Sultans - tell me more!

[Godiva]

I am wanting to find out more about these chickens. WHo has them? What are they like? Friendly? Hardy? Cold tolerant or heat tolerant? How do they get on with other birds? How do they lay, would they make good pets for kids, fun showing bird? Any pictures would be very helpful too - thanks.

 

[ThePolishPrincess]

I've had two-my first male is no longer with us but I have my female. My experience is limited but I still find somewhat similar to what others have noticed with them.

Sultans are usually quiet, sweet, and friendly birds. They're really quite nice, but mine have always been bullied in my mixed flock. Both for having a crest and for being generally submissive birds. Mine have never been hardy, having gotten sick a few times in their lives. Weather-related, they tend to do better in heat than cold in my opinion. But they're really okay in both.

As mentioned, mine have always been bullied by others. And they're so sweet, I hate seeing them victimized. They're supposed to lay roughly 70 eggs a year but my female is from a hatchery and tends to lay more. They are seasonal layers though.

They make excellent pets, and are, in my limited opinion, the most kid-friendly chickens of the crested type. My rooster was the friendliest rooster I've ever owned. He was so sweet, easy to handle, and never attacked me.

My female was the first bird I ever showed. And I don't regret choosing her for a second. She was also easy to train and manage, and was a favorite at small shows. I used her for showmanship as well and she did very well. Hatchery birds rarely meet standard, and my female absolutely doesn't-but she does happen to look better than the hatchery Sultans I've seen. My male had very poor type but I wasn't showing when I owned him, so it didn't matter. Here's pictures of both...

My male when he was very young.

My female when she was 4 days old. Mind the Polish on the left.

I think she was 9 weeks here...

About 3 months old, after her first bath

After we brought her home from her last fair. Not a big show, but she took Champion Large Fowl. It was a good day for both of us.

She's retired now but after a good moult she still looks the same.

 

[kulangi]

Nice pictures but whats up with 2022 date?

 

[Godiva]

Thanks for your helpful post, they are pretty birds - despite not being SQ. Not that I would know what a SQ looked like in comparison either

do you know of anyone who breeds SQ birds? I take yours were large fowl? I didn't realise that they could be both standard size and bantam... learning all the time...

 

[ThePolishPrincess]

Sorry about the 2022.

My camara is old and confused, LOL.

Sultan breeders are so hard to find. From time to time we have eggs or started pairs offered in the buy/sell/trade section. Even fewer are the speciemens offered from nice breeding lines, whatever those are! (I don't know of any master breeders who specialize in Sultans.) They are often lumped in with Polish because a group of Sultans alone are few, so the 'Sultan Breeders Club' is really the 'Polish Breeders club'...I think. I'm not 100% sure on that.

http://www.polishbreedersclub.com/sultan.htm

The only person on here who I know has a breeding flock of Sultans is chickenzoo. I haven't seen eggs offered in a while but if you check out their website you will see the birds for yourself. About them all meeting standard I do not know, but I will say that they seem to be far nicer than mostly any bird you will get from a hatchery. Have I lived under different circumstances, I would have tried to purchase eggs a while ago. But I am a teen who will be going away to college in 2 years and I don't want to leave my parents with *too* many chickens.

The cockerel in the first picture was a bantam. The pullet in the remaining pics is a large fowl. She's a bit smaller than a standard Polish. Both were attained from different hatcheries.