Good afternoon! Today I’m joined by Peanut, whose feet are incredibly dirty. Today let’s talk about chicken combs: their shapes and types.
Straight and pea combs
Peanut has what you’d call a normal chicken comb, shaped like an open hand and standing straight up. In English it’s a straight comb.
Next, Sonata. His comb has a thick base with lots of little bumps in three rows. This is a pea comb, “pea” as in the bean. Pea combs vary a lot in shape. Punya’s squishy comb was a kind of pea comb too, but it went oddly flat as Punya grew up.
Kannazuki has a straight comb that’s heavy, so it flops sideways. Our leader, Captain Heart, has a fine straight comb, but he was injured when he was little: two points that should have been separate healed together, leaving a hole in the middle.
Rose, walnut, and no comb at all
Namiko, who is broody, has a slightly unusual rose comb, crinkled in the middle with a little point at the end. Fujiko is our only other rose comb, and hers is the prettier shape. Sister Bonbori has one too; the tip got torn in a fight. She’s a Silver Laced Wyandotte, and the breed standard says Wyandottes have a small rose comb. Comb type depends on the breed.
Our star player, Star, is a rooster with genuinely no comb. Sumi has a magnificent walnut comb, which some people say looks like a brain. Food gets stuck in the gaps and can go moldy. Only some silkies carry this gene; we have lots of silkies, but she’s the only one.
Most of our birds have straight combs, pea combs, or something in between. Hachimitsu: straight. Sugar and little Sumiko: pea. Peach: straight. Okki-chan, one of our earliest members, has a straight comb with a very original shape. When Kin-chan and Gin-chan first arrived, about four and a half years ago, Okki-chan broke Kin-chan’s beak, and Kin-chan fought back desperately and bit off a piece of her comb. Her longest point is in Kin-chan’s belly!
What combs are for
Combs are squishy and packed with blood vessels, so an injury bleeds more than you’d expect. A torn comb usually heals fine, but keep an eye out. In a fight, the comb and eyes are the first targets.
In cold places, I hear small-combed breeds are best, because big combs risk frostbite; rose combs seem built to handle winter. Chickens use their combs to show others how healthy they are and to regulate body temperature, so cutting them off, as some do with fighting chickens, can’t be good.
Thanks for watching Chicken Paradise Hawaii! See you in the next episode.