Hair Feathers in Dorkings
Hair feathers on the thigh of a Red Dorking cock
Hair feathers are long single filaments of feathers protruding namely from the wings, thighs, and fluff. Hair feathers are most noticeable on cockerels and pullets nearing maturity, and birds coming out of a molt; all of which apply to a bird that is in good condition. When in the best condition, some of my males achieve hair feathers that are nearly 7 inches long. The old Dorking masters like Bruce Lentz and John Norris considered them a sign of both pure blood and good condition.
Dorkings are one of the very few breeds that exhibit hair feathers. You can occasionally find them on Langshans (which are white skinned, but aren’t closely related to Dorkings at all) and only a few other breeds, mainly those which were created using Dorking, especially in their exhibition strains. Bruce Lentz often said “If you find hair feathers on a chicken, there is probably a Dorking behind it.”.
Hair feathers have been considered a breed characteristic for many centuries. Harrison Weir discusses their importance in The Poultry Book, 1904. “One peculiarity mentioned is thighs hairy. This is an almost exact description of the old Kent and Sussex fowl, and goes far to prove they were an ancient and pure race, and most probably, as before stated, brought to this country by the Romans; for not only were many of our five-toed southern poultry of this form and color, but they also had the long hairs on their legs and thighs. Among my old Kents, many, both cocks and hens, had coarse hairs nearly two inches long on their thighs and had some few an inch or more. On pointing out this peculiarity to my man (a man of Kent), he said that it was nothing uncommon and that years ago most of the cocks about were more so. Is this not some proof of the antiquity of the five-toed Kent breed?”
White Dorkings are one of the colors that traditionally lacked hair feathers. A few of the old time breeders thought this was because some strains of the White Dorking were created by crossing White Hamburgs and White Old English Gamefowl. Craig told me once about Jeannine Peters crossing Silver Greys with her Whites to get the hair feathers back into them and then continuing to select for proper White plumage.
Hair feathers shown on a Dark Grey cockerel
