Protection

The skin, feathers, and nails serve important functions in protecting birds against challenging environmental conditions as well as giving birds their unique appearance.

The normal body temperature of a chicken is between 40°C and 42°C, which is much higher than most mammals that usually sit between 37°C and 39°C.  While  feathers provide good insulation against the cold, chickens don’t have sweat glands in their skin so can overheat really easily.

In this sections, we will learn more about what the different skin, feather, and nail structures are called and how they work to help your birds stay comfortable and safe.

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Skin

Most of a chicken’s body is covered in feathers, but they do have visible skin on their face, legs, and feet

Facial Features

You have probably noticed that adult chickens have some extra flaps of skin around their face. The comb sits on top of their head and comes 9 different shapes depending on the breed while the wattles extend below the beak and the ear lobes extend down just behind the ear opening.  These structures generally develop after puberty as the result of sex hormones being produced.

These structures have a lot of blood flow through them, which helps dissipate heat when it gets too hot outside.  In cold weather, chickens will reduce blood flow through the wattles and comb to reduce heat loss, which can make it more likely for them to get frostbite.  These structures are also what makes chickens physically attractive to one another for mating.

We often look for changes in the colour, size, and texture of these structures as indication of chicken health.  For most chicken breeds, they should be bright red, firm, and have no visible sores, wounds, or other abnormalities.

Here are some examples of different types of healthy combs:

Buttercup
Single
Carnation
Strawberry
Walnut
Cushion
Rose
V Comb
Pea

Legs & Feet

The only other area of exposed skin on a chicken is their legs and feet. For most chicken breeds, the exposed skin should be white (e.g. Sussex), yellow (eg Rhode Island Red) or black (e.g. Silkie) and covered in smooth, flat scales.

The skin extends from their hocks all the way to the ends of their toes.  The area between the hock and the feet is called the shank.  Roosters will have a spur that grows out of the back of the shank, which is one of the main weapons they use to fight other birds and predators.  The nails or claws at the ends of the toes help to provide grip on surfaces and can also be used in defence. Most chickens have three toes pointing forwards and one toe pointing backwards (4 toes total) although some breeds like Dorkies and Silkies naturally have 5 toes.

Feathers

Feathers on birds come in all different shapes, colours, and sizes. They also serve a variety of functions including flight, warmth, protection, camouflage, and mating.

Feather Anatomy

The basic anatomy of a feather consists of the:

  • Quill (also called calamus) which attaches the feather to either the bone or skin
  • Shaft (also called rachis) which is a continuation of the quill along the feather
  • Vanes which are the soft portion of the feather on either side of the shaft
  • Barbs which are filaments that come out of either side of the shaft at a 45° angle

Barbules are microscopic filaments that extend off the barb of some large feathers at 90° angles with hooks called hamuli that connect neighbouring barbs to each other.

Feather Types

There are six main types of feathers that are broadly divided into pennaceous feathers which are stiff and plumaceous feathers which are soft.

  • Flight feathers – stiff, asymmetrical feathers on the wings and tail used to support flight
  • Contour feathers – colourful, part-stiff, part-fluffy feathers used for protection against cold, wind, and rain
  • Down feathers – small, soft, fluffy feathers located under the contour feathers used for insulation
  • Semiplumes – cross between a contour feather and a down feather used for insulation
  • Filplumes – very small feathers located on the underside of the body and wings that are used for sensing temperature, wind speed, and feather movements in flight
  • Bristle feathers – short, stiff feathers located around the eyes and beak used for sensing

Feather Names

There are different names for groups of feathers located at different regions of the body.  Hackles are the colourful feathers on the neck.  The cape is the feathers extending from the based of the neck along the back. Saddle feathers are on the lower back.  Roosters have two large sickle feathers and more prominent lesser sickle feathers located over the main tail feathers that are used in courtship displays. The fluff is located on the underside primarily for insulation. The flight feathers are on the wing and will be covered more in detail later in the Movement section.

Depending on the breed, chickens may have groups of elongated feathers located below the beak (beards), on both sides of the face (muffs), on top of the head (crest), or behind the ears (ear tuft).

While most breeds of chickens have just bare skin on their legs, some breeds have vulture hocks which are clusters of stiff feathers that point backwards from the hocks and other breeds have feathered feet.

Preening

Chickens have a preen gland (also called the uropygial gland) that sits on their back at the base of their tail.  This produces oil that birds will spread across their feathers when grooming themselves.  This helps keeps the feathers from drying out and adds an extra water-proofing layer.