Backyard Poultry Forum

We have hens we have bred ourselves, starting from a few Wyandotte/Isa X's, and Indian games, put to Light Sussex roosters. Now after 3 generations , all fathered by LS roosters, most chicks look LS, with a couple who are all white and look a little IG.
A couple of months back a bloke asked me foe a few eggs because his remaining Isa had gone mad clucky and he wanted to keep her entertained. One egg hatched; he showed me a photo last week and it looked at 7 weeks to have the LS colouring, but it looked pretty naked.
Attached is a photo of one chick out of my last batch of 13, one of two which also have very poor feathering. This is my 2nd batch from a rooster and all 23 of the previous batch all had normal feathering.
Do I have some problem, or will this sort itself out as the birds mature?
All advice welcome
Cheers
barrycon

c'mon guys (and girls).
Are all you people who know this stuff still in Holiday Mode?
29 Views and about 5 are mine.
Is it a breeding issue, do I have a genetic issue with my rooster, or will it be alright on the night?
RSVP
barrycon

I would suspect that no-one knows the answer. But, yes, my guess is that it’d be a genetic issue. Thats supported by the fact that two chicks raised under different conditions have shown this poor feathering.

I’d say you have some recessive genes that have been lurking and have popped out as a result of a bit of line breeding. It’s obviously not a simple or dominant genetic mechanism though as you’ve only had a couple of chicks with the problem. So perhaps it’s affected by multiple genes.

From time to time you do hear of featherless chicks hatching - even more bald than yours.

In your case it might be tricky to work out which birds are producing the problem, if you are flock breeding. Do you know which rooster/hen the chick came from? If not, you could try subdividing your group of birds to see if you can isolate where it’s coming from. That might been more hassle than it’s worth though. Another option is to carry on and do nothing about it for now, apart from keeping records of any parameters you can measure (which parents are involved, if known, and numbers and dates of poorly feathered chicks hatching), and obviously seeing how this chick ends up.

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Cheerio, Rach
Blue Swedish Ducks

Hi Rach
Thank you very much for that. Apart from the featherlessness, they appear to be healthy at this stage anyhow. I won't be needing to worry about their progeny; as the RSL poem says "They shall not grow old, as we who are left grow old...."
My thought is that it involves the rooster who fathered the chicks affected, and we have not had it show before - he's the only new kid on the block.
Cheers
barrycon

Well that helps to narrow it down. Is he a bird with valuable traits, or can you live with not using him?

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Cheerio, Rach
Blue Swedish Ducks

Not really sure if he has valuable traits, as we won't kill/eat any offspring for another 3-4 weeks. He is a bit on the short side but is not aggressive to humans or kids, so will withhold judgment until the first bird hits the table.
The real measure for us will be final size and flavour of table bird.
Cheers and thanks
barrycon

If his purpose in life is to help produce food for your family and he does a good job of that then I wouldn’t worry too much about the feathering issue if it’s just the very occasional chick.

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Cheerio, Rach
Blue Swedish Ducks