Genetic Defect- Naked chickens!

[learycow]

I just wanted to post on here and see if there's any differing info out there.

I hatched this little guy from my flock of silkies, sizzles and showgirls.
I do not have any frizzled roosters so no chance of him being a frazzle.
I also only have showgirls with bowties, no strippers.

This one hatched and is bald around the eyes and head, completely naked neck, bald spots on the back and around the wings, and most of his belly and butt.
(if anyone wants to follow, his facebook page for updated is Donald the Bald Chicken)

I had several people telling me its just a result of breeding showgirls. That, like a frazzle, too much of the NN gene can cause excessive balding. Yet one person told me that it looks like a polygenic affect due to the rose comb gene.

Has anyone else who breeds or simply raises showgirls for fun, seen one like this before?

 

[Pyxis]

He is adorable! I wonder if it's a variation on scaleless chickens? @Kev breeds them, he may know more

 

[Kev]

I don't see anything defective on this cutie?

It is the effect of combination of pure NN with crest, rose and possibly pea comb. Quite normal, really.

Pea comb is known to have side effect of reducing overall number of feathers on a chicken but it is not readily observable on non-NN but it does have an visible effect when combined with NN. It's plain even as day olds.

single comb Nn hatch with fully fuzzy faces, no naked spots on face or around beak and have a very large patch of fuzz on the neck, more like a bib. single comb NN(pure for naked neck gene) have a naked spot between beak and eye and their faces are not fully fuzzy.. they have tiny patch of fuzz on neck, which feathers out like a bowtie. Total bare necks on single combs are pretty rare, it seems to require being NN plus an unknown modifier gene which in my breedings to act as an recessive.

In contrast, pea combed Nn have half naked faces, the fuzz makes a ring around their eye- your Donald is showing a remnant of that. They also have a bare patch between the beak and comb. Their neck patch can be so small to look like a bowtie, on most it makes a patch in between bow tie and bib in size. The naked areas on their bodies are also larger than single comb Nn.

I have not seen anything written about rose comb having an effect on feathering but in my experience it does- rose comb Nn can be more naked than single comb Nn but with rose combs is is much more variable and the effect is not as strong as pea comb.

Interestingly, the Crest gene also has an effect. It is weak but still slightly visible on single comb cresteds. On pea comb cresteds the effect is very dramatic, large naked area around the comb/beak, on some birds the naked area went right halfway up the full size head knob(like on polish and some silkies) and also along the base of crest. Very very big difference from single comb crested birds. I did not get the chance to breed for full crest size with rose comb so I have no idea what effect rose comb would have had.

So.. silkies are supposed to be walnut comb- genetically pea plus rose in the same bird. However from my own test matings, most silkies are modified rose comb, no pea present. They still look very walnut so maybe the standard went by the visual appearance instead of true genetics? another clue is non bearded silkies have normal size wattles.. pea comb reduces wattle size so that is a strong hint those do not have pea comb.

I think all of this is contributing to what seems like uneven responses about showgirl breeding and results. a NN showgirl with crest, rose and pea comb are naturally going to be much more naked. They will not "breed down" to totally naked birds though. Also feathers are quite good at spreading out and covering the naked areas on the body. He will still have a very naked neck and face but his body will be mostly well covered up.

btw it is most likely a side effect of pea and/or rose comb for making the neck totally naked. They may have the modifier gene for a clean neck, maybe not... my tests of breeding silkies to single comb chickens and repeating with the crosses back to single comb proved most silkies had only a rose comb as pea comb did not show up in the later generations, except for one line of silkies really did have pea comb too.. so it is there but far from universal. Also those birds never threw clean necks in the later generations.. all bibs or bowties.

 

[orientphoenix]

it looks cute in a weird way

 

[robdog]

I Say hatched another one hopefully opposite breed and start a "LearyCow" Chicken head and monopolize the business and sell for high...

 

[DancingWthDucks]

I'm intrested to see what he will look like as an adult....

 

[learycow]

I don't see anything defective on this cutie?

It is the effect of combination of pure NN with crest, rose and possibly pea comb. Quite normal, really.

Pea comb is known to have side effect of reducing overall number of feathers on a chicken but it is not readily observable on non-NN but it does have an visible effect when combined with NN. It's plain even as day olds.

single comb Nn hatch with fully fuzzy faces, no naked spots on face or around beak and have a very large patch of fuzz on the neck, more like a bib. single comb NN(pure for naked neck gene) have a naked spot between beak and eye and their faces are not fully fuzzy.. they have tiny patch of fuzz on neck, which feathers out like a bowtie. Total bare necks on single combs are pretty rare, it seems to require being NN plus an unknown modifier gene which in my breedings to act as an recessive.

In contrast, pea combed Nn have half naked faces, the fuzz makes a ring around their eye- your Donald is showing a remnant of that. They also have a bare patch between the beak and comb. Their neck patch can be so small to look like a bowtie, on most it makes a patch in between bow tie and bib in size. The naked areas on their bodies are also larger than single comb Nn.

I have not seen anything written about rose comb having an effect on feathering but in my experience it does- rose comb Nn can be more naked than single comb Nn but with rose combs is is much more variable and the effect is not as strong as pea comb.

Interestingly, the Crest gene also has an effect. It is weak but still slightly visible on single comb cresteds. On pea comb cresteds the effect is very dramatic, large naked area around the comb/beak, on some birds the naked area went right halfway up the full size head knob(like on polish and some silkies) and also along the base of crest. Very very big difference from single comb crested birds. I did not get the chance to breed for full crest size with rose comb so I have no idea what effect rose comb would have had.

So.. silkies are supposed to be walnut comb- genetically pea plus rose in the same bird. However from my own test matings, most silkies are modified rose comb, no pea present. They still look very walnut so maybe the standard went by the visual appearance instead of true genetics? another clue is non bearded silkies have normal size wattles.. pea comb reduces wattle size so that is a strong hint those do not have pea comb.

I think all of this is contributing to what seems like uneven responses about showgirl breeding and results. a NN showgirl with crest, rose and pea comb are naturally going to be much more naked. They will not "breed down" to totally naked birds though. Also feathers are quite good at spreading out and covering the naked areas on the body. He will still have a very naked neck and face but his body will be mostly well covered up.

btw it is most likely a side effect of pea and/or rose comb for making the neck totally naked. They may have the modifier gene for a clean neck, maybe not... my tests of breeding silkies to single comb chickens and repeating with the crosses back to single comb proved most silkies had only a rose comb as pea comb did not show up in the later generations, except for one line of silkies really did have pea comb too.. so it is there but far from universal. Also those birds never threw clean necks in the later generations.. all bibs or bowties.

Thank you, that makes sense. It just seems like no one else has ever hatched or seen one as naked as this guy (mostly on the head with just a few feathers around the eyes, and naked mostly on his underside).
Very good info though. Thank you for sharing!

 

[drumstick diva]

Donald is adorable hope the other chicks don't pick on him.

 

[DancingWthDucks]

@learycow How is Donald doing??

 

[learycow]

@learycow How is Donald doing??

Thank you for asking!
Here he is