Hey guys I'm new to this site so I'm just seeking answers really and has anyone else seen this before iv googled it but I can not see anything other than a mad scientist trying to developed a dinosaur from a chicken embryo! Its called the chickenosaure project :/ anyway I'll tell you what I'm talking about now, I live in north Wales and keep a few pekin bantams and a few other breeds of bantam, I also have a few cockerels (gold partridge pekin and a lavender) I decided to let one of my broody hens sit some eggs about 3 years back and as expected the little ones hatched about 21 day later I think 6 out of 8 eggs and we sold 6 keeping one hen and one cockerel I was fond of the the little monsters they followed me everywhere I went now a year later they had their first moult of the year but the cockerel had a particularly rapid loss of feathers making him look bald, I was sat in the garden in winter and I noticed on one of the winds that had gone bald completely a long set of fingers at the front of the end of the wing so I caught button (my cockerel pekin) to examine this strange set of fingers, then I noticed he had them on both sides, they were about 3.5cm long and the smallest was about 1cm they had sharp nails on each one and looked the same as his feet meaning the same scales as you may see on your chooks legs, he didn't seem to have any function on them norr did he use them but they were very long and prominent were prehistoric looking he also hung his wings in a strange way almost dragging on the floor at first we just thought we was a bit disabled leading to part of the reason why we kept him in the first place. Sadly this year he passed away due to a fox breaking in to the chicken pen and chewing through the netting killing everything except for my oldest cockerel who is the father of button. We never really made a thing about it because we didn't think it was that much of a deal but looking it up now it seems strange that no one has a record of something like this before. Hope you can help me...I'm surely not the only one. Kindest regards Joe marshall
I'm sure I've read about a similar condition with a rooster or hen and the poster even had photos up. I can't recall where or when on BYC but, know I saw it. There were a lot of comments. You would do better starting a separate thread regarding this - not many people visit the new members threads. I wish you had photos, it might have jogged my memory.
Hello and Welcome To BYC! Maybe this is the thread that drumstick diva was referring to? The first pictures are gone but there are some of a silkie later on. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/364168/check-out-the-wing-claws-on-this-chick Here is an article of birds in general http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2010/06/30/clubs-spurs-spikes-and-claws/
Thanks everyone that's a great help! I didn't expect a response so fast thank you again. I wish I took some pictures to show you all but I never got round to it and the few I did take were on a phone that's was sadly stolen I'll have a good read of that article above.
to BYC! How interesting!! Yes, too bad you have no pics. But it is great to have you aboard and enjoy BYC!
Vestigial wing hooks in my experience are relatively common in many breeds/strains. A picture of the size on your birds would have been interesting.
