Naked Neck/Turken Thread

[Kassaundra]

Those that were chipmunks with dots on the maybe turn out like one of mine. Barred Partridge, you can still see the partridge coloring if you catch her and looked close.

That might be possible mine have such a genetic mix. I assume they will barred of some kind.

 

[chickengr]

@Kassaundra if this was a contest and I should choose the winner I wouldn't know which one to choose. they are too cute.

 

[DesertChic]

This chick is GORGEOUS! How can you not love black on black? Simple elegance.



LOVE this photo. I keep hearing Eddie Murphy singing "I like big butts and I cannot lie..." from the "Shrek" movie, LOL!



And finally...one of the best chick photos ever! A perfect "bald" chick next to a fully feathered one...the contrast between the two is fantastic.

I've got my favorites picked out!!! See my comments in bold + red above.

 

[Skink]

Oh no! OH NO! LOOK HOW CUTE THAT LITTLE GREY NAKED BUTT IS!! I am obviously biased but oh my gosh, the scaleless is the cutest of all of them you posted. I have never seen a grey one before. Agonizingly cute!

I finally saw one of my scaleless carrying cockerels mount a scaleless carrying pullet.. I'm eager for them to start laying so I can start trying to hatch. Could be any day now. We have a high of 88 today.. so heat stress is already on its way, making it a bit of a race against time. My spring chicks last year didn't start laying until way late because of the heat.

 

[nchvac]

What breeding is required to get a scaleless chicken and how do they handle the cold weather?

 

[draye]

Another young pullet started laying today. 24 and 1/2 weeks. About normal for my flock.

 

[flower]

What breeding is required to get a scaleless chicken and how do they handle the cold weather?

There is a rare scaleless gene which is actually a mutation which is required for the offspring to be completely featherless and without the feathers they can not tolerate cold weather. Kassaundra who is breeding the scaleless chickens makes "clothing" for her special birds. There are a few people on this thread who are also breeding the scaleless chickens maybe they will comment later but you can also search the NN thread for earlier posts.

 

[Kev]

What breeding is required to get a scaleless chicken and how do they handle the cold weather?

Yep as mentioned by flower it is a mutation all by itself. So to get naked chickens you first need to introduce the scaleless gene. It is recessive so there needs to be at least one rooster and one hen carrying it for naked chicks.

they handle cold surprisingly well. It doesn't get terribly cold here in southern Calif but we still get winter nights going down to 30s... all they have is basically an insulated dog house type of shelter with thick layer of straw plus custom clothes.. mine has a variant of the hen saddle, just covering their back down to the tail and the breast area with the wings and legs exposed.

Rest of the year they are naked and they do just fine.. no sunblock or anything.

btw it is called scaleless because they don't have scales on their legs/toes either.

 

[Skink]

Without their feathers, they are as protected as any naked human would be in the cold. Normally, feathers are used to trap air against the skin, warming it and providing a portable layer of insulation. It is for this reason that I don't even like seeing frizzled or silkied chickens completely unprotected out in the cold, ESPECIALLY smaller birds (the tinier the body the harder a time they're gonna have,) though that is an unpopular opinion. Additional things to consider beyond chicken clothes might be coop heating (radiant heat panels are a safe, low energy consumption, no light option) and some Silkie friends to sleep with since neither bird can roost, and then keeping them cooped up in the very worst of weather (for ex: sudden temp drops, very wet weather, sleet, flooded and frozen run/range area.) However, if you live in a place with severe/long winters, or generally cool temperatures, I really don't think Scaleless would be a good choice.

I've been so worried over what it will mean for the welfare of future chickens if I start producing scaleless that I've decided I'll be breeding my particular line for temperament and size before all else.. I want them docile and small. A small, sweet chicken is a chicken you can keep bring indoors without much fuss, it wouldn't be a hard decision if it was an outdoor chicken, and goodness knows I adore my house chickens and would recommend them as such. That way people who want a scaleless as a novelty will be less inclined to just.. get them and leave them to run with their layer flock, hoping they will do well in their wisconsin winters with no help or something, you know? Because if people who got scaleless birds from my efforts start getting their birds killed via exposure, I'd feel partially responsible and never forgive myself.

Heat stress is the big monster in my area. It can delay growth and onset of lay in a big way, and can stop egg production dead, which is inconvenient because by the time it gets cool enough for them to start laying again (here that can be as late as mid nov.) it is time for a molt. Scaleless will still feel the heat but they will shed it like no other bird can, and you can provide cooling and enriching things like sprinklers and wallowing pits without having to worry about bad things like stripping feathers of their oils and inviting lice or fungal rot! Also without feathers, they're much, much more unlikely to get anything like fly strike, have wounds go unnoticed and untreated, and so on.

I think the name Scaleless might also be derivative from the fact that a feather is simply a modified scale, which explains why one gene affects both! I love telling people it is called scaleless because they don't have scales on their feet, though. They always gape at me and give me some variation of "THAT is what they named it for, not the elephant in the room?!"

 

[DesertChic]

Uh oh.....I had to break up a really nasty, on-going battle between my beloved NN rooster, Heisenberg, and his mini-me gorgeous son, Ozzy. Twice this morning I saw them fighting, but when Heisenberg walked away it simply ended and they went about their business...normal stuff. But while I was performing water changes another fight ensued and Ozzy would NOT stop chasing Heisenberg, even when my two very large roosters, Hansel and Shiloh, tried to intervene. I was able to finally step in between them and gather Ozzy up to isolate for a while, and he showed zero aggression towards me, which is good, but I'm worried that this indicates a potential larger problem.

So I ask you more seasoned chicken lovers...should I worry, or is this just a phase? I'd rather not cull Ozzy, but I will if this indicates a chronically combative demeanor with the other boys.