Rooster Wear as a Culling Criteria?

[K0k0shka]

Weather plays a part in the decision making, too (or at least it should, depending on your climate). I don't know how cold your area gets, certainly not as cold as mine, but up here we have real winters and chickens can't be bare-backed in the winter (and winter here is half the year) or they'll get frostbite. They can't be bare-backed in the summer either because they could get sunburned (nevermind the cold winters, we get brutally hot summers, too). So they need to be able to maintain a healthy feather cover year-round just for their own sake. Not that I even want a rooster, but if for some reason I ever did, this would be one of my main considerations.

 

[3KillerBs]

Weather plays a part in the decision making, too (or at least it should, depending on your climate). I don't know how cold your area gets, certainly not as cold as mine, but up here we have real winters and chickens can't be bare-backed in the winter (and winter here is half the year) or they'll get frostbite. They can't be bare-backed in the summer either because they could get sunburned (nevermind the cold winters, we get brutally hot summers, too). So they need to be able to maintain a healthy feather cover year-round just for their own sake. Not that I even want a rooster, but if for some reason I ever did, this would be one of my main considerations.

Cold isn't a factor for me, but that makes a good point for people in colder climates.

 

[RiverOtter]

... I am convinced that brittle feathers is a real thing in some chickens ...

It absolutely is.
And, in hens, it can be caused by girls that lay well while their feathers are forming. Which is why I personally don't use it as a criteria for hens, and if it's very important to you, you should trap-nest and make sure you're not culling your most consistent layers (note; most consistent may not also be your heaviest layers). It is VERY easy to reduce egg-laying in your flock by selecting for seemingly unrelated things.

 

[Sally PB]

I have two bare backed hens, both with seemingly brittle feathers; perhaps lavender...? The other four hens have fully feathered backs, but have either black feathers or jubilee coloring. All six were giving me fertile eggs, so the rooster was with covering them all.

I plan to set eggs next spring, and I probably won't set eggs from those two. Of course, one of them is my favorite.

 

[K0k0shka]

I have two bare backed hens, both with seemingly brittle feathers; perhaps lavender...? The other four hens have fully feathered backs, but have either black feathers or jubilee coloring. All six were giving me fertile eggs, so the rooster was with covering them all.

I plan to set eggs next spring, and I probably won't set eggs from those two. Of course, one of them is my favorite.

Lavender feathers are genetically weaker and more prone to rooster damage, yeah. Good idea not to set eggs from those hens.

 

[RiverOtter]

Look up "Lavender chickens fray"
All lavender chickens have weak feathers, because the color effects feather development. If you hatched eggs from those hens, the chicks would be black, and normally feathered. If you then bred those black chickens together, you would get both black and lavender chickens, the blacks would have normal feathers and the lavenders weaker ones.

When judging feather qualities on lavender chickens, you want to select them against other lavenders, not other colors. With just 2 in your flock, if you like the color, don't worry about it, you'll get more lavenders if you keep a son, and it will be the original lavender hens grand-chicks before it pops up again.