#Silver Laced Wyandotte pullet

[sayhowdycountrycritters]

Moving day for the eight week old pullets; Abigail, Alice, Pamela, Penelope, Pansy & Fanny. Enjoying their first day out of the brooder into a pen/run next to our adult hens. In a few weeks of growth and getting acquainted with the adults, they will join the flock.

[kifu]

Long chicken rambles with pictures as I try to figure out what I'm doing next year.

My biggest problem that I'm encountering is I have so many ideas and so little space, right? I have the pen that I built this fall, that's to be sectioned off into two separate sections that can hold about five to six chickens each. It's currently my overcrowded oldest grow-out pen that I need to dig out all the straw from so that the ground can actually drain. It's a mess in there and straw is detrimental, just fyi.

That's two larger breeding groups. I also have my cock block pen in the barn, which can hold around seven or eight birds. That's my younger grow-out pen at the moment, also where all the birds that for some reason can't brave the grow-out pen go so that they can get some fluff back to their feathers. Originally, the cock block was designed to be split in half, but I will not be doing that. I kind of like it just the way it is.

I have a chicken tractor that I built a few years ago. It can hold about a trio. It currently has my bantam hold backs.

I miiiiiight be able to make room for two or three pairs and maybe another trio. Maybe. Bantams go in rabbit cages for breeding season, so they're not an issue.

So first project bird that I have is with my big boy. I love love love this cockerel. He's half cochin, half sussex. I have one matching pullet to go with him, and if I have the room, another younger pair of him with shitty quality black. The purpose of this project next year is to create a speckled sussex pattern onto large fowl cochin - or a proper mille fluer cochin. I believe when I did the math, I have a one in eleven? chance of hatching out just the chicken from him and his lady. They're both mottled, so that's one less recessive that I have to worry about. They carry for partridge. They both also have one copy of columbian pattern AND mahogany, it just doesn't express on black.

Honestly, thinking of it now, I think I'm wrong in my earlier math. Chicks have a 25% chance of hatching out partridge, and then a 75% chance of at least one copy of columbian and then of mahogany. I certainly don't need them to be homozygous in either of the dominant expressing genes. That's a mere 14% chance of hatching out the visual color I'm after. That's a one in seven chance.

I might have issues with foot feathering, putting f1 birds together instead of back to a cochin, but that theoretically puts me at a 10.5% chance of hatching the color with foot feathers, which is still better than one in eleven. (Though I explicitly remembering coming up with 14% so I think I just remember the fraction math wrong. I don't think my math was wrong, just faulty memory.)

ALL THIS TO SAY - I want no less than a trio of phenetically mille fluer cochin out of this pen. Then I say goodbye to all my f1s. *cry*

Because ohmydear just look at that cockerel. He's gorgeous. Very striking, even if he makes a shitty cochin.

Next project that is of utmost importance involves Mr. Wyandotte sir. This cockerel - oh I went through SO MUCH trouble to get him and he's just amazing. I LOVE how well he's growing up, especially since I got him, and I'm so so so excited for the project he'll be involved in.

So the thing is, I don't have any gold laced cochins. None. Zip. I am NOT messing with dominant white and silver so ... I'm putting him over a couple partridge hens. My partridge are not good quality, but they'll get the project started. At the very least, their offspring will have some feathers on their feet and their combs will be split to single.

Using a cock with homo dominant white will result in dominant white pullets and cockerels. I'm just going to have a mess with lacing (and breeding out leaking black). HIS lacing isn't great, but buff laced is a project in wyandotte as much as it will be for me in cochin. I'm not sure how dominant white plays in hetero form, but I'm sure I'll find out next spring.

Hopefully I get some choices in pullets and cockerels out of his pen and get to keep the best lacing, because they'll be het in EVERYTHING. Pattern, melanotic, columbian - but thankfully those are ALL dominantly expressed. What really works for me on this is that both wyandotte and cochin work their laced varieties on the partridge base, so ... I don't have to mess with extension genes on this project.

