.
Last edited:
Icelandic Chickens
- Thread starter The Sheriff
- Start date
- Thread starter
- #15,532
Regarding feathering issues in Icelandics. This is what I know.
1.) We do not even know that what we have observed is fray. The chicks I have hatched with abnormal feathering could fall into more than one of these recognized feather mutation categories.
The following mutations diminish feather quality (egg, feathers prone to breakages, etc).
(source: Poultry Breeding & Genetics).
1. Fray (fr) - autosomal recessive (affects mostly wing flights & tail feathers)
2. Flightless (F1) - autosomal dominant (affects mostly wing flights & tail feathers)
3. Alopecia - autosomal recessive (affects mostly remiges & rectrices)
4. Dysplastiv remiges (dr) - (affects remiges & rectrices, -extreme cases wing coverts)
5. Hypoplasia of tail feathers (Hy) - autosomal dominant (affects tail feathers, resembles rumplessness,
but vertebrae normal) Found in Ingie Fowl.
6. Matted Down - polygenic trait
7. Ragged Wing (rw) - autosomal recessive (affects wing flights)
8. Porcupine (pc) - autosomal recessive (spiny quills)
9. Ropy (ropy) - autosomal recessive (sticky down, adults - large wing feathers, sometimes body feathers -
roughness)
10. Stringy (st) - recessive (down feathers stringy, very high mortality rate)
11. String-2 (st-2) - autosomal recessive (down sticky, adults - most barbules were absent from wing & tail
feathers)
12. Sunsuit (sn) - autosomal recessive (down wiry & sticky, adults - extremities bare of feathers, body
better covered)
13. Wiry (wi) - autosomal recessive (down sticky & lacked barbs on distal halves. Adults - mostly wiry
barbs of wing flights & tail feathers).
14. Wooly (wo) - autosomal recessive (shortened down- semi-naked, slick shiny feet. Adults - feathers
abnormal in structure, rough & incomplete).
15. Wing Patch - expression limited to males, may possibly be linked to the lavender locus.
2.) Feather abnormalities have not been observed in the birds originating from first Icelandic eggs legally imported into the United States by Sigrid in 1999. It has not been observed in subsequent legal importations of eggs by Sigrid.
3.) I do not know of any feather abnormalities in birds I hatched or others hatched from my original two pairs from Sigrid.
4.) I first heard of the feathering issue after I hatched eggs in May 2010 which originated from the line imported by Lyle Behl in 2003. Those eggs came from someone who established her flock from eggs from the Lyle Behl line. The first notice I had that there might be a problem was this correspondence in August 2010 from the person I got the eggs from.
"The feathering issue is that some of the feathers of some of the chickens grow in an odd position so the chickens don't look smooth and sleek. I even got one that looked like its feathers were curly. I'm culling them from my flock whenever I can but I'm still getting occasional chickens with weird feathering. Eventually I'll have it culled out. It doesn't affect the health of the chickens, just the looks."
5.) I was never able to get any more concrete information about the feathering issue. We corresponded infrequently about it but I was not able to find out exactly what the problem was.
6.) In May 2011 I contacted her sending pictures of a chick I hatched that had strange feathering. Her response was:
"I think your chick shows a high probability of have "funky feathers" but it's so young that you will certainly have time to figure it out before he/she is of breeding age. Trust your eyes. If you have a non-moulting chicken that looks disheveled all the time, I would definitely take it out of the breeding pool."
"I have attached two pictures of the last hen that I have with our version of funky feathers. She's not as bad as some have been but she just has an overall disheveled look and a few feathers that are askew. Please forgive the quality of the pictures but you will be able to see her larger feathers (whitish) that are growing at a strange angle. What the pictures don't show are that she also has a few small feathers on her back the look like they are growing at a different angle than they should."
