Chicks growing strange feathers

[inquisitivebird]

I hatched these chicks from a hen and rooster that have the same parents which were from different lines, as I liked these birds and was thinking of experimenting with their genetics. I also wanted to try feeding meat bird crumble to the chicks to see if it would make a bigger sized bird for butchering at an earlier age. This is the first time I've used meat bird crumble.

The chicks hatched well and seemed healthy and they still seem really healthy except for their feathers. The feathers on all the chicks came in all frayed and untidy. It almost looks like the feathers don't have barbs to hold the strands together. I've kept them on the meat bird crumble as ad lib but am wondering if the strange feathers might be due to this food. Too much protein maybe? I thought protein was good for feathers.... The next batch of eggs from these parents hatched today and they are doing great. I plan to feed them the normal chick crumble instead of the meat bird crumble to see if there is any difference in outcome. If they also have the strange feathers, then it must be the genetic combination of the parents right? Too closely related? Although I know people inbreed chickens quite often with out poor results if not done for a long period over many generations.

The 1st batch of chicks are 3 weeks old today and photos are taken today.

I'd love to hear what anyone might think this is caused by or what it is.

 

[Poodlemum]

They look silkied, what breeds are in your flock?

 

[inquisitivebird]

They look silkied, what breeds are in your flock?

The parents of these chicks are a cross breed of the following:

Grandmother is a brown leghorn black Orpington cross

Grandfather is a purebred silver grey dorking

The offspring of the above are the parents of the chicks in the photos.

No silkies at all.

 

[Poodlemum]

The parents of these chicks are a cross breed of the following:

Grandmother is a brown leghorn black Orpington cross

Grandfather is a purebred silver grey dorking

The offspring of the above are the parents of the chicks in the photos.

No silkies at all.

There’s lots of projects out there that specifically breed for silkied feathers. I’m dyinggggg for a silkied Cochin. It’s recessive, so could conceivably pop up down the line

 

[inquisitivebird]

There’s lots of projects out there that specifically breed for silkied feathers. I’m dyinggggg for a silkied Cochin. It’s recessive, so could conceivably pop up down the line

So, are you saying that perhaps if despite diet, if these birds keep producing chicks like this, it could be a desirable trait?

 

[SourRoses]

It doesn't look like silkied feathers to me. Our previous silkied Ameraucana retained a downy look that simply grew longer.
Your chicks feathers have a clumpy look, with patches that are well zippered but ends that split and even seem to twist. A little closer to the feather shredding gene that shows up in Lavenders.
I'll be very interested to see what this turns out to be!

 

[inquisitivebird]

It doesn't look like silkied feathers to me. Our previous silkied Ameraucana retained a downy look that simply grew longer.
Your chicks feathers have a clumpy look, with patches that are well zippered but ends that split and even seem to twist. A little closer to the feather shredding gene that shows up in Lavenders.
I'll be very interested to see what this turns out to be!

Yes, I am very curious too. I will be sure to update the thread with pictures in a few weeks.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Looks silkied to me. Here is one of my silkied Cochin hen's wings, to compare:

It seems like the silkie-feather gene is a relatively common mutation in chickens; both silkied Cochins and silkied Ameraucanas popped up without any historical outcrossing to silkie-feathered breeds in either case, for example. Twice in Cochins from what I've read; once in a hatchery line of frizzled Red Cochin bantams, and another time in a breeder's line of smooth Black Cochin bantams. Note that being common for a mutation is still a very rare thing--mutations don't happen often as is, and on top of that the vast majority of mutations that do happen are not survivable. So it is still very rare for this to have happened, but not necessarily completely unheard of...

Still, do you have any pictures of these chicks' parents, grandparents, or even the great grandparents on the grandmother's side since she's a mix? Any other roosters who could have hopped a fence and fertilized any of them? Any chance of the eggs getting confused with someone else's? Any neighbors with roosters who could have paid a visit? I'm not doubting you at all, just like to cover all the bases!

Do you have any pictures of these babies standing normally, too? I'm a bit of a silkie-feather enthusiast, and I just like looking at 'em. The thought of a Dorking or Dorking mix potentially carrying the silkied gene has my heart aflutter at the thought, Dorks being my favorite breed despite that they don't have a known silkied variant!

 

[NanaK]

Following, this is interesting. I've never seen this before. I would love to see more pics as they grow.

 

[inquisitivebird]

Looks silkied to me. Here is one of my silkied Cochin hen's wings, to compare:

View attachment 3220342

It seems like the silkie-feather gene is a relatively common mutation in chickens; both silkied Cochins and silkied Ameraucanas popped up without any historical outcrossing to silkie-feathered breeds in either case, for example. Twice in Cochins from what I've read; once in a hatchery line of frizzled Red Cochin bantams, and another time in a breeder's line of smooth Black Cochin bantams. Note that being common for a mutation is still a very rare thing--mutations don't happen often as is, and on top of that the vast majority of mutations that do happen are not survivable. So it is still very rare for this to have happened, but not necessarily completely unheard of...

Still, do you have any pictures of these chicks' parents, grandparents, or even the great grandparents on the grandmother's side since she's a mix? Any other roosters who could have hopped a fence and fertilized any of them? Any chance of the eggs getting confused with someone else's? Any neighbors with roosters who could have paid a visit? I'm not doubting you at all, just like to cover all the bases!

Do you have any pictures of these babies standing normally, too? I'm a bit of a silkie-feather enthusiast, and I just like looking at 'em. The thought of a Dorking or Dorking mix potentially carrying the silkied gene has my heart aflutter at the thought, Dorks being my favorite breed despite that they don't have a known silkied variant!

This does look like my chicks wings! This has led me to look deeper into my old photos to see what the lineage of these chicks is. What I found was that what I thought was a brown leghorn hen back when I first started keeping chickens 8 years ago, was not a pure leghorn. This is the great grand mother of these chicks. We called her 'Funny hat' and she was given to us by someone that didn't want to keep chickens anymore, along with another two different types of chickens. Funny hat has a brown leghorn coloring and the body seems similar to me, and she has the floppy comb, but she also has a floof/crest... Which means there must be silkie in her lineage somewhere. She didn't ha e any other silkie traits that I was aware of, so I don't think she had much silkie in her... But who knows!!

The great grandfather of these chicks was Mr. Orpington:

Of these two, I hatched one egg, which was Matilda. She is 5.5 years old now and still with us. She also helped us raise some ducklings one year.

Last year I bought some Dorkings and hatched out some eggs from him and Matilda. I culled him shortly after, but this is his son who is full Dorking:

Those eggs grew up into what are the parents of the chicks with strange feathers in the original post. Shown below: