Mine are due May 20th, which should give me some time to set up the brooder room in the barn.
I was just reading the article on Chanteclers in Wikipedia, I didn't realize that in 1979 they thought the last living Chantecler had died, but evidently some were found on small farms.
I was thinking about what StrawberryHouseMouse said about white being a bad color for a winter hardy breed. I assumed that the white color was simply for practical reasons--- most breeds of chicken preferred for commercial farming have white feathers. But the fellow who developed the Chantecler was a Trappist monk, Brother Wilfred, and I just found out that Trappists wear white habits (with black scapulars, which are a sort of apron-like thing down the front.) So maybe Brother Wilfred just wanted his chickens to look like Trappists.
But for more winter-hardiness perhaps someone ought to develop a black version of the Chantecler. (Gee, what kind of monks wear black habits? Benedictines, I think.)
I was just reading the article on Chanteclers in Wikipedia, I didn't realize that in 1979 they thought the last living Chantecler had died, but evidently some were found on small farms.
I was thinking about what StrawberryHouseMouse said about white being a bad color for a winter hardy breed. I assumed that the white color was simply for practical reasons--- most breeds of chicken preferred for commercial farming have white feathers. But the fellow who developed the Chantecler was a Trappist monk, Brother Wilfred, and I just found out that Trappists wear white habits (with black scapulars, which are a sort of apron-like thing down the front.) So maybe Brother Wilfred just wanted his chickens to look like Trappists.
But for more winter-hardiness perhaps someone ought to develop a black version of the Chantecler. (Gee, what kind of monks wear black habits? Benedictines, I think.)