Whiskers on legs

[JacinLarkwell]

Anyone k ow what these are? They look and feel like cat whiskers and go all the way to the skin of the bird

The bird is a brahma, male that's a year old almost exactly

 

[JadeFarms]

I wonder if the fluff on the feathers cage off the middle. That is really strange! Maybe it’s just the middle of the feather..

 

[JacinLarkwell]

That's what we thought but the shafts are way thinner and look solid compared to shafts if feathers. They're also way longer than the real feathers

 

[MysteryChicken]

I've had hairy chickens like that before.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

We found out the roosters probably half brother (shared a shipment from the same hatchery) has the same hairs. Never found anyothers, but the only thing we could find in my genetics book was a genetic deformity in pigeons that's gone extinct in modern records and only a small degree on our birds compared to the reported pigeons

 

[Amer]

Those look like hair feathers, which were apparently once considered a Dorking breed trait. I don’t know much more about them.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

We've started calling it Kemp since sheep have a similar thing called that