Hi, this is a test thread for people who cannot see my site and get re-directed to directnic. I am posting thumbnails from my site and the descriptions to see if someone can see them. Sorry if it is a weird post. If you can NOT see the pictures on this thread, could you post your computer operating system and what browser and version you are using? An example would be,
"can't see pics, just red x's. I am using a Windows 2000 and Firefox , or Linux, or Internet Explorer 6" or whatever you use to browse.
Thanks for your help. Patty
PS, you can see my website where it is hosted at http://pattycarson.com/poultry.html
Could you visit it also and see if it redirects you, and if it does, please post it here? That would be helpful too. Then I can just direct the web host to this thread and they can see what the problem is if there is one. Thanks. BYC Rocks!
Copper Black Marans, Wade Gene/Ron Presley lines very dark egg layers of French origin, known for the darkest eggs of all, varying in shade from a brick color to deep chocolate brown, depending on the laying cycle and genetics of the individal bird. Dark eggs is the single most desireable trait in this line of birds. The rooster on the left is only six months old in the photo. We are enjoying watching him change and grow every day! The eggs in the photo in the left column were laid by a hen that hatched from my original eggs. The photo was taken by me and not enhanced in ANY way. What you see is how they look in real life. We have seven young pullets that hatched from that clutch in late August, early September. They have been laying since the spring and we are very happy with the results! Their eggs have gone all over the country and apparently they ship well!
They are a genetically diverse flock, with three roos as their fathers, and I was working with a total of five roos to start out my breeding program last fall. I am selecting AWAY from the slow feathering gene and FOR fast growth, dark eggs, healthy immune systems and good type and temperament. We feed Purina Start 'N Grow to our young birds and Purina Layena Pellets to our adults, along with fruit, veggie and leafy green treats.
Goody
Goody hatching
Goody next to a quarter
Goody and clutchmates
Tipsy's first pullet eggs.
Silkie setting my first marans hatching
Tipsy setting a rainbow clutch of eggs
flat of average eggs.
Bev Davis Line Copper Blue/Black/Splash, This nice flock has been gathered from birds hatched by people who bought their actual eggs the parent birds hatched out of from Bev Davis, a notable marans breeder who has been working on her line of birds for over two decades. This pen has a blue rooster with only a small amount of coppering on his neck, a few ticks of it three or four inches below his throat. He does not have any excessive coppering on his breast, nor straw colored hackles. He really is a nice rooster. Even though he is still growing in his first set of sickle feathers, he has convinced the ladies he is worthy and ferilty is running near or at 100% at present. The hens are all copper black, except one hen lacking copper on her hackles, and a splash hen, also lacking copper markings, but makes up for it with her stellar personality and looks! All birds in this pen are feather legged. Some of the hens lay a tad lighter than the other line in the box above, but that is often to be expected with flocks carrying the blue genetics. They are very nice birds. You will love them. They grow to a substantial size, larger and heavier birds than I have seen from other lines. You will not be disappointed with the quality of these birds and their eggs. With the rooster being blue, every single egg has a 50/50 chance of hatching out a copper blue chick. Here is an outstanding opportunity to add the coveted copper blue to your flock, as well as size, substance and disposition. http://pattycarson.com/images/chickens/marans/bev/bluerooside12_09x.jpg Copper Blue Bev Davis roo.
Copper Black Bev Davis hen.
Splash Bev Davis hen.
Show-Girls! Our showgirl rooster is one of the sweetest, gentlest roosters I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. He has excellent pigment on his wattles and comb for a showgirl, soft cushion and wing feathers, nice and shreddy! He takes great care of his ladies and his fertility is excellent. His main fault is that he has a pea comb instead of a walnut comb, but hey, pobody's nerfect, right? The showgirl rooster also has partridge genetics hiding under all that white. We have recently acquired three top quality hens to cross him with whenever they begin to lay. You know how silkies are. They call the shots when it comes to eggs... In any case, SOME time SOON, we expect beautiful, poofy headed, conformationally correct showgirl chicks.
