The IMPORTED ENGLISH Orpington Thread

[delisha]

Hello all! I am hoping one of you chicken gurus can help. I have a young cockerel that has me stumped. This is a new line for me and may be totally normal for this bloodline, but I have never seen anything like it. I received about 10 chicks together of slightly differing ages a little over a month ago. Some were feathered, some still had chick down. The youngest chicks all went through an ugly stage but this little guy takes the cake. They are from an imported line and black. I have been giving him and his siblings liquid vitamin and probiotic supplements in addition to their 20% starter feed. Some still have slightly balding on the face and head, but this guy lost all his down everywhere at once with no replacement feathers. Can chickens have alopecia?

I have never seen anything like this either. Might be just that particular line.

 

[heirloomorps]

Hello all! I am hoping one of you chicken gurus can help. I have a young cockerel that has me stumped. This is a new line for me and may be totally normal for this bloodline, but I have never seen anything like it. I received about 10 chicks together of slightly differing ages a little over a month ago. Some were feathered, some still had chick down. The youngest chicks all went through an ugly stage but this little guy takes the cake. They are from an imported line and black. I have been giving him and his siblings liquid vitamin and probiotic supplements in addition to their 20% starter feed. Some still have slightly balding on the face and head, but this guy lost all his down everywhere at once with no replacement feathers. Can chickens have alopecia?

Wow. We have some blacks that are s-l-o-w to feather in but nothing quite like this. The worst of ours got over the ugly stage at about 9 weeks.

 

[BamaChicken]

Okay here is a Charlie progression.
8 weeks old

3 months

4 months

5 months

5 1/2 months

Almost 7 months old here

8 months old

1 yr old

2 yr old

He went into his second moult a week ago and now has no tail feathers. When he gets through it and looks all awesome again I will take another pic.

Yaya don't remember if you saw this at the beginning of this thread but the first pic is of Charlie at 8 weeks. He took forever to feather in and I fed him all kinds of extra protein and so forth thinking it would help but it didn't. Some are just slower than others. I have one splash from Roger that is 2 months old and he has not feathered in and his blue and black sibling have. He looks like he will be larger though

 

[BamaChicken]

Sylivia your boy does look a little feather picked though too. I would separate him from the others and see if that helps

 

[aveca]

hes quite a beautiful specimin

 

[Goose and Fig]

Quote: That is not slow feather. That is some odd abnormality- the rest of the feathers look nice and green. My first guess would have been mites or picking by siblings, but if that is the only one...

In an unrelated matter-
I have a blue cockerel from Renie available in SE TN. He's not very big, but has lovely lacing so far. He might have a growth spurt after his bigger sibling moves out. No shipping til fall. First one to pick up gets him.
I don't' want to advertise locally or he'll end up in a pot or a ring.

 

[PugBug]

I had a terrible scare today when I went out to feed/water! It had been raining off & on most of the day so I was a little later than normal getting out to the pens. When I got to the nursury pen where all the GFF babies, BBS babies & the bourbon red babies are I saw my little partridge pullet laying in the corner on her side not moving. I touched her & still no movement! When I tried to pick her up I realized her head ( I have NO idea how she managed this!) was stuck under the landscape timber we have on the floor between each cage where we attached the chicken wire between cages at the bottoms. Hope that's not confusing- anyway I just knew she was dead- well I got her head out & low & behold she opened her eyes, looking at me and gave a big sigh, like "oh I thought you'd never find me". I set her down, she just gave a big fluff out, straitened her self up & then ran off to the water dish. Thank goodness I happened to look in the corner & see her! So far she seems to be the only partridge pullet I have.

 

[yaya1215]

Sylivia your boy does look a little feather picked though too. I would separate him from the others and see if that helps

That is not slow feather. That is some odd abnormality- the rest of the feathers look nice and green. My first guess would have been mites or picking by siblings, but if that is the only one...

I thought of the feather picking too, when I first noticed the balding patches about 3 weeks ago. He's been separated with two of his box mates (little bantam orp pullets) who started showing signs of balding at the same time. The two pullets have feathered in nicely except for in the face so far. I have been checking for signs of mites/lice, but his skin is spanking clean; no redness, scabs, itching or signs of discomfort. He is a curiosity for sure.

UPDATE: As I was typing this post, I was doing some research and I believe I may have found an explanation:

Kn Very slow feathering or 'delayed' feathering gene. The order of dominance among the genes allelic to this locus is Kn>Ks>K>k+. The slow feathering gene is believed to be associated with a bald patch on the back of the adolescent bird. The feathers do come in given enough time. Since this is likely due to a dose effect of the slow feathering gene, the homozygous males should be the most likely to exhibit the trait. In my personal flocks, I have both males and females exhibiting this. Many novice poultry keepers wrongly attribute the bald back phenotype with a picking problem.​

copied from the Kippenjungle website.

Another post went on to say that the delayed feathering gene is most often evident in black feathered large breed (male, since it is a sex-link gene) birds. I guess that explains why the girls have got their feathers already! I will still keep an eye on the little guy, but this is the probable cause for his oddity...

 

[RedReiner]

just for fun, my basketball , she needs a name

What about Mamie, for Mamie Smith, one of the greatest blues singers ?

ETTA! Etta James

 

[BamaChicken]

My 8 week old boy I hatched from Rogers birds. Splash with 5 nice points. He was raised by a hen and is the largest of the splash. I think I will be keeping him but I have another that is a little smaller but a blue splash and very wide and he is pretty too.

Big Boy out for a stroll after the rain

Blue Splash boy with Mama