A less important project, but a project that I have an f1 cockerel for anyway, is blue laced silver. This boy is a result of a silver laced cochin over a blue laced red wyandotte. So he's het silver, which causes some CRAZY gold leakage. But considering his mother should be MAHOGANY as well, it's not gold leakage as much as RED leakage.

This boy has better lacing than ANY other laced bird with feathered feet. Quite possibly any laced bird on the property.

I know I've talked about this boy and stressed over the future possibilities with him before.

I think I want to put him over both silver laced girls that I have. Theoretically, I make half boys with his level of leakage, and half boys with the proper homo silvering and (please) no leakage. And half silver pullets, half gold pullets. Then half of ALL THOSE, blue.

So, keep anything blue and silver, of course. But I'm really tempted to keep everything not gold, but RED laced with blue as well. Which will be all pullets, but ... no, I think I will. I'll keep the blue laced red and maybe blue laced gold because THAT WAS AN ORIGINAL GOAL.

My problem with the silver laced is that my pure silver laced cock died just a couple weeks ago. Out of the blue, he just dropped dead in the main flock. So fuck - I might just keep anything silver laced, idfk. Just get rid of the yellow laced (ie het silver) cockerels, I dunno.

(By the way - that sussex hen beside the silver laced hen is one of the probable mothers to big boy. That's the color I'm seeking in that project pen.)

Next big big project is chocolate. I have one older boy growing up that is out of my mauve splash cochin hen, and I have one older boy growing up that is out of the chocolate orpington. I have my chocolate hen that's actually really nice now that she's grown her feathers in. Finally. I miiiiight have another cockerel in the youngest hatch that's out of that mauve splash hen, but it's mostly a brooder full of pullets. Which are useless to me in this project. How often do you hear complaining about hatching out a ridiculously disproportionate amount of pullets? I also miiiiight have a chocolate cockerel out of the orpington hen and then mauve bantam cochin. If that is a boy, I'll keep him on reserve.

I actually am a little impressed with how the type is coming along on this blue cockerel. He's leaky as fuck, which is incredibly annoying. For one, he's out of two solid birds, so where did it come from? And breeding out leakage is one of the last things I want to do in my chocolate project. The amount of leakage on him suggests that he's NOT from the mauve splash hen, but I have absolutely nothing else that he could be out of but an even better blue hen. Ironically enough, the black that's most likely out of the orpington is almost as leaky, so I'm not sure what's going on here.

I'll know within a couple hatches whether or not he's split for chocolate. If I hatch out zero chocolates, he gets eaten and I substitute in the orpington cross cockerel(s).

I know that I'm putting at least two of my nice hens under him. I'll probably give him the mottled hen and the typey black pullet I have growing up. I don't know if I'm going to put the chocolate hen under him. If I have the space, I'd really rather she got paired up with the nicest blue cockerel that I have. I don't want to work with mauves, but I'm not about to be a chooser. I'll be getting mauves out of the blue cockerel anyway.

I have three blue cockerels and a splash cockerel growing up. I somehow got every one in on this picture. The lovely raggedy guy front and center is the cockerel I hatched out of the blue hen this year. The other three, I bought. I technically have the one I hatched up for sale because his comb is an absolute mess, but he has some very promising type.

I don't know if I'll be using a single one of these boys next spring, but I want them around to see if I can use them to improve on the type I already have grown up. But I do know that if I have the space, the best one will get paired up with my chocolate.

My black boy is the main man from this year. He's filled out SO MUCH these past couple months since I took him out of the breeding pen. He's almost impressive. I love how much his chest comes forward, but I would like to see a lot more depth to it. His tail has filled out immensely this year, but he still needs so much more depth to it. He's still better than most cochins I see around me. But this is the boy to beat in my programs.

