Hey NYREDS, Fowlman01, other Dom breeders and judges.... Critique please?

are the legs supposed to be that light?? they look almost white 

Thanks Walt,

I tried to get some closer pictures. I have no idea how people take those beautiful posed shots of their chickens. Mine stand still right up until I hit the button on the camera then run, twist, duck.... anything to ruin the picture. Anyway, this is the best I can do.

I should mention they are starting to molt too. The hens have a few solid black feathers I never noticed until today, but they are falling out. I guess they were hid under the other feathers. The rooster's tail feathers are starting to look raggedy and are molting too, probably not the best time to post pictures, but I am just curious.

Also, the older birds were from two different matings. One mating was supposed to produce good cock birds and all I got from that mating was the pullets. The only cockerel I hatched from that mating done great until he was around 6 months old then just wasn't thrifty so wound up being dumplings. 

Now on the young birds I see.... Nothing. I'm just too new and inexperienced. Just being honest. The color SOP, the APA line drawing book, the black and white SOP.... none show young birds and I'm too new to know what I'm looking for going just on the descriptions. 

I see some faults on the adults... but I guess I'm wanting to see if I'm right and see what else I might be missing.

Thanks for helping me learn.

Close up of the cock's head

Full body view of the cock;

And one from the other side;

Two of the hens;

Hen;

Hen;

Young cockerel;

Young pullet;

BTW, several people have asked me why I have both the black and white and color SOPs. As a fairly new breeder to the SOP standard, I find the black and white pictures and the line drawings to be easier for me personally to see the "type". Just me I guess.

Thanks Walt,

I tried to get some closer pictures. I have no idea how people take those beautiful posed shots of their chickens. Mine stand still right up until I hit the button on the camera then run, twist, duck.... anything to ruin the picture. Anyway, this is the best I can do.

I should mention they are starting to molt too. The hens have a few solid black feathers I never noticed until today, but they are falling out. I guess they were hid under the other feathers. The rooster's tail feathers are starting to look raggedy and are molting too, probably not the best time to post pictures, but I am just curious.

Also, the older birds were from two different matings. One mating was supposed to produce good cock birds and all I got from that mating was the pullets. The only cockerel I hatched from that mating done great until he was around 6 months old then just wasn't thrifty so wound up being dumplings. 

Now on the young birds I see.... Nothing. I'm just too new and inexperienced. Just being honest. The color SOP, the APA line drawing book, the black and white SOP.... none show young birds and I'm too new to know what I'm looking for going just on the descriptions. 

I see some faults on the adults... but I guess I'm wanting to see if I'm right and see what else I might be missing.

Thanks for helping me learn.

Close up of the cock's head

Full body view of the cock;

And one from the other side;

Two of the hens;

Hen;

Hen;

Young cockerel;

Young pullet;

BTW, several people have asked me why I have both the black and white and color SOPs. As a fairly new breeder to the SOP standard, I find the black and white pictures and the line drawings to be easier for me personally to see the "type". Just me I guess.

Thanks again Walt. That is just the kind of info I needed. I know you can't really judge by a picture, but at least you are giving me things to look at. It's a learning curve for me. Thank you for taking the time to help me.

In case anyone else is following this thread I have a perfect example of how a new breeder can overlook the most obvious things; The barring. Now that you point it out and I'm looking at the pictures here on the screen and comparing them to the SOP I see that the V barring is all wrong, but like an idiot I totally missed that. The most obvious thing, but I missed it!

What I was seeing was the correct size, general type and shape, correct eyes and fair combs. To my admittedly untrained eye, the wings are a bit low, the tail on the cock is about 10% too high and too low on the hens, the cock is too light in color overall, the hens are not full enough on the breast and the legs are too light on all of them.

The legs are a bit more yellow than the pictures show, but are too light. All my yellow legged fowl are that way. I'm thinking that part might be my feed because all are hatched with very nice colored feet and legs but seem to fade within a few months. Even the RC RIRs... Some were around a year old when I brought them here and others several months old. All had very nice yellow legs, but all have faded out since. 

I probably won't show these birds, but I do like them and if you think these flaws are something I can breed out, I might get into showing their offspring in a few years. Right now I'm very much in the learning stage. My RIRs I do plan on showing in the spring, even if it's just to get a chance to see them side by side with winning stock. For right now I'm trying to get a feel for whether I have birds worth working with or if they just need to go into a pen for laying birds and local sales. (Selling eggs and chicks to the local farmers is what pays my feed bill, the SOP birds are my hobby, I'll probably never even break even on them).

Another question? I've noticed the eyes on the adults are the reddish bay, but the young birds all start out with greenish yellow eyes. Is that normal?

Thanks again Walt and good luck at the fair.