I discovered the other day that my little frizzled silkied serama, “Blue Boy”, was having some problems with his neck feathers. It appears that he's been pulling his neck feathers out for some reason. Either that, or his two hens are responsible for the dastardly deed…(hence the term “hen-pecked”!)

We had another rooster, “Napoleon”,  a smooth-feathered red mille fleur, who had experienced the same thing a couple of months ago, but with him it seemed like he was really itching…I could see him pecking at it; it started as a small patch under his chin and eventually the affected area moved down his chest to his armpits. He would also do a little backwards dance, as if he just couldn't stand it anymore!

But Blue Boy does not seem to be bothered by it…I haven't actually seen him pull the feathers out. He doesn't look irritated by it, even though it looks like the same condition that Napoleon had. With Napoleon, I tried Wonder dust, Dr. Naylor's Blu-Kote, iodine, vaseline, Neosporin cream, anti-itch cream, anti-fungal cream, but nothing really seemed to work. I increased the protein in Napoleon's diet by giving him hard-boiled egg daily in conjunction with Manna Pro Poultry Conditioner added to his food, and eventually he stopped picking at it and his feathers all grew back beautifully. Of course, once that happened, he went into molt and lost ALL his tail feathers!!! Poor boy, he's really had a hard time!

I'm trying the same thing with Blue Boy (extra egg and Manna Pro), so we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Since this topic is about Blue Boy, I should also mention that I have about a dozen babies from him that are three months old now, and the frizzle gene apparently works the same way in the silkieds as it does in the smooths!!! I am thrilled!!! I plan on breeding him again this winter, can't wait!