Surprise Naked Necks in my bantams? Question?

[wolfie115]

Okay so earlier this year one of my mixed bantam hens went broody and hatched 4 little chicks. They are about 2 months old now and three of the four have all of their feathers for the most part, excluding some tail feathers. The other one though (we call her the Ugly Chick) has only feathers on her wings, some feathers starting on her head and her body but no feathers on her neck at all. She's also the smallest of the four (the other three I believe are roos), and she was the first to hatch out of this batch. She acts normal, eats and gets along with the other chicks. We have no Necked Necks on our farm and never had so I was curious if it's possible that she could possibly have inherited the gene? I'm clueless on bird genetics so I don't even know if it's possible. Or does she have some sort of genetic defect? I'm just really curious and hoping someone can answer this for me.

I don't have any pictures of her right now..although I could if need be.

 

[localcommotion42]

That is really strange! I have never heard of that before! Did she have any baby fuzz on her neck?

 

[wolfie115]

As far as I remember she didn't look any different then the rest of the batch. Now that I look at the NN thread she has less feathering then most of the birds on there that are similar in age.

 

[localcommotion42]

Wow! You have one strange chick! Could we see pictures?

 

[Georgia Boy 1970]

I am no genetics expert but it sounds like your chick has the slow feathering gene. If you could post pics someone with more expertise in genetics could help you.Hope this helps.

 

[Kev]

naked necks are born with the naked areas on body from hatching. If that chick had fuzz on neck, it's not a naked neck, likely has something causing to feather out slowly like someone said. Chances are if that chick survives to 6 months of age it probably will have feathers all over.

There are slow feathering genes, and also a few odd feather mutations so that's a possiblity too.. pictures would help.

 

[wolfie115]

Okay, so I've got some pictures of her now.

 

[En Plein Air Farms]

Bless her little heart, posing...she's a little dolly, tell her so every day
her feathers look like barred rock.

 

[wolfie115]

Yeah, her momma is a bantam barred rock cross. Don't know who daddy is, we have a variety of roosters over here.

 

[localcommotion42]

WOW! Those feathers (or lack of)! Poor little girl! She really does look like a naked neck! She looks like she is even losing feathers along her back.