white faced black spanish??????

[HHandbasket]

My 25 straight-run WFBS chicks arrived from Ideal today. They shipped them yesterday and arrived here in the Sierra foothills TODAY! We already went and picked them up. They were shipped with 5 buckeye pullet chicks for Linda (gryeyes). They put in 26 chicks, and one was nearly DOA, so we put him out of his misery quickly. He was small and looks like he had been in the middle of a pile that was huddled together, so I'm guessing he was trampled. Nonetheless, we received 25 vigorous, healthy white faced black Spanish chicks!

Kudos to Ideal Poultry for sending me their last hatch of the year on this breed. I took everything they had available, and now I can work on my breeding project.

I know, purists don't care for hatchery birds, but I couldn't get them any other way. I did, however, find heritage breeder stock in northern California (thank you, kfchickenlady, for the tip!), and I will be contacting that breeder to acquire birds from her in the coming months to breed to the best of the hatchery stock. Of course, I didn't find out about her until after the order for these chicks had already been placed.

I'm not too good for hatchery chicks. LOL.

 

[HHandbasket]

Update: We had some losses and have given away a couple, but I still have 11 pullets and 6 cockerels of the WFBS. Next week, I am getting heritage-stock eggs shipped from a WFBS preservationist in Tennessee. The birds from Ideal are looking really good, however, and the ones we still have are healthy and getting their lovely white ear lobes. Some of them are getting a little hint of the white on their faces, though they will not be fully white-faced until they're better than a year old. Still, they're starting to look like what they're supposed to look like, and I am so glad I got them. They're sweet, and though flightly, a couple of the girls will take treats from my hands from time to time.

From this batch, there are 3 cockerels I'd really like to keep and 6 females. The rest will be re-homed sometime in September. The males that do not get rehomed will be given a special trip to Freezer Camp.

 

[RGBistro]

Quote:
Been following along the thread with great interest. Any chance you have some pictures?!

If I lived closer, I would have loved to take one off your hands.

- Kim

 

[HHandbasket]

I will try to get some pictures in the next couple of days. They're a fun group, these Spanish birds are! I'm going to start naming the ones I'm going to keep. One of the boys is named "Sawblade" because his comb looks like a circular sawblade... we could tell he was a boy by the time he was 2 weeks old!

EDITED TO ADD: It does my heart good to see renewed interest in this breed!

 

[TinyBirds]

I'm looking forward to your pictures as they grow up! I had some large-fowl WFBS from Ideal and they were gorgeous (although I didn't keep them because we're switching to bantams for most breeds). I plan to get some of the bantam size next Spring once they open for orders again.

 

[HHandbasket]

They are almost 4 months old now. Here's one of my boys:

 

[TinyBirds]

Nice! He will look a lot more amazing a few months from now, with a redder comb and whiter face. The contrast is beautiful even now though!

 

[HHandbasket]

The white face didn't show up well in the picture but is actually more striking in person. I can see their white faces from the deck/porch, even when they are clear on the other side of the yard. The pullets' faces are not quite white, though. They're actually kinda purple.... looks something like a healing bruise... LOL. But I am noticing a more striking white in ALL their faces a little more each week. I can't wait for these babies to reach maturity!

Their feathers are just gorgeous in the sunlight, with a nice irridescent green sheen. The cockerels are getting long hackle feathers, and one of them (Sawblade) looks like he is going to be GORGEOUS. Sawblade is the only one that has a name that came from a word... the rest will be given Spanish names (the other male we're keeping will be Fernando).

 

[TinyBirds]

Awesome names! Thanks for sharing the photo!!

 

[banjoejoe4783]

there are some pics of my bantam white faced spanish