type of poulet feathers admit an astonishing range of colors and patterns , which aid to make each multiply placeable . Below is an extract fromThe Illustrated Guide to Chickensreviewing the vulgar types of feather found in a backyard hatful .
The Illustrated Guide to ChickensExcerpt…
Plumage plays an important function , protect the chicken from pelting , inhuman and sun , and a chicken must spend a considerable part of its time maintaining it . This is done by dress . Each plume has an axis or ray of light , on to either side of which vanes are fixed . Each weather vane has jibe on either side , which cling together but need to be “ ransack ” by the chicken , who also applies oil from a gland at the al-Qa’ida of its tail .
A cockerel can be tell apart from a hen by the fact that some of its plumage take on a unlike chassis . Its hackle and saddle feathers are thinner and longer than a hen ’s , and it also develop reaping hook , which are the spectacular curve feather on either side of the rump .
Some breeds have much fluffier feather than others , and game breed have very nasty feathering that often leave a flight strip of bare skin down the breast . There may be feathering on the legs , and some breeds sport beard , muffs and crests .
Every twelvemonth , hens molt , broadly at the beginning of fall , and replace their old feathers with new . As feathers are largely made up of protein , this takes a good quite a little of the hen ’ muscularity , and it ’s important to give them tidy sum of replacement protein in the sort of practiced tone stratum ’ ration at this time .
A biddy will stop laying until her ecdysis is complete , which could take anywhere between six and 12 weeks . If the days are growing shorter , she may not set forth place again until they embark on to lengthen after the winter solstice .
Types of Chicken Feathers: Markings
Barring : Two distinct colors appear in bar across the feathering ; they may be regular or irregular and the width can variegate . Celia Lewis
Lacing : appear as a border of a different colour right around the boundary of the feathering ; it may be spacious or narrow . Celia Lewis
three-fold Lacing : Same as lacing , but this has a 2nd loop inside . Celia Lewis
Celia Lewis
Frizzled : Each feather is curled , causing the bird to look distinctly unkempt . Celia Lewis
Mottled : This is being spotted in a dissimilar color in a random manner . Celia Lewis
Spangling : There is a distinct contrasting colouring at the last of the feather . Celia Lewis
Celia Lewis
Splash : This appears as drop - form marks of a counterpoint color in a random fashion . Celia Lewis
Penciling : This is the catchy one as it goes more or less with the stock . Mostly it can look like a kind of blackball , but it can also be o.k. lacing . Hamburg hens have streak , and the moody Brahma has concentric lines around the feather similar to enlace ; both are get it on as penciling . Celia Lewis
Peppered : feather see as if someone has ground pepper onto them , the specks being a darker colour . Celia Lewis
Celia Lewis
Types of Chicken Feathers: Parts of a Wing
Chicken Feather Patterns
Birchen : hackle , back saddle and shoulders ashen ; neck hackles constrict bootleg reave ; breast black with silver licking
Black : male and distaff uniformly black with green sheen
Black mottled : male and female black ground with white v - shaped tips on random feathering
Celia Lewis
sinister scarlet : scarlet hackles and black body and stern
Blue : male and distaff uniformly slaty blue ; head and neck may be non-white ; lacing , if present , darker
Buff : virile and distaff uniformly buff
Celia Lewis
Chamois : male and distaff uniformly buff with paler lacing
Columbian : manly and female body principally white ; neck and give chase black with some white lacing
Crele : male hackle , back and charge stop orange on pale ground ; body barred gray-haired and white . Female dander barred greyish Brown University on pallid ground ; breast Salmon River ; body as male
Celia Lewis
Cuckoo : male and female dismal gray to fatal indistinct barring on white ground . female person can be darker than male person .
Exchequer : male and distaff shameful and bloodless every which way over consistence in blobs
amber barred : golden solid ground with distinct black barring
Celia Lewis
Gold spangled : manful and distaff hackle golden red with gloomy vane ; body Au ground with black diamante ; go after black-market
Jubilee : male head , neck , body , legs and tail white ; back and flank white with dark red grading . Female head and neck livid ; rest period of body dark red with single or forked lacing .
Lavender : male and distaff uniform slaty gray throughout
Celia Lewis
Mahogany : male person and female rich mahogany Brown University throughout
Millefleur : male and distaff orange ground with black-market diamante with white highlighting
bobwhite quail : virile hackle , back and saddle greenish black with carmine lacing ; chest and dead body black . Female reddish trouncing on black ground .
Celia Lewis
Pile : manly mind golden , hackle and charge abstemious ; back red ; front of neck white ; wings primarily white . Female hackle white with gold lacing ; cervix and eubstance white with Salmon River titty .
Porcelain : similar to Millefleur but hopeful beige earth
Quail : complicated color feed imprint that upper portion are dark and lower light ; atomic number 79 thrashing and shafts
Celia Lewis
Red : manful and female undimmed red throughout
Silver barred : manlike and female blank to wan gray ground with hopeful disgraceful blackball
fluent cuckoo : male and female whitened to pale grey ground with dark grey to black indistinct wide barring .
Celia Lewis
Silver duckwing : male silver hackles and back ; breast and body black ; tail pitch-dark with silver edging . distaff silvery gray with Salmon River breast ; tail and wings black with grey edging
Silver spangle : male and female gray terra firma with black-market diamante
stipple : in Speckled Sussex male and distaff mahogany ground with whitened tips and grim / green medium strip
Celia Lewis
slop : manful and distaff white background with atypical slaty blue blob , gray in place
wholemeal : male gold hackles , rich chocolate-brown trunk and dark green tail ; female shades of wheat berry from aureate to chestnut with black summit .
White : manlike and female uniformly livid throughout
Reprinted with license fromThe Illustrated Guide to Chickens(Skyhorse Publishing ) by Celia Lewis . right of first publication 2011 text and illustrations by Celia Lewis .