6.) I have not spoken directly to Lyle Behl about this issue but I have had many, many requests from people looking for eggs or chicks not from Lyle's line because of "feathering problems." This is in no way meant to disparage Lyle Behl or his line of legally imported Icelandics. From my correspondence with him and what I have heard from others, Lyle is a good man. Where and when the first Icelandic chicken with feathering problems appeared I have no idea. What I do know is it didn't show up in my flock until after I added the other line for "diversity."
7.) I have removed all Icelandic chickens from my flock with the exception of the pair I received directly from Sigrid. I am rebuilding with eggs from their mating and will hatch more of Sigrid's eggs this summer.
8.) Specifically to redchicken9, I am one of the "you people" you called out in this statement: Frankly, all you people with frayed icelandics that have continued to hatch and sell them are the ones spreading this "mutation". little has been done to stop breeding these lines The real issue is if fray is bad, you folks need to work harder on removing fray."
You need to know that most of us on this thread have worked hard to identify the cause and origination of the "feathering problem" and eliminate it from our flocks. It was only after several other attempts to find the source that I made the gut wrenching decision to get rid of all my birds with the exception of the pair from Sigrid. I resent your accusations.
9.) I do, however, agree with two of your statements: "there could be outcrossed birds" Yes, there could be and there have been. Just as in every other breed of chickens being sold and traded, there are people who do not care about preservation. We have no control over what people do with their chickens. We have asked, begged, and pleaded with people to keep their Icelandics pure but some just don't care. There are crossbreeds out there of all the breeds of chickens, I can guarantee you that. We do the best we can by trying to pick good stewards of the breed and notify each other privately when we find out someone is crossing them. Beyond that there is not much we can do about it.
"It's clear that it hasn't always been imported with regulatory diligence (no surprise)." I have good reason to believe that this statement is quite true and I am in the process of investigating recent claims of legal importations. I have it on good authority that Johanna G. Hardardottir has never sold nor given away eggs to be imported into the United States.
10.) This is all I know and all the information I can provide as to the issue with feathering in the Icelandic population in the U.S. I believe this is just something that happened, probably not even true fray, and those who care about the preservation of the Icelandic chicken in the U.S. will continue to do whatever they can to rid all mutations from the relatively small gene pool. Now that hatcheries have gotten their hands on Icelandics it may be too late. As with all other breeds there will always be breeder/keepers who have quality stock.
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Do I regret adding the other line to my flock? In retrospect, yes. Would I ever do it again? No. Do I know with certainty that it came from the other line? No. Am I doing everything I can to find out and fix it? Yes.[/FONT]
1.) We do not even know that what we have observed is fray. The chicks I have hatched with abnormal feathering could fall into more than one of these recognized feather mutation categories.
The following mutations diminish feather quality (egg, feathers prone to breakages, etc).
(source: Poultry Breeding & Genetics).
1. Fray (fr) - autosomal recessive (affects mostly wing flights & tail feathers)
2. Flightless (F1) - autosomal dominant (affects mostly wing flights & tail feathers)
3. Alopecia - autosomal recessive (affects mostly remiges & rectrices)
4. Dysplastiv remiges (dr) - (affects remiges & rectrices, -extreme cases wing coverts)
5. Hypoplasia of tail feathers (Hy) - autosomal dominant (affects tail feathers, resembles rumplessness,
but vertebrae normal) Found in Ingie Fowl.
6. Matted Down - polygenic trait
7. Ragged Wing (rw) - autosomal recessive (affects wing flights)
8. Porcupine (pc) - autosomal recessive (spiny quills)
9. Ropy (ropy) - autosomal recessive (sticky down, adults - large wing feathers, sometimes body feathers -
roughness)
10. Stringy (st) - recessive (down feathers stringy, very high mortality rate)
11. String-2 (st-2) - autosomal recessive (down sticky, adults - most barbules were absent from wing & tail
feathers)
12. Sunsuit (sn) - autosomal recessive (down wiry & sticky, adults - extremities bare of feathers, body
better covered)
13. Wiry (wi) - autosomal recessive (down sticky & lacked barbs on distal halves. Adults - mostly wiry
barbs of wing flights & tail feathers).
