Naked chicks from Buff Orpingtons

[JacinLarkwell]

Were you able to breed your Naked Orps? If so how are their descendants?

Pretty sure they ended up selling or giving them to someone else.

 

[Chickenosauurs_RexNo54]

Oh

 

[Prince and Pavo]

I had 2 chicks hatch with no fuzz, totally naked.View attachment 2740636View attachment 2740645 I had to keep them separate from the rest of the hatch (28), because of pecking. They were cold and sad, so I added 2 other chicks to the little broader, and that worked. Its been a few months and they are doing well, although the female is smaller and paler. She has a little bit of fluff now, but the rooster only has a few sad feathers. They are pure bred Buffs. How did this happen? Can I breed them? Or should I donate them? Show them? I call them my weirdos. View attachment 2740634

Forgive me if this is a ridiculous idea, I have absolutely no idea how genetics or nutrition work or exactly how they affect offspring… but I do know that feathers are about 95% protein, so could it be that they hatched without feathers because the mother has/had a protein deficiency? That probably makes no sense, but it just seems so strange that this would happen for no reason at all.

 

[NatJ]

Forgive me if this is a ridiculous idea, I have absolutely no idea how genetics or nutrition work or exactly how they affect offspring… but I do know that feathers are about 95% protein, so could it be that they hatched without feathers because the mother has/had a protein deficiency? That probably makes no sense, but it just seems so strange that this would happen for no reason at all.

Since it was only 2 chicks from a larger batch, it was probably not the mother's nutrition. Her nutrition would have affected every chick she produced, not just a few of them.

It was more likely to be caused by a recessive gene. Chickens have genes in pairs: one inherited from the mother, and one from the father. If the two genes match, the chicken shows that trait (in this case, probably normal feathers.) If the two genes do not match, the chicken shows one but not the other (in this case, probably normal feathers.) A chicken who shows the dominant gene, but also carries the recessive gene, can give either one of those genes to its own chicks. (So if a chicken has normal feathers but carries a gene for no feathers, it can give the normal gene to some chicks, and the no-feather gene to some other chicks. Any chick that inherits no-feathers from both parents would be bare, with no feathers.)