Chicken feather type/texture?

[tortoise]

This is my lavender orpington pullet Fluff-a-butt. Her feathers have a different texture. She is poofier than my other, hence her name. She's not quite frizzled. What would you call these feathers?

 

[Hinotori]

She doesn’t look lavender to me, she looks blue. But, maybe it’s just the photo. If she is a lavender, the lavender gene is known to be linked to what they call the “shredder” gene. So it’s very common for lavender birds to have messed up feathers.

I’ve not heard of the shredder gene showing up in blue birds.

Blues are a darker grey than the light grey lavender. I didn't catch that either. Sometimes blues can look black. People do get blue and self blue (lavender) confused.

Some bantam lavenders for color comparison.

 

[Finnie]

This is my lavender orpington pullet Fluff-a-butt. Her feathers have a different texture. She is poofier than my other, hence her name. She's not quite frizzled. What would you call these feathers?View attachment 20891View attachment 20892

She doesn’t look lavender to me, she looks blue. But, maybe it’s just the photo. If she is a lavender, the lavender gene is known to be linked to what they call the “shredder” gene. So it’s very common for lavender birds to have messed up feathers.

I’ve not heard of the shredder gene showing up in blue birds.

 

[Hinotori]

The blue gene is an incomplete dominate modifier of black. One copy gives blue. Two gives splash. It's one of the easier genes to understand. I believe only silkies allow splash at shows, which I still maintain is stupid. Andalusian chickens first had the gene and it's sometimes still called andalusian blue.

ETA: breeding splash to splash can result in birds that are too light with few markings on their feathers. It doesn't always effect the first breeding, but continuous breeding of only splash is detrimental.

 

[baymule]

Wow. I’ve never dived off into these colors, sticking to boring red sex links, black sex links. My favorite is silver laced Wyandotte’s. I once got some blue laced red Wyandotte’s from a breeder and some splash too, which were the red feathers with a pale blue lace.

My farm came with some ram-shackeldy tacky coops that I can’t stand up in. They will be torn down and I’ll build a nice coop, then get chickens. I can’t believe that is me talking, I’m never prepared for whatever animals I get. LOL

I’m enjoying the blue/black/lavender/splash genetics. Chickens are like a bouquet of flowers, so many colors and patterns!

 

[Mini Horses]

They're young, may not be this way after a moult. She may need more protein. Feathers are mainly that.

 

[tortoise]

They're young, may not be this way after a moult. She may need more protein. Feathers are mainly that.

Could be protein! She grew up on 16% layer pellet. They get cat food in addition now. IDK what kind of cat food it is (it was rejected from the local pet food shelf because it was buggy), but cat foods are at least 26% protein. I assume it's a cheap food and right at 26%.

 

[tortoise]

I spent an interesting afternoon on the internet. y'all are really good! Thank you so much for getting me on the right path. I couldn't figure out search terms on my own to look up information.

1) they are blue, not lavender. The breeder has a gorgeous pen of purebred lavender so maybe they grabbed the wrong chicks/confused them. They breeders mixes breeds of chicks together - grouped by age.
2) they don't breed true - I'll get blue, black and splash.
3) it's probably not shredder gene because it's associated with lavender gene and it affects more than the tail feathers
4) shredder gene can be bred out of lavender chickens
5) some people breed lavender with other colors to improve feather quality, so I will keep these 2 pullets and see what I get from my lavender chicks before I make any decisions.

 

[Hinotori]

I'd say blue.

Grey does exist as a named color, at least in silkies. It's a silver, instead of gold, based partridge basically.

 

[Hinotori]

What a stunning bird! is it yours?

Not my bird. I picked a good example off the search. All my birds are gold based. Which now my brain thinks I need to change and get the lavender gene into some grey silkies for a ghostly white with silver highlights. Bad brain, bad. Birds would probably just look dirty white.

I'm good with some colors and with silkies and ameraucana.

I've been learning a bit about paint color from someone on the byc silkie thread who does paints. I'm still a little confused on them. Crele and pyle genetics are beyond me still. Haven't understood how they work yet.

Feather genetics is best learned in bits for me. I pick up more over time.

I have raised blue, black, splash silkies in the past. Unfortunately someone decided to breed cuckoo into them. Splash cuckoo is a light colored splash with bad pigment holes. It took forever to figure out why the hen had mottled black and white skin. Then on breeding to a black rooster I got barred blue cockerels.