He's getting my barred hens, even though Basketball is probably done laying for life. He also gets my blue pullets. There's at least three really nice ones growing up. And when I say that, I think I mean that the blue hen pictured above is the best cochin I own. She also forgot what hygiene is, but the amount of mass she's gathering as she grows - and how forward and deep her breast is already - I'm excited for her specifically. And I really think my barred hen(s) have a lot to offer in the cushion department. They don't necessarily have the depth of cushion, but they're way fuller than anything else I have. The barreds just really lack foot feathering in comparison.

But his pen - his pen is where I crunch down on TYPE. No funny color business (though I would kill for a barred cockerel out of that pen ...). Just black, blue, and ... yeah that's probably all that'll hatch out of his pen.

IF I had space, I'd put the typiest cock with the blue hens. Whether that be black boy or one of the blues growing up now - even though that's really difficult to judge when cochins take tonever to grow up. And I'd put the next typiest cock with the barreds. So that I could keep it separate and actually know what the hell I was hatching out. I don't think I have that luxury.

Last big project is the partridge. And the partridge shouldn't even be a project, but their type begs it so. I have three partridge cockerels growing up - all of them better than their sire. I'll keep one. I have ... three? partridge pullets growing up. They're really just around because I haven't sold them yet. I sold all of my oldest partridge grow-outs from this year to pay for rabbit feed. I also have three partridge hens. The wyandotte gets two of those partridge. I want one or two under the partridge boy.

Because I also have a good handful of black pullets growing up out of the black boy and the partridge hens. I think I also have one cockerel, but he can go. I'm going to keep the typiest two and put them under the partridge cockerel. Sell everything that hatches out black, and hope that my partridge type improves and that the melonizers don't totally mess with the partridge pattern.

I also really would like to put the blue laced red wyandotte back under a partridge. I hatched out zero blue things out of her and my partridge from this year. My dad hatched out two. I know for a fact he's keeping the pullet, but even if he's not keeping the cockerel I can bet that he's gotten rid of him already. I really do want blue laced red cochins. So between this pen and the pen of silver laced blue things, I actually have a decent chance of making a blue laced red pen for next year.

.

OHMYDEAR. I forgot about my wheatens. Fuck. I have two gold wheaten maran pullets that I got from FFH to make wheaten cochin. I need to put THEM under one of the blue cockerels. Ha. Oh shit. They'll make 100% blue or black birds that carry for wheaten, but it'll just be like the f1 sussex cross from this year. I'm not a huge fan of gold wheaten. HOWEVER, I have a couple different directions that I can later go with wheaten: silver wheaten (or better yet, take the next step, add mahogany and have salmon cochin) AND FURNESS. Furness would be a project. A really big project by isolating the melanotic gene from the laced birds, and then adding that over top wheaten, but absolutely theoretically doable. But quite honestly, I'm ahead of myself. I'll be happy with gold wheaten in two years from now.

.

Big pens are absolutely going to the type flock and partridge flock. But I just need to figure out how I'm safely separating these guys to get started next spring.

(I just don't want to think about winter, let's be honest.)

[homeofhousechickens]

It’s always amusing when someone swears up and down that their chickens are vegan/herbivores. Anyway enjoy my tiny dinosaurs

[queenoftheroost]

Because @murrayboid wanted me to let the flock know that they're fabulous. Which is true. 😂

[iseultsdream]

Aug 6, 2022 - sitting with a few friends in the late afternoon after a terribly hot humid day. We have had way too many of these kinds of days lately. Two major heat waves in a row.

Seem here are 4 of the 12 baby chicks that I got at the end of April. They just turned 3 months old at the end of July, so now they are referred to as pullets, basically young hens. They are officially considered an adult hen around 5 months old.

In the photo, going from the bottom up, the first two are Silver Laced Wyandottes, the third is a Swedish Flower hen, and last, a Silver Penciled Rock. Both the Swedish Flower henand the Silver Penciled Rock are considered rare breeds. Both have amazing plumage. The Silver Penciled Rock's feathers have a fine penciled design that is reminiscent of a design pattern seen maybe in the Alambra in Spain, or on some ancient textile. It is really quite extraordinary.

