black tailed buff orp?

[missourichickenmama]

ACK!!! 4 of my 6 buff orpingtons have a tail with some black blotches on the feathers, they are pure bred[got them from Murry Macmurry hatchery].one day i looked out and one of my orpingtons had black on it's tail feathers.what happened here? is it common? is it harmful? How will it affect showing them?is it fungus or just markings? it appears to be just markings, not sure though.has any one else had this problem before? or is it reverting or something like that? is it contagious?One did it first then others did it too. I've heard of crowing hens before and broody roos. do they think they are one of my back astrolorps? i have many many questions. i just want to show them and want to know if this would affect that. HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Bec]

That is very normal..no worries. All of my girls have it too!!! It's ok!
I am not sure on the showing part because I do not show mine, but I am sure someone here will know.

 

[seminolewind]

Mine has black speckles on her tail.

 

[lurky]

If you wanted show quality birds, you should have gotten them from a breeder not a hatchery.
I dont know what the chances are of getting SQ from a hatchery, but you probably should not have too high of expectations when purchased this way. I think mine had some black when they were really young and i just looked at pics from today and there was no black

Try to not worry too much and just enjoy them.

 

[americana-chick]

my buff orp roo has a black tail! and some black specks on his wings too. i know for sure that my roo is at least part buff orp. but i wonder if he has some RIR in him?
does this look like what you mean?

 

[debilorrah]

My big fat piggy BO hen has black tips on her butt feathers.

 

[SterlingAcres]

Isn't black in the feathers bad breeding?

I've got Jody's birds, no black here. IMO definitely show quality. They win awards

 

[Gazinga]

my buff orphs have it too, both hens and roos, its seems normal and doesnt bother the chickens so i dont worry too much about it. i know what you mean, it looks like a stain or coloring of teh feathers.

 

[hinkjc]

americana-chick - that is definitely not a pure buff orp. I would guess a cross with RIR too.

Black speckling in the tail is not awful and can be bred out (sometimes even moults out), however if you don't have any clean birds it will make cleaning it up difficult.

Jody

 

[redoak]

3 of my 6 buff orpington hens have a little black in a few of their tail feathers. I tease my wife that I'm going to pluck the dark feathers so they are "show quality"