Need help with breed id - no feathers on backs

[irnivek]

I have a few 6 week old chicks that are not developing feathers on their backs. Some very helpful people suggested I post pictures of them here so all of you well informed of chicken breeds can help us out with what breed they are and info about the lack of feathers.

We are new to posting on this forum but have gotten helpful info from it since we bought these (our first ever) chicks this spring. My husband and I have 4 kids - 7, 5, 3 & 1 and we all would love to know what breed of chickens we have. We bought a "special assorted bargain" and are a little overwhelmed with how many different kinds of chickens there are. Prior to this past April, we seriously thought that a chicken was a chicken and that's about as far as it goes... The only ones we've made an id on are the enormous white leghorn roosters.

The chick on the left is one with a bare back, he is black with feather legs. There are two like this almost identical. The other pretty girl is Penny, one of my daughter's favorties. She would love to know what type it is.

Two other bare backs, one I think is a cockerel, the other I'm not sure.

This is Jack. My son named him and it is his favorite. Again, we'd love to know what breed he is.

The little cockerel in the middle who is kind of buried has almost no feathers on his back and his wing feathers are really short. There is another cockerel that is exactly the same, we cannot tell them apart.

The hatchery called these tophat varieties, we call them feather heads. Is tophat the breed or is there a more specific breed name for these? Also would like to know the gender, neither has a very developed comb yet so we are guessing hens but weren't sure.

Thanks in advance!

 

[groominginla]

the tophats are Polish, won't be able to tell gender for a while longer. The slow to feather chicks look just like my brahmas, the black in first pic looks like roo, black in second pic looks rooish, other chick same pics could possible be a pullet....they are VERY slow to mature....i call them my preplucked chickens...lol. the white feather legged in the first pic is a Cochin...I have no ides what Jack could be.., bantam EE maybe????

 

[tinychicky]

pic 1: black cochin (cockeral) and white cochin (pullet)
pic 2: black wyandotte, golden campine, light brahma, buff brahma (all pullets from what i can see, not sure about the black one in the corner...)
pic 3:silver campine (cockeral)
pic 4: the three in the middle w/ columbian patterning are light brahmas (pullets on outside, one cockeral in middle)
pic 5: buff polish (cockeral)
pic 6: black wyandotte and appenzeller (pullets, the silver quill on the right edge is a cockeral)

beautiful babies!

 

[greenSearcher]

I think you may have a picking problem with all the bare backs. When they are slow to feather they normally don't look quite that naked just on the back. I am seeing the same thing on my mature hens, and I am waiting on the Pinless Peepers to arrive in the mail. I know my chickens are getting sufficient protein, so I think it is a dominance issue in my case and I know who the "villian" is. I think that unless you have a mixed age group, the feather eating may indicate a protein shortage. They are at the age where they will devour any feathers that fall out. You might want to try getting the small, perhaps extra small aprons for the birds to allow the backs to feather in. It won't take much to have real damage if one perchance draws blood picking.

 

[JodyJo]

How large an area do you have them in? Do you still have lights on them, white or red? It does look like they are pecking each other, see if you can give them more room, branches to climb on, things to go into...they could be bored and cramped.

Beautiful birds, I have 3 that will be "tophats"...eager to see them grow up.

Give them area and things to jump on and see if the feathers grow back in....keep us posted.