Two chicks hatched with no neck feathers?

[Curious]

Hello,

I found this forum by googling "chicks with no neck feathers." My son's pre-school teacher has chickens roaming the yard. The kids hatch the eggs each year. This year, two chicks were hatched which had no neck feathers. The chicks are quite old now (months) and still have no feathers on their neck. One check does have a little bow-tie of feathers on it's neck. Is this a random mutation since the chicks were hatched this way? According to teacher, it wasn't due to plucking or anything. I don't know if it's due to the lack of neck feathers, but the featherless neck chickens have really long necks. They stick up higher than all the other chicks.

Any info is greatly appreciated.

Curious about chicks.

 

[MonkeyZero]

I think there is a breed called the naked neck, but Im no expert, so I'd wait and see

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

sounds like a turken, LOL

 

[Tuffoldhen]

Sound like Turkens or another name for them is NN necked necks... Goggle pics of these birds...great egg layers....

 

[BrahmaMama]

I am so sorry

Seriously though (can you tell I don't like naked necks, lol!) there are breeds out there called "Turkens" or often referred to as "Naked Necks" or "NN's" I am guessing that is what you have there. I've heard they are pretty good layers, and nice chickens to have around....I'll take everyone's word for it though *shudders*

Oh, and Welcome to BYC!

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

LOL

They do look like little mini vultures. LOL

 

[Curious]

Yes, they do look like mini-vultures! But if none of the Teacher's chickens which laid the eggs are Naked Necks, how can they have naked neck chicks if the Naked Neck trait is autosomal dominant? Unless a Naked Neck chicken is roaming free and flew into the yard for a midnight raid on the hen house.

Or could this be due to a natural mutation? I read there have been spontaneous fully naked chickens. I wonder what the frequency would be? She's had chickens for decades and has never seen this before.

Still Curious

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

It could be something that just popped up. The naked neck gene is just a mutation itself so it could just come out of no where.

 

[BrahmaMama]

Quote:

Don't say that! That's it, I'm done hatching.

 

[Kev]

I'm skeptical.. yes mutations are possible but two?

Are you absolutely sure ALL the eggs came from that flock and there never was a naked neck ANYthing? A naked neck rooster? Some naked necks have quite a lot of feathers on the front and on those it's not immediately obvious they are naked necked unless you see the back of their necks.

Honestly I would say there IS a naked neck in the flock or in a neighbors yard, due to two chicks with the trait.

Without seeing the chicks, the fact you mention one of the chicks has a little bow tie- if you can easily see the lower front neck and chest this sounds like a bird possibly homozygous for the naked neck trait.. if so, that would call for at least two birds carrying the gene. If the other chick's neck is completely bare on the front all the way down to the breast, that extremely strongly suggests the two naked neck breeders in the flock.

However as I just mentioned in another thread, other traits can have an effect on the naked neck expression- such as pea comb.. when the two are present on the same bird, the result can be a far more naked looking bird, in which case it could be a case of a single naked neck bird in the flock breeding with somebody who's pea combed..

If there truly are no naked necked birds of either sex or any age in the flock or neighboring areas.. I would be extremely interested.. IF that's the case, this could suggest these are due to something possibly recessive.. something completely different from the usual naked necked birds.