I'd like to introduce you to Romeo, our Silver Spangled Hamburg cockeral. When I ordered our day-olds, I had "opted out" on the Free Rare Chick offer...they sent him anyways. I wasn't thrilled at all...at first.

It was my first time with day-olds and at first, I thought he was one of our Silver Sebrights. Then it dawned on me that his wing pattern was different from the Sebrights. Within a few weeks, he was also noticably bigger than the rest of the chicks.

Click on thumbnails for bigger pictures.

1 week old SSH...

3 weeks, 1 day old SSH cockeral...

9 weeks, 2 day old SSH and Black Tailed Buff Japanese cockeral (they are the same age, notice the size difference)...

15 week old SSH and Easter Egger cockeral...

17 week old SSH cockeral...

25 1/2 week old SSH and BTBJ cockeral...

He is a Light Breed (bigger than a Bantam/smaller than a Standard) and the SSH's are used as a dual-purpose breed (meat/eggs). According to Henderson's Chicken Chart, SSH's are flighty birds but he has been very laid back. He has a wonderfully curious personality and enjoys when I spend time in the run, talking with them. We originally planned on putting him in the freezer (our flock is both pet/livestock) but he has captivated me so bad that I am working on getting him some ladies as soon as I can. I already have put in one order for SSH hatching eggs in the spring. I told Skip that I didn't want to get into incubating but Romeo is an Enabler, as well as Skip and I just placed my order for a HovaBator.

***Updated on April 2, 2009***

Thanks to our member, amazondoc, I am now the proud mom to five SSH little girls ( approximatly 5 - 7 days old) from Ideal hatchery. I brought them home yesterday and they are all doing great. Will be getting pix of them on here very soon but wanted to give them a few days to get settled in before I wear them out with the camera.

They are considered a Rare Breed and I would love to be able to help change that.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out our flock!

Dawn & Skip