Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

@WLLady
@windwalkingwolf

I’m sharing this pic with permission of the owner. 3 months old. Has always had the odd feathers on right side-they grow backwards. Notice leg colour. Chick eats fine and doesn’t have mobility issues. Hatched from purchased eggs from barnyard mix chickens. No idea of parents skin colour. Any thoughts on what’s exactly going on with her?

Wow Nice looking in a weird way , looks like a bit of frizzle in it ,only showing up on one side.

Those different legs are odd too. No clue why!

It's a germ line Chimera, which is one bird with two different sets of DNA. If one side is female and the other is male, it's called a gynandromorph.

I wondered if it might be a chimera. The owner says it’s smaller than the rest of its hatch mates. She also says it acts like a cockerel but looks like a hen. So maybe a gynandromorph? So interesting. Thanks!

Boy named Sue

yep www has nailed it. it's a chimera, chances are one of the parents is dominant white, and that would be the parent that had whatever "hiccup"-either two ova ovulated, or 2 sperm got into the ovum....
and yes, i would bet from those legs that the one half is male and the other female.
and for those that dare to wonder, no that does not mean it can fertilize it's own eggs!! LOL.

Thanks ladies! And the chicks owner says thanks too! There’s no poultry forum anywhere with this much experience and brain power

Feathers growing like that are a pretty sure sign of leprosy.

Farrier1987 wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 10, 2018 3:27 pm

Feathers growing like that are a pretty sure sign of leprosy.

I think we should give @Farrier1987 a title of top diagnostician, they are just as hard to come by as hen's teeth.