Naked Neck Chicken

Naked Neck Chicken LIVESTOCK Poultry 29-5-19 "Either it's æI've got to have some of those' or æThere's no way one of those will ever be on my place,'" says National Naked Neck Society secretary and breeder Ed Haworth. "I just happen to be one of the æI gotta have some of those,'" he says, laughing. Haworth raises about 50 of them although over 30 years, he's had up to 400 at one time. Naked Necks are also known as "Turkens," based on the false idea that a chicken was crossed with a turkey to create this breed. Instead, the naked neck is a dominant trait and the result of a single gene that affects the arrangement of feathers. They grow in tracts over the chicken's body and hide areas of skin. It's said that Naked Necks have about half the number of feathers as a normal chicken. Because the trait's dominant, other breeds that are crossed with the Naked Neck can have the bare neck trait. Although Haworth adopted the breed because of its "uniqueness," he's stayed with them because of other characteristics. He says they have a strong resistance to diseases such as Coccidiosis and Newcastle disease. Naked Necks are cold and heat tolerant. "When most hens stop laying, they'll be out hustling bugs and still laying," he says. They are foragers and don't rely on humans to feed them and lay large brown eggs. Because they're bigger than other birds such as the Leghorn or Plymouth Rock, they make good fryers, he says. Without neck feathers, they're easier to pluck which may have been why the breed developed in the first place. Many think the breed originated in Transylvania in an old province of Hungary and perfected in Germany. Haworth wishes people's perceptions that the Naked Neck is a mongrel would change. "Nobody thinks they're just OK and might try them," he says. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Ed Haworth, 18485 S Lamons Rd., Tahlequah, Okla. 74464 (ph 918 458-0014; fax 918 772-2430).

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