What breed is this hen?

[skullgrrrl]

This is a rescue hen I have had for 4 days. She was advertised as a White Frizzle and when my friend went to pick her up she saw that she clearly wasn't white (more light grey with darker grey around her neck) and that she was in bad shape.

She's missing a bunch of wing feathers and she was really dirty. My friend couldn't leave her there so she took her and gave her to me. The photos were taken after she had a bath and Blu-Kote sprayed on the area that is healing. She lays a medium-sized light brown egg.

 

[Kev]

She is a mixed breed with the frizzle gene. Her color is called blue in the hobby.

She looks allright in these pics, the messed up feathers are from rooster breeding damage and possibly with some picking from other chickens.

Frizzle is known to get ratty looking. The feathers get damaged from rooster breeding pretty easily, especially if the roo breeds too often or if too many roosters.

Aside from roosters, they can become victim to feather picking- sometimes the frizzle feathers are too 'intriguing'.....

also their feathers can get brittle a little faster so if they are in full sun or in particular colors that tend to fade fast(buff) they can look pretty bad before theur annual molt. After their molt, they look great, fresh and frizzled all over.

As for the damaged feathers, there is basically nothing you can do until she molts and she will look great. Any missing feathers will grow back normally before the molt.

 

[skullgrrrl]

hi - so blue is her colour and frizzle is the recessive gene that caused her feathers to look like that, but what is her breed? can you tell by the comb and egg colour?

 

[Blackberry18]

I agree with Kev. Frizzle, although listed as a breed in The Standard of Perfection, is actually a dominant gene. Is she a bantam? I can't really tell, but my best guess would be Black Wyandotte crossed with some sort of blue-feathered breed (in genetics, blue makes black fade to grey).

 

[Kev]

Frizzle is dominant, so if you breed her, half of the chicks will come out frizzled. The gene being dominant is also why it is common to see mixed breeds with frizzle feathers.

She is a backyard mix.. it will never be easy to tell what breeds went into her.

Clean legged, pea combed and slender frizzle without a crest in solid blue color is extremely rare thing to see and laying brown eggs may rule out easter egger. That is pretty cool but also makes it impossible to be sure of her parentage.

To add to the other poster- it gets confusing because there was a breed called Frizzle, with the frizzled feathers. They are either extinct or very nearly so in Americas.. but mixed chickens with frizzle feathers are common and also frizzle is common in some breeds- frizzled cochins or polish.

The Frizzle breed still exists but apparently in low numbers in other countries- Australia and some European countries.

 

[skullgrrrl]

Blackberry 18 - she is not a bantam, but a small sized Standard.

 

[BantamLover21]

Mixed breed. Her color is blue, and she is also frizzled.

 

[Blackberry18]

Blackberry 18 - she is not a bantam, but a small sized Standard.

That's what I thought. Is she a good layer?

 

[skullgrrrl]

I've only had her 4 days - she laid a soft-shelled egg on day 2 and a normal egg today. The rescue person before me only had her for a week and said she was laying regularly.

 

[Blackberry18]

I've only had her 4 days - she laid a soft-shelled egg on day 2 and a normal egg today. The rescue person before me only had her for a week and said she was laying regularly.

Then she probably has a good ancestry in egg production. Good luck, and I hope she heals up well.