Hi Jean, I sent birds to Minh To several months prior to date for shipping to U.S. all to be quarantined and tested on site along with other birds to be shipped already in his possession,
Dave K, the bird you liked is a red cuckoo,
Aveca, the hen pictured has several faults, none that will exclude her from the breeding pen, her good points far outway her bad points and the wind was behind her on the day that picture was taken and does give the impression of a square chest, as far as show birds go in this country, if they were bred as they should be to the standard most that are shown and do all the winning at shows would not do so, they are way too feathery and show no leg at all, English birds over the last 10 years or so have been greatly influenced by birds from the continent, these birds of cochin type are the fashion of today and judges (in my opinion for what its worth) is that they are wrong, birds should be bred shown and judged strictly to the standard, not to pander to fashion, I love the look of these very feathery birds but they are totally impractical unless you live in a very dry environment,
Things will soon go the way of the sussex over here where the speckled adheres strictly to the standard and the lights which could almost pass as orpingtons look like another breed entirely,
Judges are the biggest influence on type in any breed and if they don't do their job right we all lose out in the end, i don't personally show my birds so am not influenced by fashion and can continue to amble along in my own way breeding as close as i can to the given standard and concentrate on getting right the colour and markings on the type of bird i like the look of,
still sifting through pictures, partridge and blue partridge will be next colours downloaded
