Chicken (anatomy?) question!

I did the chicken trade, and traded out those darn roo's for some new, healthier looking chickens. They are doing VERY well, and one has already claimed a nesting space and has produced 3 small, lovely eggs. It's the black one Hidden River said looked like an Australorp hen!

In the replacement batch, I grabbed up three that looked a lot like the Australorp I already had. One of them is exactly like her except she has a white spot on her face that the other does not have -- I don't have pictures, they turned out blurry, maybe this weekend. I googled Australorpe hen and got the picture below.

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The black spot to the right of her eye and, to the right of that, the red spot... if I'm not mistaken this is ear and ear lobe respectively. Her ear lobe(if I'm right) is white on both sides instead of red (black? Oi!)... is this a defect or recessive gene? What does it mean? Thanks so much!

I think it's leprosy.

No. Its not leprosy.

Likely your hens are not Australorps, but some other breed or cross of breeds. I watch with interest what others have to say.

My own hen house is heavily Australorp influenced and there are no white earlobes.

What colour were the eggs the white lobed hen laid? (say that fast 10 times!)

I highly doubt any of the birds I have are pure. If they are, it's luck and luck alone (I believe I have a pure Silver Wyandotte in the mix now).

Here's the best picture I have of the original black girl (not the white cheeked one).
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Where that black spot is on her face, under here eye, that's what's white on the other bird.

I don't know if this helps or if you can see it enough


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That's the google picture I used to figure out the area. I believe it's the ear... but why is it white?

You may have a minorca or a cross. Minorcas lay a white egg. If it is a minorca, you should have a decent layer, as the couple I have lay an egg at least every other day and they have just started to lay. I had an older minorca hen who would lay an egg every other day.

smokyriver wrote:You may have a minorca or a cross. Minorcas lay a white egg. If it is a minorca, you should have a decent layer, as the couple I have lay an egg at least every other day and they have just started to lay. I had an older minorca hen who would lay an egg every other day.

A Minorca is very close, but way too much white. I think it must be just the ear, not the lobe that's white. You could be spot on for that being a mix. Good eye!

My minorca pullets have just a small spot of white, they started out without the white and have slowly gotten the white ears. They are purebed pullets, so don't fully write off a pure minorca if the birds you picked up are really young! If I can get a pic of my pullet, I will take one so you can compare yours to mine to see if they are similar.

Maybe it's a white faced black spanish?[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Here's a couiple pictures of that hen:

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You said the fellow you got these girls from had wyandottes and leghorns. These birds you have could easily be those crosses. The white earlobes from the leghorn and the colours from the wyandottes. Often crosses are black with a bit of red in the throat. A brown leghorn rooster over barred or black hens will give you black birds with the red throats. It will also give you the white earlobes you are seeing.
I bet her eggs are a very pale, almost white colour?
So glad you are enjoying your new birds. They will give you hours of pleasure and a little heart ache once in awhile.

They do look like a crossbreed of some sort, for sure. I get a similiar looking mix of white/red earlobes when I cross a brown egg layer with my brown leghorn roo. The lacing does make me think this may be a cross with a Wyandotte (possibly). Whatever they are, they are pretty and I know you'll enjoy them.