[equestrianwritingsstuff]

i....would love to hear some of your animal's names if you're up for it :)

OH MY GOSH YES.

I am always up for it.

I adore my babies so much that I will talk for ages about them.

If I don't want to talk about them, you know there's something wrong with me.

So here are some of them (not all, but some):

This is my baby girl Juniper Ann "Junie": She is nearly 3 years old (birthday is August 17th). I met her as a baby when she was red colored and took care of her. When I got home, me and my sister worked to try and get a pen set up for her because we could've taken her home if we wanted. But, only a few months later, we were able to bring her home for a decent price. The owner couldn't bring himself to butcher her. Anyway, she was wild when we got her and quite big. It took me a whole summer to tame her and now... words cannot describe how much I love her.

Ivy Anne: this is Junie’s daughter. She was born big and was running within three hours of birth. She was born huge too! Sadly, her destination is butcher, but she is gorgeous with black stripes lining her whole body (didn't have them in time of photo). Mama Cow Junie was not agressive towards us at all which is awesome because she was a first time mother.

Icky: Formally Echo, then Ecky, then finally Icky. This three year old hen is a Delaware hen and boy IS SHE LOUD! Anyway, this girl with amazing confirmation took home a blue in showing (a second blue, not first so she didn't qualify for champion, but dang is this chicken the stuff!)

Pyper: She is the baddie. I don't even count her as living for she is never around. She is brooding currently, but before she got broody she was stellar. I saw her this morning, caught her, and proclaimed her presence to my family. She was show material, even though she wouldn't ever compete for champion for this two year old is Whiting True Green which is in the crossbred egg type class.

Tabitha: Or "Tabi" as she is commonly called. She is three and since she was a pullet (hens under a year old) I've been trying to get a good show out of her. Third her first year, then second (small class, so no competition) because when Speckled Sussexes molt, they get more speckles. I was relying on her to molt, but of course she didn't. I only recall her having 1 molt and they should molt every year. Chickens sometimes...

Zack: Isn't he cute? He is one year old, and like a foot and a half long! But he is kind of skinny, which is probably because of his age and the fact that he hasn't filled out yet. Before his first birthday, he weighed 10 pounds. 10 pounds for an active, outdoor cat! And now he weighs even more. Slender, yes, he is so big that he walks around with a hunchback. In a couple years we are going to have a monster. But, said monster, is scared of two pound kittens and ran up a tree when he saw a feral cat.

Clover: This is my oldest cat at five years. As pretty as she is, she is the crankiest princess ever. Even when she got sick (yesterday we took her to the vet, it was just a cold) she was still growling and hissing. Clover has this "I don't care" attitude about everything and just states her presence and goes to take a nap on the couch. If you touch her, be warned she will tear your arm off. Unless she is in a sweat mood, then you may be lucky.

Leo: I have talked about him before. He has been in rehab since April. Everytime I get somewhere, he relapses. The dumb horse rolled down a hill and hurt a ligament in his right stifle and it doesn't help that he has arthritis everywhere (it is manageable, just irksome at the moment). A couple days ago, he bucked when my sister was leading him and kicked her hands. He broke one and gave her a couple hairline fractures on the other. Months ago, he bucked me off and I broke my rib (that was in November 2020, I still have problems with it) Other post here.

Anyway, that is just a few of them. I also didn't know if you wanted a full list of them or not so I did that too.

