Hello,

            When you are either showing chickens or just keeping them in the garden, there feet are very important (very much like humans). When showing them there feet and legs make up alot of the scale of points, when they are not right, it will be very painful and uncomfortable for the bird.  There is so many different things you can have wrong with a chickens foot. I have chosen 3 and here they are (thank you very much to Julia Rees, who i borrowed the photos off)

Duck foot (first picture) is where the back toe, is twisted back, and is nearly touching the right toe.

Splayed toes (second picture) is where there is some kind of ”webbing” between each toe. Not like a duck, slightly less.

Twisted toe (third picture) is the most common, and is mainly cause when the egg is hatching out of the incubator, the toe usually gets caught on the mesh, in the incubator, something else why you should use a broody hen. This can also happen is the incubator goes off (like through a power cut), and there is no humidity or correct tempreature for a long time. Or it can be passed in the birds genes.

When having a defromation in the feet, there isnt really alot what you can do, if you are worried, take a visit down to your vet

Going back to facebook, there is a group who are trying to get the sablepoot breed, its own breed club and not to be apart of the Rare Breeds Club, alot of our popular breeds were in this position, such as the Dutch Bantam Club. They are having a meeting at the Poultry Club Of Great Britain National Poultry Show, on the Saturday at 1.00pm and the meeting place is to be comfirmed (it will be on the rare breed poultry club stand). This would be brilliant to be apart off!!

Dan