Chat room for non religious poultry keepers! :D

[ShrekDawg]

Christmas cookies, with decorations courtesy of my nephew, clearly a budding artist. We're doing another batch today because my niece was at a friend's house when we did these yesterday.

View attachment 3711247

Amazing!

 

[ShrekDawg]

Spoiler

My aunt sent me cookies again but Susan doesn’t think I should eat them and I kind of agree so I am taking them to the Clubhouse Tuesday. I probably will eat some though. At Club.

 

[fluffycrow]

T'was a lovely day today, decided to bring the phone with me and take a bunch of pictures. I also spent a reasonable amount of time with the birds, and got a lot of stuff done. Then I noticed this.

Ope- feathered shanks. Aren't those incomplete dominant? I remember Cruella having the tiniest, single foot feather on one leg, which was gone by the time she first went broody. How could there be so many?

 

[Sally PB]

One of my Bielefelders, a clean legged breed, has a few tiny feathers in between her toes. More on one foot than the other.

This is from last summer. The feathers got bigger, but no longer.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

T'was a lovely day today, decided to bring the phone with me and take a bunch of pictures. I also spent a reasonable amount of time with the birds, and got a lot of stuff done. Then I noticed this. View attachment 3713211Ope- feathered shanks. Aren't those incomplete dominant? I remember Cruella having the tiniest, single foot feather on one leg, which was gone by the time she first went broody. How could there be so many?

Leg feathering is caused by several genes. I never remember off the top of my head how many, like 4 or 5 I think? I know some are recessive and some are dominant. Not sure if there is a partial dominant or not unless you count vulture hocks that are referred to both as a partial dominant and as a recessive depending on the source, but that is definitely not what that baby is expressing. A lot of people assume that leg feathering is a partial dominant because crossing a heavily leg-feathered breed to a clean-shanked breed generally makes birds with an intermediate amount of leg feathering, but that is because the recessive leg feathering genes are carried and not expressed, so only the dominant leg feathering genes express, thus less leg feathering than the parent with all of those genes expressing.

There are other genes that also inhibit leg feathering from my understanding, the dominance of which I don't honestly know. But leg feathering can appear seemingly out of nowhere from non-feather-legged parents, sometimes even out of pure specimens of clean-legged breeds. In your case, however, I would think this was the work of a recessive leg feathering gene that both parents carry (so this baby just happened to inherit it from both parents and thus has leg feathering), or the work of a leg feather inhibitor either being recessive and from one parent (so the baby inherits one copy and does not express it, thus leg feathering occurred) or dominant and heterozygous in one or both parents (so the baby just happened not to inherit it and leg feathering occurred).

One of my Bielefelders, a clean legged breed, has a few tiny feathers in between her toes. More on one foot than the other.

This is from last summer. The feathers got bigger, but no longer.
View attachment 3713255

This is called feather stubs, at least for the purposes of showing. Not sure if that gene is considered as one among the leg feathering genes, but it's recessive from my understanding.

 

[Sally PB]

This is called feather stubs, at least for the purposes of showing. Not sure if that gene is considered as one among the leg feathering genes, but it's recessive from my understanding.

Interesting! No plans to show her, and don't care that she has this. I don't want feathered legs in my flock, as I can't see them staying clean. Maybe, maybe not?

Anyway, thank you for the information.

 

[RoyalChick]

Leg feathering is caused by several genes. I never remember off the top of my head how many, like 4 or 5 I think? I know some are recessive and some are dominant. Not sure if there is a partial dominant or not unless you count vulture hocks that are referred to both as a partial dominant and as a recessive depending on the source, but that is definitely not what that baby is expressing. A lot of people assume that leg feathering is a partial dominant because crossing a heavily leg-feathered breed to a clean-shanked breed generally makes birds with an intermediate amount of leg feathering, but that is because the recessive leg feathering genes are carried and not expressed, so only the dominant leg feathering genes express, thus less leg feathering than the parent with all of those genes expressing.

There are other genes that also inhibit leg feathering from my understanding, the dominance of which I don't honestly know. But leg feathering can appear seemingly out of nowhere from non-feather-legged parents, sometimes even out of pure specimens of clean-legged breeds. In your case, however, I would think this was the work of a recessive leg feathering gene that both parents carry (so this baby just happened to inherit it from both parents and thus has leg feathering), or the work of a leg feather inhibitor either being recessive and from one parent (so the baby inherits one copy and does not express it, thus leg feathering occurred) or dominant and heterozygous in one or both parents (so the baby just happened not to inherit it and leg feathering occurred).




This is called feather stubs, at least for the purposes of showing. Not sure if that gene is considered as one among the leg feathering genes, but it's recessive from my understanding.

Fascinating. Thank you for sharing that knowledge in an easy to understand way.

 

[RoyalChick]

Interesting! No plans to show her, and don't care that she has this. I don't want feathered legs in my flock, as I can't see them staying clean. Maybe, maybe not?

Anyway, thank you for the information.

I resisted feathered legs for the same reason.
I caved and got Tassels who I adore. She has feathers on her legs and they are always pristine. I have no idea how, particularly as her beard is always covered in bits and pieces!

 

[Sally PB]

Wow. Very pretty.

I'd love to get a muffed/bearded bird, because I think they looks so adorably cute. They're different enough, though, that I might be asking for trouble for her. So I resist.

Like silkies, the "pantaloons" look pretty, but right now, I'm just enjoying them in other people's pictures. But I really enjoy them.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Wow. Very pretty.

I'd love to get a muffed/bearded bird, because I think they looks so adorably cute. They're different enough, though, that I might be asking for trouble for her. So I resist.

Like silkies, the "pantaloons" look pretty, but right now, I'm just enjoying them in other people's pictures. But I really enjoy them.

My muffed/bearded birds and crested birds got along perfectly fine with my clean faced birds even when introduced later as young birds introduced to adults. They didn’t get picked on any more than normal birds.