Peculiar color pattern

[sevenbabychicks]

This is so interesting! MiddleChild, your Early does bear resemblance to my BCM cross. Does he have saddle feathers on both sides? Is one of his legs thicker than the other?

 

[MiddleChild]

I'll have to check on those questions. Not sure I know where saddle feathers begin and end, and I've been so fascinated by the different colored legs I never looked at their thickness. He's furious with me today though, because last night I had to clip their wings again. May not get close to him for a week.

 

[Deannster]

Early bears more than a passing resemblance to my Jo as well. Same coloring, different colored legs... How old is your roo?

 

[MiddleChild]

He was hatched June 5 - still a young 'un.

 

[Deannster]

A few of Jo... He was born around the same time as Early. From what I can see, the assessment that he has at least some Copper Maran in him could be accurate.

 

[MiddleChild]

The legs! The legs! It's Early's left leg that's yellow too. I looked at him more closely - his feathering seems to be symmetrical, and the legs are the same thickness. Whatever that means. His feathers are so shiny - they look synthetic. Except after three solid days of rain he may be a little moldy.

 

[Bravo]

This is fascinating. I've heard of chimerism/intersex in humans (I think Discovery or a similar channel did a special on it about 5 years or so ago). It doesn't surprise me that this is showing up in chickens given the much larger population of them to humans.

Has anyone had their birds officially DNA'ed where samples have been taken from various locations on the bird to determine if this is really the case?

Also, I would imagine the chances of a true intersex bird laying are extremely low since the left ovary is what almost all chickens use to produce eggs. From the 2 specimens below, it appears that the left side is the male side--but that just may be coincidence.

Crazy yet awesome stuff!

 

[MiddleChild]

I just hope there's enough girl in there that he doesn't crow - can't keep roosters in this town. But he does do rooster-y things like get between me and the ones I think are hens.