14. Wooly (wo) - autosomal recessive (shortened down- semi-naked, slick shiny feet. Adults - feathers
abnormal in structure, rough & incomplete).
15. Wing Patch - expression limited to males, may possibly be linked to the lavender locus.
2.) Feather abnormalities have not been observed in the birds originating from first Icelandic eggs legally imported into the United States by Sigrid in 1999. It has not been observed in subsequent legal importations of eggs by Sigrid.
3.) I do not know of any feather abnormalities in birds I hatched or others hatched from my original two pairs from Sigrid.
4.) I first heard of the feathering issue after I hatched eggs in May 2010 which originated from the line imported by Lyle Behl in 2003. Those eggs came from someone who established her flock from eggs from the Lyle Behl line. The first notice I had that there might be a problem was this correspondence in August 2010 from the person I got the eggs from.
"The feathering issue is that some of the feathers of some of the chickens grow in an odd position so the chickens don't look smooth and sleek. I even got one that looked like its feathers were curly. I'm culling them from my flock whenever I can but I'm still getting occasional chickens with weird feathering. Eventually I'll have it culled out. It doesn't affect the health of the chickens, just the looks."
5.) I was never able to get any more concrete information about the feathering issue. We corresponded infrequently about it but I was not able to find out exactly what the problem was.
6.) In May 2011 I contacted her sending pictures of a chick I hatched that had strange feathering. Her response was:
"I think your chick shows a high probability of have "funky feathers" but it's so young that you will certainly have time to figure it out before he/she is of breeding age. Trust your eyes. If you have a non-moulting chicken that looks disheveled all the time, I would definitely take it out of the breeding pool."
"I have attached two pictures of the last hen that I have with our version of funky feathers. She's not as bad as some have been but she just has an overall disheveled look and a few feathers that are askew. Please forgive the quality of the pictures but you will be able to see her larger feathers (whitish) that are growing at a strange angle. What the pictures don't show are that she also has a few small feathers on her back the look like they are growing at a different angle than they should."
6.) I have not spoken directly to Lyle Behl about this issue but I have had many, many requests from people looking for eggs or chicks not from Lyle's line because of "feathering problems." This is in no way meant to disparage Lyle Behl or his line of legally imported Icelandics. From my correspondence with him and what I have heard from others, Lyle is a good man. Where and when the first Icelandic chicken with feathering problems appeared I have no idea. What I do know is it didn't show up in my flock until after I added the other line for "diversity."
7.) I have removed all Icelandic chickens from my flock with the exception of the pair I received directly from Sigrid. I am rebuilding with eggs from their mating and will hatch more of Sigrid's eggs this summer.
8.) Specifically to redchicken9, I am one of the "you people" you called out in this statement: Frankly, all you people with frayed icelandics that have continued to hatch and sell them are the ones spreading this "mutation". little has been done to stop breeding these lines The real issue is if fray is bad, you folks need to work harder on removing fray."
You need to know that most of us on this thread have worked hard to identify the cause and origination of the "feathering problem" and eliminate it from our flocks. It was only after several other attempts to find the source that I made the gut wrenching decision to get rid of all my birds with the exception of the pair from Sigrid. I resent your accusations.
9.) I do, however, agree with two of your statements: "there could be outcrossed birds" Yes, there could be and there have been. Just as in every other breed of chickens being sold and traded, there are people who do not care about preservation. We have no control over what people do with their chickens. We have asked, begged, and pleaded with people to keep their Icelandics pure but some just don't care. There are crossbreeds out there of all the breeds of chickens, I can guarantee you that. We do the best we can by trying to pick good stewards of the breed and notify each other privately when we find out someone is crossing them. Beyond that there is not much we can do about it.
