White Faced Black Spanish - Page 5

Almost certainly look to be LF. I raise bantams WF Spanish, and although bantam Spanish are on the larger end of bantam sizes, if your are 10 weeks they have got to be LF.
 

My GLW's are 10 weeks, not sure how old the WFS are, lol. But my GLW's are bigger than the BFS.

Well you can deffinately tell the difference in behaviors with the WFBS vs. our other chickens.

We sat and watched our laying hens and our young ones all one by one go into their coops and at the same time the Spanish all went for the tallest roost in the corner of the pen rather than under cover!  It may be they like the freedom of not being cramped up or their inate roosting instincts but I worry a little about them being in the weather.

I may build a bigger coop and remove the out door roosts and see if they will utilize them in the coop,

It worries me that we are in the rainy season and the roos still have to regrow their feathers with them refusing to seek shelter!

BUT I must say that after only two days here the hens feathers  are looking nice and shiny rather than dull and dirty like when we 1st got them,

It is amazing the difference a couple days can make!!

 

We are guestimating them at 2 months old any guesses as to age from the bad pics LOL

I know I will have to get better ones but I realy want them to settle in before we go in with the camera they are still a little shy until I sit there 15 or 20 minutes.  It seems once I am in there a while they will come and check me out so hopefully with some treats and gentile interaction I can get some trust out of them

 

 

 

 

Here you can really see the pulled feathers and the birds are a bit wet from the rain and this worries me a bit!

 

I would like some advice on a brood moma though. I read that Barred rocks make good broodies so would it be OK to put our hen in with them once they get aclimated to brood the eggs from them or should I build a special coop and run for her to keep her and the parents separate?

We never used a surrigate for anything so any info would help before hand so we are best prepared!

What a difference a week makes!!

The boys are feathering in nicely where they were missing all those feathers and the girls have that nice metalic green sheen to them now!!

They realy do not look like the same ragidy birds we acquired a week ago!!

I knew that better living conditions would help them I did not know we would see a drastic difference in such a short time though!!

 

OK I have a couple quick pics but will try to get better ones this weekend!

 

 

OK  Cockerell #1 and the big Pullet seem to have paired off,

He has the reddest and biggest comb,

You can see the fuzz where there was bare skin just a short week ago and "I may be seeing thinge here but"  it appears hie comb color is getting more vibrant where both looked more of a washed out pink and his waddles are definatly bigger??

 

 

Big girl, She is the more out going of the two and has taken a liking to the more vibrant male with the nicer comb, we will see how this works out as things progress but we are thinking of keeping these two as a pair Since they seem the healthiest and strongest of the four!

She also has the most points on her comb, it lookid like 8 points and the Cockerel has 7 "Hard to see the back point in these pics, not sure if that matters or not"

 

 

Cockerel #2, he is smaller slightly and has more of a pink comb but his points are almost straight up where the others are off kilter.

He is the shyer one and will only approach us if the other has come up 1st.

You can see he too has fuzz in place of the bald patches of just 6 days prior!!

 

 

Finaly the little shy pullet, she will hide from us and only come out when she thinks the others have treats!

Her and the shy Cockerel spend more time together but i am unsure if it is just by default because they both like to keep away from everyone or if they are actualy keeping each other company??

This is the only pic of her that was not a blurr or just a tail shot! She is by far the fastest bird we have and hope she never ever gets out or she will be gone forever!!

She is also the flier!! she will fly back and forth from perch to perch and excercise her wings often!!

 

 

 

Well I hope you like them and can see the amount of improvement we do, in such a short time, We are quite pleased and if they keep this up they will be in perfect shape in no time!!!

Edited by varanisblack - 7/20/12 at 5:57pm

 

 

Well we got crowing out of these guys and with luck will have eggs this fall.

Incase it is of interest here is what the roosters look like today after a few short weeks in our care.

 

 

 

The combs are bright red, the white is coming in nicely they all have that metalic sheen to them, we are realy impressed with their progress and cant wait until they are at their best to show them off

Here we are a while later and I thought an update was in order.

all four are doing great and the hens are laying!

Mary got 6 chicks last week from an unrelated flock she is raising to mix and make two flocks one will be with our original roos and the new hens and the other new roos and old hens. With this we hope to strengthen the lines she is producing!

 

 

 

 

 

and the new chicks

 

 

I love how slowly the Spanish feather, they look bare for months sometimes.

I have 11 cockerels and 10 pullets that are 6 weeks old.  Always knew the Spanish were flighty but description doesn't come near describing the insane reaction they have everytime I open the brooder door.  They fly straight up into the ceiling just like pheasants would do!  I have raised large cochins for years and they are one of the most docile breeds around and it sure is a change to deal with the Mediterranean Class, even my LF Barred Plymouth Rocks are easy going.  I have  two white spanish cockerels and a pullet which I will cross with the blacks to make blues.  I look forward to seeing them mature and develop the large combs and white faces.  I'll try to show a few this fall since we never see them here in Oklahoma.

 

Bo

Does anyone sell fertilized eggs for these beautiful birds? I live in Alberta, Canada and I've never seen one of these birds in person. Would love to have a small flock. Something cool about having something as rare as these birds.