Chickens (in age order):

Allyberries (White Crested Black Polish)

Black Diamond (Silver Laced Wyandotte)

BDH (Silver Laced Wyandotte)

Sweet Baby (Silver Laced Wyandotte)

Pearl (Silver Laced Wyandotte)

Misty (Brown Laced Leghorn)

Sugar Moon (Brown Laced Leghorn)

Diann (Cuckoo Maran)

Snowflake (Cuckoo Maran)

Patricya (Cuckoo Maran)

Tiffanie (Welsumner)

Daffodil (Welsumner)

Icky (Delware)

Felicity (Delaware)

Tabitha (Speckled Sussex)

Lilac (Sapphire Gem)

Pyper (Whiting True Green)

Joey (Light Brahma)

Cheep (Whiting True Blue)

Peep (Whiting True Blue)

Thundercluck (Blue Laced Red Wyandotte)

Super Chow Wen (Blue Laced Red Wyandotte)

... all are female

Other Poultry (in age order):

Night Bagoo (Guinea Hen, female)

Dr. Sausage (Silver Appleyard Duck, male)

Mrytle (Silver Appleyard Duck, female)

Cats (in age order):

Clover

Zack

Maya

Theo

Cows (in age order):

Juniper (Brown Swiss)

Skylar (Scottish Highland)

Lucy (Scottish Highland) here

Rocky (Holstein)

Gypsy "Wee" as she is mostly called (Angus)

Alice (Scottish Highland) here

Vikki (Scottish Highland)

Ivy (Hereford/Brown Swiss x)

... all are girls but Rocky

Horse:

Leo (American Paint gelding)

Dog:

Luke (Saint Bernard/Greater Swiss Mountain Dog x)

Pigs: currently six, but only one is named (Winston) because all but him look similar. I have raised 19 in my whole life and all but five have been named.

Wild Animal Friends:

The Toad: she lived in the basement for as long as I remember and she still does

The Pheasant: poor guy can't get any ladies so he courts my hens. Let's just say that Pearl was not interested....

The Hummingbirds: every year we get a flock of hummingbirds. It started with Harmony and Hank and now the flock has grown.

There aren't too many, but I love them all and it is a perfect sized hobby farm!

[ziggystarling]

New chickies!

Backstory: Sadly several of the pullets from my last hatchery brood and several of my adult hens were killed by a family of raccoons last month. I decided to restock the coop with some breeds I've been wanting to get my hands on for a long time (plus a buff, because you can never go wrong with a buff!)

In order from top to bottom the breeds are Siscilian Buttercup, Blue-laced Red Wyandotte, Buff Orpington, Silver Spangled Appenzeller Spitzhauben, and Speckled Sussex.

Really excited to see how they turn out! I'm sure they'll be gorgeous.

[bukbot]

how do i get mcr tickets cheap

Her breed Silver Laced Wyandotte hen, or c an ISA Brown pullets 4 Black Australorp 4 Golden Laced Wyandottes.

[viviere]

I got chickens! Young pullets so the goal of eggs is a late summer dream away.

Nobody told me how enamored I would be with their cute sweet chirps and clucks and they are so sweet and I cannot. 

My set up isnt perfect because I think I really needed to see them in perfect and their behavior to fully imagine how to adjust our backyard. Unfortunately, getting them and then 3 days straight of cold blustery rain is no fun at all.

I got 4 because 1 came free and the owners talked me into a third ToT But I dont think the space is ideal for 4- we were originally doing 2. That said..the additional 2 are really the best. The buff orpington is the biggest and the alphacluck, already deemed Nuggets. She does her own business and is a straight up boss. Next in line is a tiny polish girl, shes really tiny but doesn’t get bossed as much as the others surprisingly. Reminds me of a roadrunner.

The barred rock- the free bird is the most ‘tame’ and loves to come up and say hello and peep for treats. She looks to be the bottom bird ToT Lastly, we have a silver laced wyandotte who is so rogueish in looks and behavior. She is sneaky, thiefy, and a skittish little thing. Also picked on by Nuggets. I was able to have her come and eat out of my hand today (the rain is stopping I think but its still so cold and wet while I kneel outside)..but she keeps thinking my fingers is food and tries to forcefully devour them. Ouch. Stabby rogue. Her name might just be Arya of the Faceless Hen.

