What causes 'runs' in feathers?

[Tam'ra of Rainbow Vortex]

I love feathers. Always have.
When we first decided to get chickens I was SO excited to pick the breeds I wanted... the ones with the prettiest and most useful feathers. We are even keeping one of our surplus roosters a few extra months so I can get fully developed tail feathers.
While trying to decide which one had the best looking feathers and was most likely to grow me a nice tail, I noticed little stripes of thinness in my young rooster's tail feathers, almost like a run in fabric. The birds I had in the past got this very occasionally, and I have acquired other feathers with the same problem.
Yes, it is a subtle thing, but it BOTHERS me, especially in a bird being excluded from processing just for his plumage. Is it because he's growing? is it a vitamin deficiency? Something about the breed? (although several of the others are having the same issue)
Most importantly, is there anything I can do to prevent it?
I hate to think it is a problem with their diet, since we feed them balanced feed and they free range and get kitchen scraps. They eat so well they make my dog jealous. (he used to get all the table scraps that weren't compostable before the chickens)
What do I do?

 

[KellyHM]

I've been wondering this too. Nearly all of my BL Polish's feathers are like that right now...maybe b/c she's been broody?

 

[Mary Of Exeter]

It's caused by mites. They eat little lines in the feathers as they are developing, so that when they grow out and the sheath falls off, you get a feather with thin lines eaten away. Even after the feathers are grown, mites and lice are still horrible on feathers.

 

[Mary Of Exeter]

Also, as to what you can do about it. Dip your birds periodically in something like Permethrin. Add a little bit of dish soap to the solution so it completely soaks into the feathers and gets all the little buggers. Hold the chickens in the bath up to their head, then quickly dunk them completely in, straight down, and back up. If you do it quick you won't have to worry about hurting them. This is best since those bugs know to travel north when the insecticide starts coming their way

Then you'd just have birds with bugs all over their face and ears.
Another good tip on prevention is to keep a little food grade Diatomaceous Earth sprinkled on the floor of the coop. When it gets wet, it is not effective, but once it dries again, it will work on the bugs like normal. It's one of the safest powders in that it is organic.

 

[dixiechick]

If they are absolutely all the way across the quill of the feather in a straight line (as if the feather thinned) it's stress. Somehow the bird was stressed when growing that feather at that time. Once he molts it off, the next one will be fine. I usually check these tale-tale signs to see how much stress the bird was under during the care of the previous owner....but even the presence of a predator (which is beyond all our control) can cause a bird to stress and it show up in the feather(s) that are growing at that time...

nothing to worry about.

 

[Tam'ra of Rainbow Vortex]

Thank you both!
It could be either or both things. All the birds with the thin spots are, now that i think of it, the ones who don't like us much. All the hand-tame birds who follow us and beg for food seem immune. Maybe WE are the cause, stressing them out by trying to handle them more to tame them! But it couldn't hurt to do a periodic mite dip either... or at least have the stuff to do it on hand.

 

[AHappychick]

so what do you do with the feathers?

 

[Tam'ra of Rainbow Vortex]

I am a costumer.
What DON'T I do with feathers. I have had hats decorated with my feathers appear onstage, and have made hair clips with them... what else? I am suddenly drawing a blank even though my feather stash was, until recently quite depleted. Fans, and trims.
Currently though, it is masks. I love masks.
I wish I had better pictures to post, but with my 5 boxes of new feathers, soon I will!

 

[AHappychick]

Oh that is awesome, I went to FIT for a few years and worked for a costume company for a year or so. The coolest thing we did was all the costumes for snow white (the ballet or play I think) I made Puss-n-boots costume and helped on many others. There are many extra charactors in the play version I found out.

I would love to see pics of your work

I have all sorts of scraps of leather (leather tools and gramets and stuff) and rabbit pelts if you ever want to barter for anything

I also collect the nice feathers that fall off but have nothing to do with them yet. So if you need any nice white ones...

 

[Tam'ra of Rainbow Vortex]

That is definitely worth discussing!
I hope at some point to experiment with dying feathers... but only my columbians are even close to white, and they are all girls, so I don't get many feathers from them. And I love bartering... seems so much more honest and satisfying than using money.
I don't have any feather-specific pictures to post, but my costumes are (mostly) on www.gryfyngarb.com though I need to update to include masks.