LIttle reassurance/verification help please

bunsnpupsnchick

Chirping
Jul 2, 2016
469
48
73
San Tan Valley, AZ
Hi










Thanks to the wonderful help from previous postings it was thought my chicks which look like this one was a partridge or gold laced cochin. However, I've notice some 'hock' or at least hock-styled feathering over the past week or so. It's not on all the cochins either...just these ones. I only got a pic of 1 of them right now to show, but are they just developing their legs feathers earlier or are these really baby hocks???? I can't recall about how my sultans developed theirs, but I probably didn't pay that close of attention as I knew what they were.
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Also, from what I've seen in the pics I've been looking at I'm thinking partridge more so than gold laced. Still not 100%, but they're only 2.5 weeks. So, I'm really surprised by the leg feathers!

Thanks for any help/verification/reassurance!!!
 
It's called vulture hocks. It's caused by a recessive gene that pops up every now and then in feather legged breeds. Not a big deal for a backyard flock keeper. It is a major fault if you were planning on breeding or showing, though.
The chick is still a Cochin.
 
It's called vulture hocks. It's caused by a recessive gene that pops up every now and then in feather legged breeds. Not a big deal for a backyard flock keeper. It is a major fault if you were planning on breeding or showing, though.
The chick is still a Cochin.
Thanks! No plans right now for either breeding or showing...still kind of experimenting with breeds to see what I like, etc.

That did bring a question to mind for breeding though....I know people work on various projects to bring/develop different colors to the various breeds. With this being a recessive gene that popped up, does that mean it would be a good candidate to bring this color to a d'uccle/booted bantam? I know they were used by some to bring the mille fleur color to cochins. I was figuring still a cochin unless I was mistaken & not finding a gold laced or partridge in either d'uccle/booted bantams. They're still super cute in my book....especially the darker red one I have.

I haven't really begun to look into genetics yet, other than color curiosity if I were to have any of my current adults hatch an egg...mixed breed for certain in that case.
 

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