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Joanie,
Can't tell much about type from that photo, but he looks like he is fairly good in that department. I'll try to take some close up pictures of saddle and hackle feathers on the males to give you an idea of what to look for. Does he have a solid black breast or does he have a bit of red ticking in his breast? For show you want solid black, but some red ticking in the chest is good for producing better colored females.
Tom
Cochinman, do you ever sell hatching eggs? I would love to get some if so. Maybe when it cools off in the fall. Maybe even more than one variety.
Normally I do not. And certainly not in the fall. I breed only in the spring. I keep the males in individual pens so wouldn't have any fertile eggs anyway, and most of my stuff is pretty much done laying for the year as far as bantams go. Contact me in the spring and if the timing is good and I've got some extra eggs I will consider selling eggs. Normally I sell adult birds only. So why not eggs? I raise several breeds, and at least a couple varieties in those breeds. I want to get in and out of breeding season as quickly as possible, so if I am saving a dozen eggs of variety X to put in the mail, that's a dozen eggs I didn't set for myself, and I try to keep to a goal as far as how many I hatch of the different breeds/varieties. I also want my chicks of each variety to be as close in age as possible so that I can run them together as they mature. Birds of the same color tend to do better than running multiple colors together (my experience), so having groups that are roughly the same age is key. And since I am working to improve my lines, if I am selling eggs, I may very well be sending an egg to someone that will hatch that one bird that I've been working to get for 5 years.
In the end, you'll wind up with a better start in a breed by getting adults from breeders anyway. Two reasons: 1) If the breeder has them around by the fall they've at least made the cut per his or her culling process, and 2) You get to see and select what your parent stock is.
I do ship, but I prefer to deliver to shows that I attend because that way you can see what you are getting before you buy it. Pictures are okay, but seeing and handling a bird is better.