Showgirl roo
Shwo Quality Silkie hen
Bantam Mille Fleur Cochin is a quite scarce color variety in this country, very difficult to come by. I got my start from Ralph Phillips in MA, and crossed the one rooster I hatched from the eggs I got, on my mottled cochins. F1 (first generation) was all black mottled. I crossed the pullets back on their father and got several very nice mille fleur offspring. I kept five pullets from that cross. I got an unrelated male to cross on those, again from Ralph Phillips, as well as my best pullet. They should begin to lay in the spring/summer '10, and hopefully I will be off and running to work on this beautiful, wonderful variety. I should also have eggs available for sale at that time. I still keep the F1 flock of black mottled hens with a mille fleur rooster. They are the same hens that these gorgous mille fleurs all came from. I will have eggs available from them also. Each of those eggs would have a fifty fifty chance to hatch out either a mille fleur potential colored chick, or a black mottled chick that can produce mille fleurs. There will be no "unknown split" babies hatched from any eggs sold. Everything you hatch will either BE mille fleur potential colored, (some shade of buff/red/partridge with varying degrees of black and white ticking) or a black mottled, sometimes with other off color plumage, which will have the potential to produce mille fleur if crossed on a mille fleur colored rooster. I also kept back an exceptional black mottled rooster with golden hackles from my F1 cross, because of his EXTERMELY good cushion, and supremely nice temperament. He will be crossed on my most typey mille fleur hens to breed for the most correct cochin type I can get at this point in my breeding program. Mille Fleur Cochins are a work in progress and quality can vary quite a lot from breeder to breeder, as well as in the same breeding pen. Very strong culling is neccessary to allow this wonderful variety to move forward. Hopefully some day it will be an APA accepted variety. I am working toward that goal in my program. If you would like to be a part of the effort, please do not hesitate to contact me for hatching eggs. Prices vary from what pen they would be from. Availabilty very limited.
F2 mille fleur cochin roo
F2 mille fleur cochin pullet
Barred Bearded Olive Egger is another variety we are working on. In addition to the mother, shown left, we are growing out six promising young pullets to add deeper egg color and genetic variety to our flock. Some are bearded, some clean faced. Some have a small amount of leg feathering, a reminder of their recent infusion of deep brown laying marans blood. We look forward to great things in the coming year. The advantage of the barring gene is once the trait is "set" and fully inherited to predictable patterns, you could sex the chicks and be able to use your time and money raising all pullets instead of cockerels if you wanted to only keep pullets for any reason. Speaking of cockerels, we are VERY PLEASED with our junior rooster who will be taking on his role as head flock roo this spring and summer! He has a beautiful, correct pea comb, a beard, small wattles, double barring gene and clean shanked legs! Talk about hitting the jackpot! You still may get clean faced and/or featherd shanks on the birds hatched from this year's eggs, but their egg color should be varying shades of khaki, olive and deep olive green. These are very striking looking birds, a wonderful addition to any flock!
barred beareded olive egger roo
barred olive egger hen.
Lavender Orpingtons are a new color variety, extremely rare in the Untied States and not yet Rcognized by the APA. These birds derived from the stock of Hinkjc Poultry, who got their start from Priscilla Middleton in the UK. Lavender is a recessive gene that modifies black, and works the same in any breed of chicken. There are dark and light phases of lavender, which you can see by clicking on the thumbnail of the cockerels to the left. The pullet shown is a light phase. We hatched two cockerels and one pullet in lavender, and three pullets in black, unknown splits from our first eggs. They have just recently begun to lay, and for the start of the New Year we have a few in the incubator to see what colors the different black hens produce, as well as to test viability and hatchability. We can hardly wait to start our own breeding program! Soon we will have hatching eggs available from our birds. EVERY SINGLE EGG is guaranteed to carry lavender genetics, if not an actual lavender bird. Please email us if you would like to be on our waiting list for eggs or chicks in 2010.