"It's clear that it hasn't always been imported with regulatory diligence (no surprise)." I have good reason to believe that this statement is quite true and I am in the process of investigating recent claims of legal importations. I have it on good authority that Johanna G. Hardardottir has never sold nor given away eggs to be imported into the United States.
10.) This is all I know and all the information I can provide as to the issue with feathering in the Icelandic population in the U.S. I believe this is just something that happened, probably not even true fray, and those who care about the preservation of the Icelandic chicken in the U.S. will continue to do whatever they can to rid all mutations from the relatively small gene pool. Now that hatcheries have gotten their hands on Icelandics it may be too late. As with all other breeds there will always be breeder/keepers who have quality stock.
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Do I regret adding the other line to my flock? In retrospect, yes. Would I ever do it again? No. Do I know with certainty that it came from the other line? No. Am I doing everything I can to find out and fix it? Yes.[/FONT]
- Thread starter
- #15,533
Kathy, your emu pair now have the dark heads like my girls. My girls are really starting to lighten up on their body feathers now. I just don't recall the boys getting dark heads like that. Guess I'll have to go back through pictures and see. The pics with the grandkids are too sweet. I just wish I could find a way to stop the pecking! Dang, they can rip my cuticles off with laser precision. I have red nail polish on today so I fed them this morning and got outta' their pasture asap!
I don't have icelandics and no particuliar ax to grind BUT, I wish the people with the "holier than thou," icelandics would please start their own thread and allow the poor breeders"stuck with USA" icelandics to keep this one.Thank you and good day
Wow this group has moved a lot in the last few days, I have learned a lot about genetics here and do appreciate all the concerns of each individual, I myself have a rooster with this so called Frey and he is separated from my flock and I shall keep him and any others separated form my flock, I have two other nice roosters and four hens that show no signs of the Frey, in the future if I have signs of Frey they will be culled too in the attempt to breed this out and keep a strong pure Icelandic gene pool going, I do enjoy this breed and consider myself somewhat of a preservationist, as I keep other breeds and try to keep them as pure as I possibly can by separating them by individual pens. I am happy to be a part of this group and thank all those involved in getting these wonderful chicken to the USA. Now that said, I would like to congratulate Mary on her part of getting her daughter through graduation and to also congratulate her daughter as well on her part of this challenging feat. I know first hand the trials of raising children as I have had a hand in caring for six of my own, 4 of whom have graduated with honors as Valedictorians of their classes.And I have had chickens most of my 51 years on this earth, I don't know what I would have done without either of them, the chickens or the children as they have both kept me grounded in the ever changing world. Lynn
- Thread starter
- #15,536
Thank you Lynn. BTW, Emily is my granddaughter. For Emily to graduate from high school with a 3.5+ GPA (waiting for final report card), is nothing short of amazing. Diagnosed with ADHD and severe learning disabilities in kindergarten, she struggled through Special Education classes until the end of her freshman year in high school. At that point there were no more IEP classes for her and she was mainstreamed. To our amazement she blossomed! She excelled in math of all things. She still struggles with reading and immaturity but beyond that, no one would know she hasn't breezed through school. As a teacher's aide for one period this year, she had a waiting list of teachers wanting her for their classroom. I am so proud of her. So proud. She has been obsessed with graduating since the day she arrived on campus. Her struggle to overcome the obstacles in her way was inspiring. I don't think there is another student in the 375 kids in her class that worked as hard as she did. She wanted to graduate from high school. A GED would not do it. She wanted to walk across that stage with everyone else and she did it! I thought my heart would stop.
