CSU - Chicken State University- Large Fowl SOP

[buffalogal]

Females: All of these are my birds.




















below a decent young female. Keeping them on grass helps with the shank and beak coloring. This bird is lacking in that department. I love the look of the birght yellow orange shanks hopefully will see some in these posts.
Corn,or if you're avoiding corn,toss out a flake of alfalfa hay; the birds will eat the leaves and leave the stems.



I like this hen below , except her tail is above 45 deg. that is called for in the standard. Again, we are seeing more of a barred pattern. Washed out legs due to laying. Her chest is nice, her back could be a tad longer, and it should slope downward from the neck. Her tail otherwise is right on, as far as length and width.

I appreciate that she's laying this late into winter/early in the spring.


This bird below is good in that she has nice tight feathering. she appears sleeker, not fluffy or heavy weight. There is potential.





I like all three of these girls. Will they be in your breeding pens this spring?

 

[buffalogal]

Here is one of my Dominique hens - -

Chris

I'm guessing that's dirt on her shanks? This is a nice little girl, I like her small wattles. How much does she weigh?

 

[buffalogal]

Here are some of my birds from last year.

side and back profile





Oh, she is sweet.

It must be very satisfying to get up in the morning and see so many nice birds in your yard. To my eye, the length of back is fine, perhaps Walltenters will chime in? And this last picture perfectly illustrates the longer tail feathers we like to see on a female, as she'll pass the longer sickles on her sons.





With that foot tucked up it's affecting the outline of his fluff, but in spite of that he's a real looker. How is his tail spread from the back?
His spike seems like it wants to be flattened and blade-like rather than round, and you'll want to watch that all those points don't get so prominent as to develop into a second spike in his sons, but combs are easy to fix. Are the pullets above his sisters?

 

[dretd]

Gallusfarm, If you prefer to have lighter colored pullets with wider white barring in your Dominiques you have to stamp it in with a very light male. Use very clean marked hens and under color is very important in the birds, especially the hen. Here is an example of a pullet breeder. John

Could you describe what under-color you are looking for and do you mean in the down or the black part of the barring?

 

[Delight in Dominiques]

and I did not specify the color should be slate, the fluff visible by drawing the feathers back on their grain.

 

[Delight in Dominiques]

With that foot tucked up it's affecting the outline of his fluff, but in spite of that he's a real looker. How is his tail spread from the back?
His spike seems like it wants to be flattened and blade-like rather than round, and you'll want to watch that all those points don't get so prominent as to develop into a second spike in his sons, but combs are easy to fix. Are the pullets above his sisters?

This cockerel is looser feathered than I would prefer. as for the comb, Very course, blade spike and large points, but the bird has such good type and tail spread is wide with a nice overlay in the main feathers. I feel the main tail feathers are longer than they should be, and could be more of an even length through out. Width of the main sickles has improved in this line, but have noticed his brothers are throwing main sickles that are 'weak', meaning the width is there but the main sickles are not reaching out past the main feathers, but falling off the sides like the lessor sickles would. Opinions? Yes they are all from the same hatch.

 

[Delight in Dominiques]

This bird below is good in that she has nice tight feathering. she appears sleeker, not fluffy or heavy weight. There is potential.





I like all three of these girls. Will they be in your breeding pens this spring?


I agree, these Hens all show great potential, breast are all held up nicely. and the heads are very nice. A wider expansion in the tail would make this a fine looking bird.

 

[Chris09]

I'm guessing that's dirt on her shanks? This is a nice little girl, I like her small wattles. How much does she weigh?

Yup that's dirt, She weighs 4.75 lbs

Chris

 

[fowlman01]

Okay, I went out in the cold and took current photos of my two breeder boys. This is that same Lily Plasse roo I posted in the 4mo vs. 7mo photo above, he's now about a year and a half old. I think his crop is full, I'm not used to him looking that lumpy on the front.



And this is the roo I have from Bill Post's line, I'm not sure on age but he was from last spring's hatch so probably somewhere between 8 and 10 months old? Joseph at Yellow House Farm would probably remember the actual date. Anyway, still a cockerel. His wattles are a little ragged at the front because he got a little frostbite during a stretch of -20F weather we had a few weeks back.



Oh and the above roo entertains us quite a bit, because he has this little head twitch he does all the time. I'm not sure if it's part of his impress-the-girls routine, or if he's just twitchy, but it makes us laugh. We call it his swizzle. While out with the camera today, I caught a photo of him in mid-swizzle.

This first male has a nice comb.

Walt

 

[DraigAthar]

This first male has a nice comb.

Walt

Really? I've never thought of his comb as one of his strong points. If I show this photo from another angle, would you still think it a good comb? Because it seems to have hollow spots, to me: