Silver Spangled Hamburgs and red eyes

[fzouk]

I noticed 2 of my roosters have red all around their eyes. At first I thought it was some sort of infection until I got a good up close look and I saw that it was the skin itself that was reddish and it looked perfectly healthy. I looked online and found a website that was for a SSH breeder in Australia and they bred for "rare" red eyes in their females. As far as I can see it's only the 2 (out of 3) roosters and no females in my flock with the red eyes. They're 12 weeks by the way.

Any SSH people out there who can shed some light on this? First of all I'd just like to know for sure that it IS healthy and second I'm just curious how rare and/or desirable red eyes actually are. I'm not looking to breed, I just love my little hamburgs and am curious to know more!

Thanks!
Frances

 

[Krys109uk]

I don't know about the US standards, but the British standards say Hamburgs are to have red or dark eyes.
In the pics in my standards book they have red skin around their eyes.

 

[fzouk]

That's really cool- thank you! I would like to know more about the standards for Hamburgs because they're such interesting, pretty little chickens. Thanks again!

I wonder how many people on here have red eyed hamburgs?

 

[Chris09]

The American Standard of Perfection calls for the 6 standard color of Hamburg chicken (Silver Spangled, Golden Spangled, Golden Penciled, Silver Penciled, Black and White) to have a redish bay color eye, Enamel Whith ear lobs and rose comb..

On Silver Spangled the Shanks and Toes: Leaded Blue; bottom of of feet Pinkish White
This might help you a little...

Chris

 

[EweSheep]

I've raised Bantam Hamburgs and reddish dark bay would be the closest to the red but not RED or rust red, that would be a disqualification.

I agree with Chris on the standards.

All of my birds were from show stock and they all exhibit dark brown to almost black eyes. If you stick a camera to do some close up shots, it would look a lot lighter than they normally would be.