lavender orpington cockerels
lavender and black split lavender orpington pullets
Mottled Javas are one of the oldest breeds in the United States today. Brought here by china trader clipper ships, they have been around since the days of George Washington and even before. They are an excellent, hardy, docile, dual purpose breed, used both for meat and eggs. They are great foragers and really tend to stick together as a flock. Their mottling helps to break up their outline and make them less visible to predators. It is a fun color addition to multi-colored flocks! They lay a light brown/cream/tinted egg.
mottled javas roosting
mottled javas grazing
Dark Brahmas are a large, beautiful bird. They were introduced from China to the Untied States 1864. Originally a meat bird, they weighed as much as 14 lbs! Now they are mainly an ornamental and pet breed and are a wonderful addition to any flock. The hens are silver penciled pattern, an intricate pattern of alternating black and silver lines on each feather. This helps to camoflage them from predators, for those who like to let their flock free range. Close up they are just fantastic eye candy! The roosters are primarily black with full neck hackles and saddle feathers of cascading silver feathers. They have a pea comb which makes them more hardy in freezing weather, less prone to frostbite. The hens are good broodies. At the present we have only the one pair shown and expect to have only a very limited amount of eggs available from them for sale in 2010. Email now to be put on a waiting list if you are interested.
dark brahma pair
Midget White Turkeys You gotta love these little guys! Midget Whites are a heritage breed, which means they can reproduce naturally, and are excellent brooders and good mothers. They will raise their own young if given a good nesting site and a tom to father the chicks. Midget Whites claim to fame is that they won the Ayershire Farm taste test. In 2008 a blind taste test of nine turkeys (eight heritage breeds and a very common commercial breed) was conducted. Approximately seventy food professionals sampled each of the nine turkeys. The Midget White turkey came out on top, and not surprisingly, the commercial bird finished last. This is a rare breed, availale only from private breeders, not from hatcheries. In 1971 only six specimens of the midget white turkey were left alive. They have been brought back as a breed to the point where they are rapidly gaining popularity as a homesteading and backard bird. The ALBC still currently lists their status as critical for becoming extinct. Their small size is ideal for the table, with a surprising amount of meat on the carcass for such a small bird. Their gentle temperaments make them wonderful family pets. They are more manageable than the larger, heavier, stout broad breasted varieties, which can mature up to eighty pounds! The midget white tom averages 20-22 lbs. full grown, while the hens are about half that size, averaging 8-10 lbs. They are a surprisingly meaty bird for their size and are excellent converters of feed to "food" LOL. Please DO consider the Midget White for your next breed to try. You won't regret it. We are expecting eggs in spring of 2010 and are keeping a short waiting list for eggs and poults (baby turkeys.) If you would like to be added to our list, feel free to drop me an email at freshairlady at earthlink dot net.
Midget White turkey tom showing off.
Midget White trio.
Bourbon Reds came in second in the above mentioned taste test. They are a slightly larger bird, but still one of the heritage breeds, able to set and hatch their own eggs and care for their young. My small flock consists of a single tom and two hens that are from Sandhill Preservation crossed on Whelp Hatchery stock, and two hens hatched from the show flock of Chris Maddalena, APA judge and master breeder and exhibitor of several breeds of poultry and waterfowl. All my birds were hatched at various times in 2009, so we expect the hens to begin laying at different times during the season. Bourbon Reds are also fairly strong fliers and you should take that into account when you design your housing for them as well.
No bourbon red pics available yet.
Muscovy Ducks are a separate species from most domestic ducks, most easily recognized by the vivid red, lumpy textured skin around their eyes and face. They are known as "caruncles" and in show birds are much more extensive, covering most of the head and extending down into the necks on very high quality show birds. Muscovies are native to Mexico, Central, and South America. In their wild state they roost in trees at night and have evolved strong claws on their feet, so care must be exercised in handling them at all times. They are considered a delicacy, gourmet item. Their meat has been compared to veal and/or roast beef. It has a deeper, richer flavor than other breeds of duck. They dress out to provide more meat also. They are excellent mothers and can raise a few clutches per year. Their eggs take 35 days to incubate but the wait is definitely worth it! Currently we have a black pied male, a barred pied female, a blue eyed white female and a black pied female. As of January 29, the barred pied hen has begun setting her first clutch of eggs this year. We are eagerly awaiting their hatch in early March! Pics will definitely be posted of the babies. Stay tuned!
Muscovy Drake
Barred muscovy hen
blue eyed white muscovy hen
"can't see pics, just red x's. I am using a Windows 2000 and Firefox , or Linux, or Internet Explorer 6" or whatever you use to browse.
Thanks for your help. Patty
PS, you can see my website where it is hosted at http://pattycarson.com/poultry.html
Could you visit it also and see if it redirects you, and if it does, please post it here? That would be helpful too. Then I can just direct the web host to this thread and they can see what the problem is if there is one. Thanks. BYC Rocks!
Copper Black Marans, Wade Gene/Ron Presley lines very dark egg layers of French origin, known for the darkest eggs of all, varying in shade from a brick color to deep chocolate brown, depending on the laying cycle and genetics of the individal bird. Dark eggs is the single most desireable trait in this line of birds. The rooster on the left is only six months old in the photo. We are enjoying watching him change and grow every day! The eggs in the photo in the left column were laid by a hen that hatched from my original eggs. The photo was taken by me and not enhanced in ANY way. What you see is how they look in real life. We have seven young pullets that hatched from that clutch in late August, early September. They have been laying since the spring and we are very happy with the results! Their eggs have gone all over the country and apparently they ship well!
They are a genetically diverse flock, with three roos as their fathers, and I was working with a total of five roos to start out my breeding program last fall. I am selecting AWAY from the slow feathering gene and FOR fast growth, dark eggs, healthy immune systems and good type and temperament. We feed Purina Start 'N Grow to our young birds and Purina Layena Pellets to our adults, along with fruit, veggie and leafy green treats.
Bev Davis Line Copper Blue/Black/Splash, This nice flock has been gathered from birds hatched by people who bought their actual eggs the parent birds hatched out of from Bev Davis, a notable marans breeder who has been working on her line of birds for over two decades. This pen has a blue rooster with only a small amount of coppering on his neck, a few ticks of it three or four inches below his throat. He does not have any excessive coppering on his breast, nor straw colored hackles. He really is a nice rooster. Even though he is still growing in his first set of sickle feathers, he has convinced the ladies he is worthy and ferilty is running near or at 100% at present. The hens are all copper black, except one hen lacking copper on her hackles, and a splash hen, also lacking copper markings, but makes up for it with her stellar personality and looks! All birds in this pen are feather legged. Some of the hens lay a tad lighter than the other line in the box above, but that is often to be expected with flocks carrying the blue genetics. They are very nice birds. You will love them. They grow to a substantial size, larger and heavier birds than I have seen from other lines. You will not be disappointed with the quality of these birds and their eggs. With the rooster being blue, every single egg has a 50/50 chance of hatching out a copper blue chick. Here is an outstanding opportunity to add the coveted copper blue to your flock, as well as size, substance and disposition. http://pattycarson.com/images/chickens/marans/bev/bluerooside12_09x.jpg Copper Blue Bev Davis roo.
Show-Girls! Our showgirl rooster is one of the sweetest, gentlest roosters I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. He has excellent pigment on his wattles and comb for a showgirl, soft cushion and wing feathers, nice and shreddy! He takes great care of his ladies and his fertility is excellent. His main fault is that he has a pea comb instead of a walnut comb, but hey, pobody's nerfect, right? The showgirl rooster also has partridge genetics hiding under all that white. We have recently acquired three top quality hens to cross him with whenever they begin to lay. You know how silkies are. They call the shots when it comes to eggs... In any case, SOME time SOON, we expect beautiful, poofy headed, conformationally correct showgirl chicks.
