Chicken Breed Focus - Appenzeller Spitzhauben

[Alaskan]

Try not to by from the hatchery trying to buy chicks from breeds....blues and goldens

@PhoredaBurds do you sell eggs? This Guy Was Looking For some...

 

[kd1988]

Does anyone know of anyone selling them?

 

[PhoredaBurds]

Does anyone know of anyone selling them?

pm sent

 

[Faraday40]

This was Spitzie at about 5 mo. That's the kind of crest I wish my current girls had.
Here's my older pullet(& yes her tail is strange). I guess I was so focused on the "Spitz" that I didn't look much at her tail development. Perhaps her short rounded tail is because of all the time she spends hanging around with her Orpington buddies.

Here's my younger female. Her crest is even more bushy.

 

[Peach9610]

Beautiful birds

 

[Faraday40]

Guess who laid her 1st egg today!!!!!

 

[Faraday40]

The above Spitz was from our spring hatch. We no longer have the male, "Drumsticks." He was my fav & would fly over the fence to greet me by the back door. He also would go on top of the garage to eat up all the mulberries. A living weather vane! Thankfully he came running to me when called. We were never interested in breeding them, so I ended up selling him & a female as a pair to someone who fell in love with them. However, my son fell in love with the Spitz in the above post, so we had to keep her. Now we have a chicken named: Poof Poof (That's what happens when you let kids name animals. LOL)

Drumsticks was beautiful, always posing, & our daughter won Best in Show for her photography.

 

[Alaskan]

The above Spitz was from our spring hatch. We no longer have the male, "Drumsticks." He was my fav & would fly over the fence to greet me by the back door. He also would go on top of the garage to eat up all the mulberries. A living weather vane! Thankfully he came running to me when called. We were never interested in breeding them, so I ended up selling him & a female as a pair to someone who fell in love with them. However, my son fell in love with the Spitz in the above post, so we had to keep her. Now we have a chicken named: Poof Poof (That's what happens when you let kids name animals. LOL)
View attachment 1221540

Drumsticks was beautiful, always posing, & our daughter won Best in Show for her photography.
View attachment 1221539

that really us great.

wonderful photo

 

[Brandi Lee]

Our giant Orpington roos sound an alarm & then make kind of a growling noise when a hawk is spotted. The roos often stand out in the open & flap their wings. They are pretty big (like small turkeys) but I'm sure a red-tailed hawk could likely win if it wanted to fight.. The smaller hawks - like a Coopers Hawk - could easy be killed by one of our roos. (I've see a roo run to attack one, but chased it off.) I think that's one advantage of having 14 lb roos. They are actually big lovable boys, but they "look" very intimidating.

When we've lost birds to hawks it was always young pullets or tiny chick. (They hang around outside of the flock & not close to the roo.)

Here's was our young Bielefelder cock. Sadly he died from the heat. They seem to do best in cold climates. I always wonder how big he would have grown. He was a lot of height but not as wide & muscular as our orps.

Man that Bielefelder cock is HUGE I have never seen one that big, so sad he passed away and I am terribly sorry for your loss. I nearly mistaken him for a cream legbar lol but I realize he didn't have the hair tufts so then understood he wasn't but he is extremely gorgeous none the less.

 

[Faraday40]

The kids are feeling better (Strep for Christmas & flu for New Year!), so we finally took a few Christmas pics. Guess which bird DS wanted to pose with?
Here he is with "Poof-Poof" (Which was supposed to be MY 'Spitzie' until he decided the pullet was HIS.) He also has a very out-going speckled sussex, but that's another story.