The feathers on my Splash Silkie are strange. The sheaths are remaining on at the base. This is appearing a lot in bunches, especially around his neck and under the wings. It is making him very itchy. I have pulled some of them off of him and the entire feather and sheath pop off. It's not hurting him, in fact, I think he appreciates it. Some bleed a little. Some have some fluid. All I know for sure is that he's uncomfortable. It seems like the feathers are not reaching maturity and are creating infection with flakey, itchy skin surrounding them. Is this normal or is something wrong? Any help would be appreciated.
It sounds like what you are seeing is new blood feathers. New feathers are plumbed directly into the chickens blood stream. They must be in order for them to grow. Leave the blood feathers alone. You could end up breaking a few large blood feathers and having your chicken bleed to death through them. As the feathers mature and harden off the blood will leave them and return to the chickens body, leaving the quill clear. You have my word on it.