Anyways, I can’t wait for it to be sunny again. I have to set up some barriers and nettings to protect them from getting out and getting into our garden/plants. But they are already getting spoiled with salads and chopped veggies and bugs and everything. I really hope I dont have to rehome one or two in case it does not work out.

I tried to close the coop today but as soon as I went ouside, 3 of them came out saying hello! A few treats later, they were satisfied and I got to say goodnight. Ohmigoshh.

Move over beacon, I found some new girlsfriends ovo. At least they take food from me. He has a one track mind and it is simply ‘wakwakcoooo! Im a big sexy strong boy! FITE ME’

[sayhowdycountrycritters]

Chicken time with “Pansy”

[kifu]

So I confirmed a thing that I've been suspicious of.

Partridge, at least in cochins and wyandottes, is partridge based with dominant pattern gene. I feel like this should be obvious. Silver patridge, after all, is called silver penciled. Yknow, the word I was looking for when I was drawing my birbs.

SO that blue boy there (pictured left) that's heading my blue laced silver project (which is have other thoughts about, gimme a moment) is 100% partridge and 100% pattern gene. He's het for melanotic and Columbian only. Well, and silver (and blue), but.

I only have two pattern genes to worry about!!

I mean, a lot more than that. He's a right mess. Can barely tell there's cochin in him.

Which ... brings me to the point of ... maybe I should try putting a blue cockerel (*ahem* splash cockerel) over a silver laced hen.... I wonder if the type advantage would override the bullshit train of all the genes. Keep cockerels because they're het for silver. Cull pullets because don't need. Keep blues. Het recessive for partridge, het hidden dominant for pattern, Columbian, melanotic, silver.... a right mess.

But have you seen the type on the cockerel I'm working with? My silver laced hens are kinda crap, too. I NEED to work on their type by crossing them to a typey black/blue at some point ANYWAY. Just. Wouldn't it be so funny if my blue laced silvers had better type than an APA color?

BECAUSE I CAN'T FIND A DECENT LACED COCHIN BREEDER! ANYWHERE in the US!

So, like, I dunno. Maybe I'll mess with the splash over the silver laced hens later in the season. I would love to soften their tails.

I'm not culling him until I like what I see in the brooder out of him. But I am a little bit curious to see how poorly crossing a laced variety to a full extension bird would go, too. Because it's a easy as moving the hens from under him to under the splash (or blue). Just saying. Play the waiting game for the new boy's babes.

However, I will NOT be playing that game with the buff laced wyandotte (pictured right). Only playing that with silver laced. Wyandotte's getting a couple partridge hens and I am SO EXCITED. Type will still be shit, BUT at least the partridge are typier than my silver laced. So that's a little something.

[a-chicken-mama]

Beautiful portraits of Frodette (white, Delaware Pullet) and Eggrond (black, Silver Laced Wyandotte)

[homeofhousechickens]

My Chickens

Blue Bird: couldnt get a good picture of her so i took a profile head shot lol

Blue is a production type leghorn hen

Greenie Weanie: looking very sleek and lovely on the laying implant very cooperative for pictures she loves attention.

Greenie is a production type leghorn hen

Baby bird: Did not want to cooperate for pictures and was mad i woke her up form her nap.

Baby bird is a silver laced Wyandotte hen

Mr Scoot Man: he was very enthusiastic about pictures because he LOVES blueberries and being bribed

Scoot is is a cancer survivor and has gout/kidney damage

Scoot is a very poorly bred Ayam Cemani rooster

Princess Cream: cooperative but wanted to go bed so i only took a quick picture

Cream is an american type Serama hen

Nebby: Daughter of Blue bird and very sweet. She is in perpetual state of grime and crimes. Her feather quality sucks right now because she is horny and will let all the other chickens mount her.

Nebby is a Silkie and Leghorn mix hen

Nugget: Was not very cooperative and was more interested in exploring then pictures

Nugget is an American type Serama cockerel

Master Cannoli: Way more interested in trying to snuggle and dance for me then taking pictures.