Bantam Mille Fleur Cochin is a quite scarce color variety in this country, very difficult to come by. I got my start from Ralph Phillips in MA, and crossed the one rooster I hatched from the eggs I got, on my mottled cochins. F1 (first generation) was all black mottled. I crossed the pullets back on their father and got several very nice mille fleur offspring. I kept five pullets from that cross. I got an unrelated male to cross on those, again from Ralph Phillips, as well as my best pullet. They should begin to lay in the spring/summer '10, and hopefully I will be off and running to work on this beautiful, wonderful variety. I should also have eggs available for sale at that time. I still keep the F1 flock of black mottled hens with a mille fleur rooster. They are the same hens that these gorgous mille fleurs all came from. I will have eggs available from them also. Each of those eggs would have a fifty fifty chance to hatch out either a mille fleur potential colored chick, or a black mottled chick that can produce mille fleurs. There will be no "unknown split" babies hatched from any eggs sold. Everything you hatch will either BE mille fleur potential colored, (some shade of buff/red/partridge with varying degrees of black and white ticking) or a black mottled, sometimes with other off color plumage, which will have the potential to produce mille fleur if crossed on a mille fleur colored rooster. I also kept back an exceptional black mottled rooster with golden hackles from my F1 cross, because of his EXTERMELY good cushion, and supremely nice temperament. He will be crossed on my most typey mille fleur hens to breed for the most correct cochin type I can get at this point in my breeding program. Mille Fleur Cochins are a work in progress and quality can vary quite a lot from breeder to breeder, as well as in the same breeding pen. Very strong culling is neccessary to allow this wonderful variety to move forward. Hopefully some day it will be an APA accepted variety. I am working toward that goal in my program. If you would like to be a part of the effort, please do not hesitate to contact me for hatching eggs. Prices vary from what pen they would be from. Availabilty very limited.
Barred Bearded Olive Egger is another variety we are working on. In addition to the mother, shown left, we are growing out six promising young pullets to add deeper egg color and genetic variety to our flock. Some are bearded, some clean faced. Some have a small amount of leg feathering, a reminder of their recent infusion of deep brown laying marans blood. We look forward to great things in the coming year. The advantage of the barring gene is once the trait is "set" and fully inherited to predictable patterns, you could sex the chicks and be able to use your time and money raising all pullets instead of cockerels if you wanted to only keep pullets for any reason. Speaking of cockerels, we are VERY PLEASED with our junior rooster who will be taking on his role as head flock roo this spring and summer! He has a beautiful, correct pea comb, a beard, small wattles, double barring gene and clean shanked legs! Talk about hitting the jackpot! You still may get clean faced and/or featherd shanks on the birds hatched from this year's eggs, but their egg color should be varying shades of khaki, olive and deep olive green. These are very striking looking birds, a wonderful addition to any flock!
Lavender Orpingtons are a new color variety, extremely rare in the Untied States and not yet Rcognized by the APA. These birds derived from the stock of Hinkjc Poultry, who got their start from Priscilla Middleton in the UK. Lavender is a recessive gene that modifies black, and works the same in any breed of chicken. There are dark and light phases of lavender, which you can see by clicking on the thumbnail of the cockerels to the left. The pullet shown is a light phase. We hatched two cockerels and one pullet in lavender, and three pullets in black, unknown splits from our first eggs. They have just recently begun to lay, and for the start of the New Year we have a few in the incubator to see what colors the different black hens produce, as well as to test viability and hatchability. We can hardly wait to start our own breeding program! Soon we will have hatching eggs available from our birds. EVERY SINGLE EGG is guaranteed to carry lavender genetics, if not an actual lavender bird. Please email us if you would like to be on our waiting list for eggs or chicks in 2010.
Mottled Javas are one of the oldest breeds in the United States today. Brought here by china trader clipper ships, they have been around since the days of George Washington and even before. They are an excellent, hardy, docile, dual purpose breed, used both for meat and eggs. They are great foragers and really tend to stick together as a flock. Their mottling helps to break up their outline and make them less visible to predators. It is a fun color addition to multi-colored flocks! They lay a light brown/cream/tinted egg.
