No Faverolle discussion is complete without a photo of "Fudge", the poster child for the Faverolles Fanciers of America. He exhibits fantastic type and color...to see the picture, you think this bird has it all. Except size. He was quite small. I've had smaller, from different lines, but where I was at at the time with my breeding program, I just couldn't use him. Luckily, he now belongs to a friend, who I have given a couple of very large hens to, and I have a cockerel out of the breeding that is in the brooder as I type this. I have high hopes for him.
This is Peaches...she is the other "poster child" for the Fav club, and one of the hens that is living with Fudge. I am 99% sure that the cockerel I have is out of her egg. She lays a HUGE egg for a Fav. Note the darker color on her...another reason I wanted to pair her up with Fudge. He is lighter, so the combination of these two birds SHOULD give me a nice mid range color. They both have exceptional beards and toes. Her leg feathering is a little on the heavy side, but again, combined with the lighter feathering on Fudge's legs, should balance well on their babies. She has a very nice, tight wing, a fantastic spread on her tail. She is the complete package for me, as far as a breeding pen. Too dark to show, however. LOVE this hen!
This picture shows a great example of the three sections you want to see in a beard: there are two distinct muffs, and the beard below.
Here's a nice, typy, large fowl black Fav pullet. Short and VERY stout. Nice tucked wing. Would like a little better tail spread, but it actually improved somewhat as she matured.
Good example of the nice "V" shaped tail spread you should be looking for in your birds:
Perfect chick toes: excellent separation on the 4th and 5th toes. No stubs on the middle toe. Favs, unlike other feather legged breeds, should NOT have feathers on their middle toe.
A pullet with very nice shape to her. Hackle feathers are a little dark, but overall color is pretty even. Though, as is common with this variety, the band over shoulders is just slightly darker than the saddle feathers. Note the width of feather in the tail.
This is why you NEVER, NEVER, NEVER cull boys for color before they are at LEAST 8 months old. Preferably older....this is Fudge, and how his colors changed:
THIS...
Turned into THIS......
Which turned into THIS.....
Just for fun: Fudge and Peaches in the club logo:
Fudge is AMAZING!!!!!!!!