Cannoli is a silked micro serama cockerel

Muffin: Prefers her personal space and for me to not bring her out so she was a bit cross with me. I think she will make a good broody hen in the future

Muffin is a silked micro serama pullet

Smores: extremely playful, kept pouncing on my hands and phone trying to initiate a play fight. She would sometimes fly away so very uncooperative but funny

Smores is supposed to be a serama pullet but in reality she is just a little creature (joking)

[queenoftheroost]

My girls have started laying! :D so far I believe Gurdy, Wynnie, and Rosemary are laying. It's super easy to tell that Rosey is laying bc she's the only one who should lay colored eggs. Gurdy, the Showgirl in the silkie pen (because she's a bantam, being that showgirls are silkie crosses), I've seen her lay hers so I know she's been the only one so far, but I don't know if it's really Wynnie (Wyandotte) that's laying or if it's Little Foot (barnevelder). Little Foot is a couple weeks younger than Wynnie, but they're close enough in age and their breeds lay similar eggs in color so who knows. :V

[animalworld]

WAIT A MINUTE!

Okay, Great photos BUT mismarked. Apologies to the Vulterine Guineafowl at the top which is fine. The bottom two birds however are Frizzle variations of the Polish chicken breed. Frizzling is caused by an incomplete dominant gene where the feathers curl the wrong direction away from the body. Both birds pictured are Frizzle versions of Silver Polish Chickens.

The is an actual Silver Laced Wyandotte hen. ©Laura Quick

This is a Silver Polish Chicken hen with 'regular’ feathers, still pretty fancy. Yes, they have a hard time seeing where they are going.

This is a Silver Polish Rooster - looks like David Bowie.

Polish Chickens have developed an unusual vaulted brain that allow their skulls to support a crest of feathers. It seems to serve no other known purpose.

The top skull below is a ‘vaulted’ Polish chicken skull, the bottom is a standard cochin chicken skull.

This is a day-old Polish chick, the cap on the top of its head is the vault that will come to support the crest feathers. 

This is an White Crested Blue Polish Pullet at about 12 weeks old. Showing how the crest feathers grow in.

This is an attractive Frizzle chicken, it looks like maybe a Bantam Cochin. Most Frizzle breeds tend to be small / bantams.

Other posts you might like:

Curly Chicken - really odd looking

A Budgie with “Feather Duster Syndrome”

Silkie Chickens - barbless feathers make them look more furry than feathered

Vulturine Guineafowl

British Photographer Captures Majestic Bird Portraits

Photographer: Tim Flach

Silver Laced Polish

Silver-Laced Wyandotte

[veronicafoaleessentials]

It is cold and stupidly foggy on this damp Tasmanian morning. It's meant to rain later, which will be excellent for my gardens and not so great for my bones. We bought seedlings to plant yesterday - investing in lettuce and spinach and stir-fry greens to pick over winter. Half will go into the gardens and half into the aquaponics system which is finally balanced enough to grow salad greens well for us. We have a few chickens laying still, which is both unexpected and lovely - one of my pullets is giving me an egg every 3 days, and one of the older girls is laying at a similar rate. It's not like the plenty of spring and summer, but it's almost enough to keep me in quiche and cakes. I don't expect it to last - Tasmania has had an unseasonably warm Autumn, with lovely sunny days and cool damp nights. It's unusual and while I am enjoying it, the implications scare me. Climate change is a real fear and we can see it happening here in the Midlands. My young rooster is growing beautifully, even if he is still getting beaten up by every hen we own. He'll come into his own in spring when his hormones kick in, but for right now we're just enjoying how pretty he is. He's a silver laced wyandotte, with a bit of gold bleed-through. Pretty, and he should make pretty babies for us. . . . . #tasmania #discovertasmania #midlands #southernmidlands #chickens #rooster #gardening #smallhold #weather #climatechange https://www.instagram.com/p/BxqUsyfn8eQ/?igshid=1ege4vhxbm1kd