Short and missing down on newborn chick

[SycamoreHorsesFarm]

My favorite "technical" hatching resource has *poosible* causes of embryonic failure according to what day they quit and other specific hatch anamolies seen starting aroung page 51-ish in the following link..

https://www.hubbardbreeders.com/media/incubation_guideen__053407700_1525_26062017.pdf

Oh this is wonderful! I look forward to reading it all!

 

[BarnyardChaos]

Oh this is wonderful! I look forward to reading it all!

I actually printed it off and bound it (soft-cover) into a ready-reference book!

 

[BarnyardChaos]

... the age of hens and nutritional profile is definitely questionable.
... hatch rate was highly correlated with individual hens.

I'd read in one of those studies that hens who'd been hatched with clubbed down hatched 16.x% of chicks also with clubbed down, compared to normal hens with 3.x% of chicks with clubbed down. I wonder if those eggs you got, especially those which quit, came from any clubbed down hens? Can you find out what kind of feed their hens were getting?

 

[BarnyardChaos]

@SycamoreHorsesFarm how is your little chick doing?

Mine is growing just fine, weighed 47 grams yesterday (37 g on Monday, 5 days ago). So she's still about 25% lighter than the other chicks. Her back down feathers are a bit fluffier, but bald spots are still bald. I tried very hard to get some good, clear closeups of her back, but she just wouldn't hold still so her lower back looks out-of-focus.

 

[SycamoreHorsesFarm]

@SycamoreHorsesFarm how is your little chick doing?

Mine is growing just fine, weighed 47 grams yesterday (37 g on Monday, 5 days ago). So she's still about 25% lighter than the other chicks. Her back down feathers are a bit fluffier, but bald spots are still bald. I tried very hard to get some good, clear closeups of her back, but she just wouldn't hold still so her lower back looks out-of-focus.

She’s doing great! Her size and feather development is on par with her siblings. Look at that tail She gets cold faster though. I took them outside to peck around for a 15 minutes or so and she got cold and snuggled under my chin for half of it. 16 days old.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

She’s doing great! Her size and feather development is on par with her siblings. Look at that tail She gets cold faster though. I took them outside to peck around for a 15 minutes or so and she got cold and snuggled under my chin for half of it. 16 days old.

Cute!
Right on track now it seems.
Sounds like she's just a bit spoiled and snuggler.

Time will tell how she feathers in, she'll go through a couple of juvenile molts.
If she's eating/drinking/active, then enjoy her and see how it goes.

 

[SycamoreHorsesFarm]

One of my WTB chicks last year had similar issues, also a black chick. It ended up feathering in fairy normally, but I could still tell the difference between her and her black sister

Did she eventually grow normal down under her outer feathers?

 

[Poodlemum]

Did she eventually grow normal down under her outer feathers?

I’m assuming so, but it was almost a year ago and I didn’t really check for down

 

[SycamoreHorsesFarm]

Now at 4 weeks she’s almost fully feathered except under her wings

 

[BarnyardChaos]

Here's my tiny girl at 18 days. She's still much smaller than the others, but she's competing and gets along fine with them. She appears healthy and active. But as you can see in the photos below, she still has just the tiniest few feathers starting on her back, and is still naked on the saddle and under her wings. It's like her body and skin are growing, but the down and feathers are not. She's starting to look bald on the head and neck, too: