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From: Dave Walters
Security: 12345
Date: 13 Aug 2008
Time: 14:57:02 +0100
Remote Name: 88.106.5.191
Hi Lee - I am not surprised you have had no replies to your question because there are a lot of different theories about blood quills - The one thing I can tell you, blood quills are or should be judged the same way as any other feather fault. So my question to you is would you put a bird in the show pen with a fret and expect to win? - Now to blood quills themselves some people feel they are hereditary but I have not found this to be so - I had one hen that had blood quills every year and was probably the best hen I had ever bred (isn’t that always the case) and in my opinion would have won every show I took her to but because of the blood quills I never showed her but took the gamble on breeding from her and she never once produced a youngster with blood quills and became one of my best breeding hens. There are a lot of other theories about blood quills which range from the food and grit they are being fed with a possible nutritional lack to environmental, some fanciers believe that the big swings that we get in the weather condition and temperature contribute towards blood quills and finally the possibility of new growing feathers getting knocked especially if the loft is overcrowded. I have known fanciers take their perches out while the birds are moulting to avoid this but that seems a bit drastic to me. Sadly I do not know the answer but to complete the other part of your question ‘should you pull out the offending feathers’ – I have known fanciers pull out blood quills only to find them come back again and some that have complete success in getting rid of them. Of course by pulling them you run the risk of ruining the bird for showing permanently because some feathers that get pulled never grow back the same length and that seems to happen year after year. So the gamble on whether or not to pull is down to the individual – Remember never pull a growing feather or a feather that is alive you should cut the feather and allow it to dry out for 7/10 days and then pull making sure you pull it out squarely. I hope this has been of help to you Lee and keep the questions coming. Regards Dave