d'anver lovers,discuss the breed and post some pics!

[speckledhen]

I have three who are so bare, it's scary. Some had three molts this year, weirdest year ever for that. One hen is in the cage formerly occupied by my late crippled rooster, Zane, under her own reptile bulb. In fact, she's Zane's only chick ever, from before he was completely unable to mate. She would scream and run into walls if you just looked at her, she was so miserable, though now, she seems less inclined to give herself brain damage. She's 5 1/2 years old so I am quite worried about Panda. She didn't get off the bed/nest all day yesterday, not even to drink water. I see her quills are getting longer so I hope she feels better before she starves herself. She's in her own private hell, that poor thing.

Several are just now getting the feathers in, but they've lost a lot of weight. I ran two bags of the 22% super layer through all the flocks and am giving some of them warm grits with eggs cooked into it as added calories and protein. Not much I can do other than that.

 

[NanaKat]

I have large fowl hens sitting on a mixture of banty eggs in the outside coops. I'm moving the eggs inside the incubator just before hatch (3 days) and the hen into a hanging cage nest over toss able eggs. Then I'm giving the hen the hatch chicks and tossing those two or three eggs.
One hen is in a 4x6 floor pen with one d'Anver chick and 9 Bantam Delaware chicks.
There are 5 Delaware and an unusual colored d'Anver chick in the bator ready to go under a hen in a cage.
Two hooks hold a 18 x 24 x18 inch cage with a cardboard floor cover and a wheat straw nest feed cup and 1 qt water .

 

[laseterlass]

I laugh at all of you guys thinkibg its to cold. Granted our winter in Alaska is late and its raining and 35 in my backyard. My bantam orps and silkies are under the coop. I swear the D'anver think they are ducks! They and the molting BALD sizzle are out in the downpour digging up earthworms and playing football in the mud. I have never seen chickens that cared less about the weather.

 

[Backwoods Bntms]

I laugh at all of you guys thinkibg its to cold.

I lost 40lb over the summer and have been cold since the first of September.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

haha I hear ya JJ. Ive never had 40 to spare, been scrawny all my life, so when it gets under 50...im cold haha

 

[NanaKat]

here is that unusual colored d'Anver chick

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

ginger red

 

[NanaKat]

Great! Thank you!

 

[elsfieldchickens]

just got a trio of show quality cuckoo d,anvers im hoping to show them next year
i have kept d,anvers before bu that was a few years ago i have them in a indoor guinea pig house is this ok?

 

[SweetSilver]

I've been lurking for a little while, and wanted to say "hello". I have had 2 quail d'anvers (alas, hatchery, but so sweet) for the last 2 years. Down to one, unfortunately. Here's Midnight. I've posted these pics before elsewhere:

Midnight, or "Middy"

Halloween, or "Beeny" (this pic is entitled Bucket of Chicken)

I must say that I adore the breed, and plan on getting more at some point. Hatchery, for now. But anyhow, why I piped up today to post was because I visited our recent poultry show, and the d'anvers were *fat* and *fluffy*! Mine are much more petite, and I wonder, is it the food? Or the fact that mine run around all day?

I'm not planning on showing mine at a poultry show beyond our small county fair. We are in 4-H, and this breed is perfect for fit and show for my young daughters, even hatchery stock at this point. But we are learning about the breed, especially how our birds differ from what the standard is (I don't mind hatchery stock at this point, as long as we know what the differences are and we are not breeding them for show or sale). I read upthread about quail being a difficult color to show. I noticed that Beeny here had the closer coloring, especially around the face. Middy seems a bit dark.

About the chubbiness, here is a bad picture to see how much more petite she is. I took this picture to help someone identify his bird as a d'anvers, as I managed to catch Middy in this typical pose:



Again, all my questions are purely instructional. We are still very much beginners in the world of chickens, even after nearly 5 years. My oldest is entering the Junior level of 4-H, so we will consider starting to look at breeders instead of the feed store for our birds. That will be another adventure that we will embark on, for sure.

So, hello! And thanks in advance for your replies!