Curly feathers?

[ChooksChick]

I have a new anomaly appearing in a breeding line and wonder if anyone has seen anything like it.

It's like the curliness of a frizzled feather, but in the opposite direction, curling under, rather than out. It's just that they curl in more than I've ever seen on a normal bird.

It's difficult to depict in photos, but I've got a couple to show- it's really more extreme than the pics show, and is interesting, but a bit disconcerting, too. I can't imagine it being a product of nutrition, as tons of other birds are fed the same, and not all birds from this genetic group display it. I have one pullet and two cockerels showing it in a group of 4, though.

Anyone?

 

[Dipsy Doodle Doo]

Hi! Have they been in some kind of stress (too hot or something)? I bet they'll grow out of it.
It looks curious.
Lisa

 

[xyresicchick]

 

[ThePamperedPullet]

Not sure of what causes it exactly. We have had a few of our chicks do the same thing. It is though the primary flight feathers grow too fast and too long and therefore are weaker at the tips and curl in. Of the chicks that we have had that happen on, they have all grown out of it once they started to completely feather out.

 

[ChooksChick]

They have been in with about 30 other birds in a giant baby pool in the finest of accommodations. I just took some more shots which really defined for me the difference in the other birds.

I know the fact that other eggs from the same pen incubated and hatched at the same time, raised on the same food doesn't preclude this being a temporary developmental difference, but it is very odd to me. Has anyone had this persist?

 

[zazouse]

I have some curly frizzles in my flock,they took along time to feather out but they are cute,i will get some photos of them if you would like to see one.

 

[ChooksChick]

Quote:
Do the feathers curl inwards like these? It's as if it's an opposite frizzle thing. Here are some more pics:

In this one, the normal feathered sibling is barely visible top left, then a silkied Cochin above, and a frizzled Cochin to the left. The feather quality is just the same in the one unaffected.

Here's one with a chick of a different breed, same hatch, same age, raised in same brooder. At the bottom, you can see feathers of a sibling affected by it.

 

[zazouse]

Yes they look like they just had a perm.'

I have some red ones and now they are laying i hatched out some of their eggs and now i have black ones too.

I even managed to get some bard one from my bard rock roo and one of my little frizzle hens.

These are not curly though.

 

[ChooksChick]

Quote:
So you have birds from frizzles that have opposite frizzling? Because this looks like a perm- and it's not just the end of the flights, it's the smaller feathers coming in, too. There isn't much of any other feathering going on, but that's normal for these birds, so I'm ignoring the baldness.

 

[ChooksChick]

Well now I've just looked into the brooder with birds 2 weeks younger and see that it's in some of them, too. I'm wondering now if I don't have a weird rogue mutation going on.

Permed Orps, anyone?