Feathers on the Feet... and breakage. lots of breakage....

[4HCountryChick]

HI! Ok, so, I am in showmanship for poultry, and I use D' Uucles as one of my primary showstock. HOWEVER.... I have noticed in the past couple years that there has been some breakage in the feathers.... can there be a way to prevent this? Or even fix this within 2 weeks for my fair? I really love using this breed, but if it marks me down on showmanship, then I would be considering switching breeds....

 

[grassfedchicken]

I kept my d'Uccles in a deep bedding cage with hay straw and lots of natural roosts and they were quite happy confined there and mine looked show worthy with huge feet feathers. At that point they never really touched the dirt outside. Later I let them out to free range and their feet feathers got mangled by breakage just by every day getting into the dirt and wet puddles. I'm pretty sure they on purpose mat the dirt into the feathers to make them break in order to not be so big and bulky to walk on. It won't work for a short time, but if you pluck out the broken feather by the root you will see a new feather regrow at that spot. :}:}