A long time coming, but finally got around to looking deeply at my flocks to see if any other birds here are displaying a fault, which is a disqualification for showing (and this evidently is genetic, so the bird should not be used in the breeding pool) and just not a good thing.
There is a small story (well, if I can make a story small, smiling) that goes along with this post.
I obtained hatching eggs last fall and hatched out a few buckeyes, they were born on October 1, 2010, now just being over a year old. There was two cockerels and three pullets that made it right through to adulthood.
Recently I lost one of the one year old roosters to mouse bait poisoning, a lesson learned about how to store that crap, a lesson learned the hard way.
It had come to my attention when I had posted some pictures of my young cockerels that are now 20 weeks old, that there may be some exhibition of something that is referred to as duckfeet in chickens. It is when the fourth toe does not go backwards basically. This fourth toe helps to support the birds body properly and helps to roost as well. Well, that is my take on what the use of it is for
, I am sure it has other uses.
I always thought one of the buckeye roosters ran kind of weird. I would watch him when he had an eye for one of the gals and he would streak across the way towards her. He looked intent. He looked like he was kind of flattened out a little bit, hell bent to get to her as fast as he could. I thought that he thought maybe crouching a little bit would streamline his body and make him run faster, smiling. I thought it looked cool, the other rooster, his brother, didn't run that way. So I thought he was just a little more intent with things he did. So that was that.
In retrospect, this was the dude that has what I believe is that duckfoot problem. He had to run funny because he didn't have a whole lot of traction with the use of the force of being propelled with the fourth toe, because it didn't stick out the back, as the fourth toe should, hence not an awful lot of traction. The birds roost on 2 X 4s that are turned with the 4 flatside, so their total feet can be covered by their fluff when they roost. I think this helps to keep their feet warm at night (and aside I know, but I just gotta say, smiling).
So, this post is really aimed for you Rico. You were the one that mentioned that there may be duckfeet problems with my flock. Yep, there is.....none of the others, out of a total of around 50 have this, just the one rooster. He is heading off on Monday to that great grass field in the sky, by the way. He was going to be my top dog for breeding, but his feet have let me down.
There are a few good pictures. One picture of his foot is kind of blurry. He was making such a terrible squawk when I was holding him, it was kind of hard to get the picture. And...he was getting all the chicken yards up in the air, what a screamer!! And loud, he has a very loud voice!!
To some this may not look like there is anything wrong, but there is. That toe does not stand right, it kind of is moved to being more forward than it should. Kind of hard to describe. I think that I will quote from the Standard of Perfection so that others can get a grasp of what duckfeet actually is......I think I may have typed it out before, but I can't be bothered to look for it, I'll just re-type the information.
"A condition where the fourths or hind toe is carried forward so as to touch or almost touch the third toe instead of carried backward to touch the ground and help balance the bird, a disqualification (figure 24)"
Hmmm...well isn't that interesting, the standard indicates that the fourth toe is to help balance the bird, guess I didn't read that fully before, now that totally corroborates why this bird ran funny, he just couldn't balance right, yay, another mystery solved....
The last picture that you will see is one of the cockerels that is 20 weeks old, this image shows how a fourth toe should look. Note how that toe is going backwards instead of in that kind of forward way of the prior images. Stuff to watch for if you want to have nice feet on your birds, smiling that big smile....
when I was holding the bird taking the last two pictures of the feet alone, you can really see how the fourth toe is carried to almost beside the third toe. I can totally understand how this would affect the proper balance of the bird. I wonder if it would also create problems in the spine because of lack of balance....thoughts????
Have a wonderful and beautiful day, CynthiaM.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
There is a small story (well, if I can make a story small, smiling) that goes along with this post.
I obtained hatching eggs last fall and hatched out a few buckeyes, they were born on October 1, 2010, now just being over a year old. There was two cockerels and three pullets that made it right through to adulthood.
Recently I lost one of the one year old roosters to mouse bait poisoning, a lesson learned about how to store that crap, a lesson learned the hard way.
It had come to my attention when I had posted some pictures of my young cockerels that are now 20 weeks old, that there may be some exhibition of something that is referred to as duckfeet in chickens. It is when the fourth toe does not go backwards basically. This fourth toe helps to support the birds body properly and helps to roost as well. Well, that is my take on what the use of it is for
, I am sure it has other uses.I always thought one of the buckeye roosters ran kind of weird. I would watch him when he had an eye for one of the gals and he would streak across the way towards her. He looked intent. He looked like he was kind of flattened out a little bit, hell bent to get to her as fast as he could. I thought that he thought maybe crouching a little bit would streamline his body and make him run faster, smiling. I thought it looked cool, the other rooster, his brother, didn't run that way. So I thought he was just a little more intent with things he did. So that was that.
In retrospect, this was the dude that has what I believe is that duckfoot problem. He had to run funny because he didn't have a whole lot of traction with the use of the force of being propelled with the fourth toe, because it didn't stick out the back, as the fourth toe should, hence not an awful lot of traction. The birds roost on 2 X 4s that are turned with the 4 flatside, so their total feet can be covered by their fluff when they roost. I think this helps to keep their feet warm at night (and aside I know, but I just gotta say, smiling).
So, this post is really aimed for you Rico. You were the one that mentioned that there may be duckfeet problems with my flock. Yep, there is.....none of the others, out of a total of around 50 have this, just the one rooster. He is heading off on Monday to that great grass field in the sky, by the way. He was going to be my top dog for breeding, but his feet have let me down.
There are a few good pictures. One picture of his foot is kind of blurry. He was making such a terrible squawk when I was holding him, it was kind of hard to get the picture. And...he was getting all the chicken yards up in the air, what a screamer!! And loud, he has a very loud voice!!
To some this may not look like there is anything wrong, but there is. That toe does not stand right, it kind of is moved to being more forward than it should. Kind of hard to describe. I think that I will quote from the Standard of Perfection so that others can get a grasp of what duckfeet actually is......I think I may have typed it out before, but I can't be bothered to look for it, I'll just re-type the information.
"A condition where the fourths or hind toe is carried forward so as to touch or almost touch the third toe instead of carried backward to touch the ground and help balance the bird, a disqualification (figure 24)"
Hmmm...well isn't that interesting, the standard indicates that the fourth toe is to help balance the bird, guess I didn't read that fully before, now that totally corroborates why this bird ran funny, he just couldn't balance right, yay, another mystery solved....
The last picture that you will see is one of the cockerels that is 20 weeks old, this image shows how a fourth toe should look. Note how that toe is going backwards instead of in that kind of forward way of the prior images. Stuff to watch for if you want to have nice feet on your birds, smiling that big smile....
when I was holding the bird taking the last two pictures of the feet alone, you can really see how the fourth toe is carried to almost beside the third toe. I can totally understand how this would affect the proper balance of the bird. I wonder if it would also create problems in the spine because of lack of balance....thoughts????
Have a wonderful and beautiful day, CynthiaM.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Last edited by CynthiaM on Fri Oct 28, 2011 8:47 am; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : forgot to add last image)