Well that makes her even more special as a granddaughter!!! My last daughter is also ADHD and we have had trials with this also, we fought the school system and so far she has excelled in class, we found that getting her with the right teacher make a lot of difference, she is going into the 2nd grade next year with a little hesitation as she already misses her teacher from first grade, I keep telling her it will be a new and fun adventure and if needed her first grade teacher will be there for hugs and encouragement. She will do fine I am sure, she just doesn't do well with change to her routine as you may know.But Back to chickens(my other favorite subject) i have lost a few chickens if the past few days due to weather change I think, it has been hot days and cool nights and then hot days and hot nights back and forth, this is hard on chickens, today we are adding vitamins and electrolytes to water to try and help adjust them to the changing weather. Its hard to try and guess what Mother Nature will do sometime, so we do what we can to smooth out the ride. We need more rain here, most of the farmers have their wheat crops in with an abundance of wheat this year, I am seeing way more hay baled this year so i suspect the price will drop on hay from the $120 a round bale for last year, maybe back to the $30 to $60 range. I only have two horses to hay so I have 4 acres I cut and it gets me by with the horses. Have thought about planting some Milo or corn for the chickens and my two feeder pigs, but my back has not let me get it done. Well it is raining here!!1 Have a great day all!! Lynn
Sheriff, Thank you very much for the overview of the fray issue. I am very grateful for you taking the time to put that together. At least people like me that love these birds and happen on this thread and trawl through this forum looking for information, can find it and in one place. You've done a service to us all by putting this together, thanks again.
Drumstick Diva, maybe you fail to realize this but a lot of people that like these birds are put off by this thread because of these sort of remarks towards newbies that are just trying find information. I simply have the type of personality where I don't care if you have a dig at me for asking unpopular questions, so I do it. You'll find many Icelanders are like this, very outspoken and up front, to a fault. Our chickens have similar mentality.
I am sorry if someone thinks I am trying to create a divide or that I think my little backyard flock is "holy". Only the Lord is holy, and my chickens are no better or worse than the rest of his creatures.
God bless.
Drumstick Diva, maybe you fail to realize this but a lot of people that like these birds are put off by this thread because of these sort of remarks towards newbies that are just trying find information. I simply have the type of personality where I don't care if you have a dig at me for asking unpopular questions, so I do it. You'll find many Icelanders are like this, very outspoken and up front, to a fault. Our chickens have similar mentality.
I am sorry if someone thinks I am trying to create a divide or that I think my little backyard flock is "holy". Only the Lord is holy, and my chickens are no better or worse than the rest of his creatures.
God bless.
X
Last edited:
May I say - Don't worry, not all of us who are new to the Icelandic breed are put off by things such as this
So in a nutshell, I wouldn't be surprised that some folks may be put off by the fray issue present in some Icelandic stock. However, not everyone feels that way, so I wouldn't worry too much about the efforts of preserving the Icelandic chicken becoming a "lost cause", as it were. If I understood you correctly, that seems to be a concern you have, yes? If so, don't worry
Greybear, I absolutely agree that the teacher can make all the difference! I was kind of that way when I was a kid. I had a teacher in the first grade that just seemed irritated with me no matter what, probably because I would get bored easily and tune out the class. I didn't do so well in that grade. When I moved up to the second grade, I had a very wonderful, very patient teacher who worked with me on a personal level, which I very much needed, and I did tons better. I wish your sweet granddaughter the best! And I'm sorry to hear that you've lost some birds
Similar threads
New posts New threads Active threads
-
Latest threads
-
Accidental Tearing of Large (~2"x5") Section of Feathers AND Skin
- Started by EasterEggerRose
- Replies: 7
-
Open mouth breathing need help!!
- Started by JessNoaChicken
- Replies: 0
-
-
OverEZ chicken coops
- Started by llcardinale
- Replies: 5
-
Anybody have any Poultry swap tips for a newbie participant?- Started by Susan Skylark
- Replies: 0
-
-
Threads with more replies in the last 15 days
-
-
Question of the Day - Thursday, August 14th, 2025- Started by casportpony
- Replies: 69
-
Ended BYC Poultry Caption Contest 08-08-25 Pic by Molpet- Started by TwoCrows
- Replies: 62
-
Still no idea what’s going on with my hens comb and growing black spots
- Started by Ohsrsly
- Replies: 61
-
-
