Baby chicken doesn't have a comb or wattle. Is this normal? Could it be a HYBRID!

[JohnnyHarkerHts]

It doesn't have a comb. Instead it has a row of very tiny bumps with tiny bit of down sprouting out of each bump.

It may be hard to see the down in the photos though. I could barely see it when I held it.

The little bumps are black not red like every other chicken I've seen.

Is it normal for a chicken to have super tiny black combs?

I just thought it would start looking more normal as it aged, but it's 8 wks old now.

It's siblings look very typically chicken, with bright red combs Etc.

It's also much smaller than its two siblings, not even half the size of the middle guy.

It doesn't seem to have any wattle like the other chicks and both parents.

I didn't think much of it, because I assumed they were all a cross between a Black Serama rooster (last pic) with cream highlights and a slight green sheen (light bulb for size reference).

Hens were 2 extremely small orangish English Game Bantams which are 2/3 the size of the rooster, and HE only weighs 1lb. (don't have their pic yet)

I didn't think hybrid until I ran across a book about avian hybrids which said the rare cross between a corturnix old world quail and a chicken has little or no comb.

The quails were standard wild colored corturnix quail.

Until I read that I had dismissed the notion, because all the eggs looked exactly the same, extremely small white eggs, about 3x the size of the beige and speckled cortunix eggs the quail lay.

During the time the eggs appeared, the quail were with the chickens, and ALL the quail are hens. I know that for certain.

I do know that on occasion Reggie the rooster used to try to mount the quail, but I figured that stopped when I got the pullets, but maybe he did that on the sly even after.

So I don't know, and I'd like to hear from anyone who might know.


.

 

[tadkerson]

If the bird in question hatched from a quail egg- it is a hybrid. If the bird hatched from chicken egg it is a chicken. It looks like a female with a gypsy face. Gypsy faced birds can appear in birds that carry the birchen allele and your male is birchen. The bill on the pullet in question is almost completely black which indicates she carries birchen also.

Tim

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Also, my Coturnix laid white eggs with brown splotches on them, not just plain white eggs. That looks like a very cute black skinned chicken to me

 

[JohnnyHarkerHts]

Hey thanks for the info Nikki, though when you get a chance a little clarification on the meaning of the terms gypsy and the birchen allele would be much appreciated

I found the info, but it'll take while to read through. So if there is a way to say it in a few words what a birchen means

Is that the explanation for a lack of comb, or will it grow in later?

I was wondering about whether or not there were black skinned chickens. I know silkies can be that way, but I'm posting the pics of the hens and it's clear neither of them are silkie in any way or black skinned, and the dad also has a very red comb.

The rooster's skin under the black feathers isn't black though. It looks like typical chicken skin LOL

My quail eggs were the same as yours. People call them white with brown splotches.

The chicken eggs were white, though odd perhaps because the chicken was so small. They weren't round at all. They were far more cylindrical with one end a little thicker than the other, and very long relatively speaking.

 

[NYREDS]

It's a normal single comb on a young chick. It will increase in size as the bird developes. Your cock bird would have looked just like that at the same age. Not a quail, chicken hybrid.

 

[JohnnyHarkerHts]

It's a normal single comb on a young chick. It will increase in size as the bird developes. Your cock bird would have looked just like that at the same age. Not a quail, chicken hybrid.

Gee let me guess, you didn't look at the original pictures I posted OR read the original post.

What you said does not make any sense if you did.

Additionally, the chick has two nest mates, both of whom have very well developed combs.

Let me guess though.

You looked at the HEN pictures.

The bird with the orangish/white feathers and the small bright red comb.

That HEN is the one who hatched the chick in question.

Yes I know she's a chicken. I wasn't asking about her.

If you want to know the chick I am asking about, look at the original post, and you'll find a picture of a very different looking bird.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

NYREDS is talking about the chick. I echo his comments, as well as those by tadkerson. My guess is that the hatchmates you see with larger combs are cockerels, and that is why their combs and wattles are more developed.

Gypsy face is dark facial skin, and it carries to the comb. Serama do not have black skin unless they have been crossed with a black skinned bird such as a silkie. Your chick looks nothing like a silkie chick.

Birchen means two things. Most commonly in talking about appearance, it is a variety, that is, a colour pattern as is displayed by your rooster. As tadkerson used it, birchen references one of the e-alleles, a gene that forms the base colouring of a chicken. In this context, birchen can be indicated as E^R, And birds that are E^R display the birchen pattern. This pattern is also called crow wing, and the primaries display the base colouring of the bird (in the case of your rooster, black), not the ground colouring (silver or gold).

 

[tadkerson]

Hey thanks for the info Nikki, though when you get a chance a little clarification on the meaning of the terms gypsy and the birchen allele would be much appreciated

I found the info, but it'll take while to read through. So if there is a way to say it in a few words what a birchen means

Is that the explanation for a lack of comb, or will it grow in later?

I was wondering about whether or not there were black skinned chickens. I know silkies can be that way, but I'm posting the pics of the hens and it's clear neither of them are silkie in any way or black skinned, and the dad also has a very red comb.

The rooster's skin under the black feathers isn't black though. It looks like typical chicken skin LOL

My quail eggs were the same as yours. People call them white with brown splotches.

The chicken eggs were white, though odd perhaps because the chicken was so small. They weren't round at all. They were far more cylindrical with one end a little thicker than the other, and very long relatively speaking.

The gyspy face can appear in offspring from parents and neither parent has a gypsy face. I crossed a spitzhuben with a rhodebar, neither have a gypsy face. I then crossed some of the offspring together and the gypsy face appeared in a few of the purebred birchen offspring. Three generations later and I am still getting gypsy faces appearing in some of the offspring even if the parents are not gypsy faced. The birds that have the gypsy face are black with some non-black color in their plumage.

The gypsy face has nothing to do with silkie genetcs. The gypsy face has something to do with the birchen allele- your male carries the birchen allele and so does the pullet you posted. No one has done the research to figure out why birds have gypsy faces (I have not read any).

Tim

 

[NYREDS]

No, I assure you I did look at the original post & the pictures of the chick you are holding in your hand [or someone is holding in their hand]. It's a normal looking single combed chick. I've hatched thousands of them. Those "tiny bumps" are what will be the points on the comb.Didn't mistake that chick for the Wheaten coloured hen. What I said made perfect sense. What didn't make sense is your rude response since there is absolutely nothing about that chick to suggest it is a quail x chicken cross or any other magical creature.

 

[Chris09]

Gee let me guess, you didn't look at the original pictures I posted OR read the original post.

What you said does not make any sense if you did.

Additionally, the chick has two nest mates, both of whom have very well developed combs.

Let me guess though.

You looked at the HEN pictures.

The bird with the orangish/white feathers and the small bright red comb.

That HEN is the one who hatched the chick in question.

Yes I know she's a chicken. I wasn't asking about her.

If you want to know the chick I am asking about, look at the original post, and you'll find a picture of a very different looking bird.

Wow, a little childish are we?


I agree with NYREDS it is a normal comb for a chick of that size. (Oh by the just so that you know I looked at the picture of the chick)


Chris