Dark Brahmas are a large, beautiful bird. They were introduced from China to the Untied States 1864. Originally a meat bird, they weighed as much as 14 lbs! Now they are mainly an ornamental and pet breed and are a wonderful addition to any flock. The hens are silver penciled pattern, an intricate pattern of alternating black and silver lines on each feather. This helps to camoflage them from predators, for those who like to let their flock free range. Close up they are just fantastic eye candy! The roosters are primarily black with full neck hackles and saddle feathers of cascading silver feathers. They have a pea comb which makes them more hardy in freezing weather, less prone to frostbite. The hens are good broodies. At the present we have only the one pair shown and expect to have only a very limited amount of eggs available from them for sale in 2010. Email now to be put on a waiting list if you are interested.
Midget White Turkeys You gotta love these little guys! Midget Whites are a heritage breed, which means they can reproduce naturally, and are excellent brooders and good mothers. They will raise their own young if given a good nesting site and a tom to father the chicks. Midget Whites claim to fame is that they won the Ayershire Farm taste test. In 2008 a blind taste test of nine turkeys (eight heritage breeds and a very common commercial breed) was conducted. Approximately seventy food professionals sampled each of the nine turkeys. The Midget White turkey came out on top, and not surprisingly, the commercial bird finished last. This is a rare breed, availale only from private breeders, not from hatcheries. In 1971 only six specimens of the midget white turkey were left alive. They have been brought back as a breed to the point where they are rapidly gaining popularity as a homesteading and backard bird. The ALBC still currently lists their status as critical for becoming extinct. Their small size is ideal for the table, with a surprising amount of meat on the carcass for such a small bird. Their gentle temperaments make them wonderful family pets. They are more manageable than the larger, heavier, stout broad breasted varieties, which can mature up to eighty pounds! The midget white tom averages 20-22 lbs. full grown, while the hens are about half that size, averaging 8-10 lbs. They are a surprisingly meaty bird for their size and are excellent converters of feed to "food" LOL. Please DO consider the Midget White for your next breed to try. You won't regret it. We are expecting eggs in spring of 2010 and are keeping a short waiting list for eggs and poults (baby turkeys.) If you would like to be added to our list, feel free to drop me an email at freshairlady at earthlink dot net.
Bourbon Reds came in second in the above mentioned taste test. They are a slightly larger bird, but still one of the heritage breeds, able to set and hatch their own eggs and care for their young. My small flock consists of a single tom and two hens that are from Sandhill Preservation crossed on Whelp Hatchery stock, and two hens hatched from the show flock of Chris Maddalena, APA judge and master breeder and exhibitor of several breeds of poultry and waterfowl. All my birds were hatched at various times in 2009, so we expect the hens to begin laying at different times during the season. Bourbon Reds are also fairly strong fliers and you should take that into account when you design your housing for them as well.
No bourbon red pics available yet.
Muscovy Ducks are a separate species from most domestic ducks, most easily recognized by the vivid red, lumpy textured skin around their eyes and face. They are known as "caruncles" and in show birds are much more extensive, covering most of the head and extending down into the necks on very high quality show birds. Muscovies are native to Mexico, Central, and South America. In their wild state they roost in trees at night and have evolved strong claws on their feet, so care must be exercised in handling them at all times. They are considered a delicacy, gourmet item. Their meat has been compared to veal and/or roast beef. It has a deeper, richer flavor than other breeds of duck. They dress out to provide more meat also. They are excellent mothers and can raise a few clutches per year. Their eggs take 35 days to incubate but the wait is definitely worth it! Currently we have a black pied male, a barred pied female, a blue eyed white female and a black pied female. As of January 29, the barred pied hen has begun setting her first clutch of eggs this year. We are eagerly awaiting their hatch in early March! Pics will definitely be posted of the babies. Stay tuned!
