoulder feathers have never grown out, even before & after his molt, the pins are there with the start of feather growth but have never actually grown out. I've often found dried hard bloody bits around the feather pins.
I've asked a few people with the same breed rooster & they haven't had this issue,
Hopefully the picture is clear to see.

 

[Debbie292d]

Hi!

Sorry nobody replied before now. How's he doing now?

The dried blood is normal as they are growing new feathers. As the feathers grow, you'll see the blood in them goes away as it recedes from the visible quill part of the feather. When he preens, he's probably taking the casings off the new feathers, thus some dried blood is there.

Upping the protein can help chickens with feather growth. You can do that temporarily by feeding them higher protein food like scrambled eggs, a few meal worms, tuna, etc., or change to a 20% protein all-flock version of feed. If you do the latter, you'll need to supply the hens with oyster shell if you aren't already doing that. The all-flock is good for all ages of chicks or chickens, but it's lower calcium so the hens need it supplemented.

I hope by now he's looking better, but he sure is pretty anyway!

 

[Frizzle and Friends]

Because he is Isabelle, he has the lavender gene. That gene is known to cause poor feather quality, which results in shredded looking feathers and a wing patch on the males. Especially when they have gold too. If you look up Isabelle leghorn, you can see several photos of other roosters with the same wing patch.
I haven't heard of anyway to fix it, other than by careful breeding which only sometimes results in it going away.

 

[Amer]

The Wing Patch gene which is linked to Lavender is what causes the feathers to get stuck in their sheaths like that.
https://www.pipandgrow.com.au/lavender-porcelain-feather-issues/

 

[IrishAiden]

Thanks everyone, that must be it, I thought they would come in after is 1st molt but they never did