Beards

[Harry Shaffer]

I looked at my APA from 1998 unless they changed the standard the beard should be pronounced but I have noticed a lot of birds being posted on Facebook have a beard that looks like a shovel head effect.  Is this the new norm?

[Mike Gilbert]

Harry, could you explain what you mean by the "shovel head" look?      The Standard has not changed to the best of my knowledge, though you never can tell with the APA since they are so error prone.   It calls for full, well rounded, three lobes, and medium length.    Oversized and undersized, according to that definition, is to be avoided.   Could you put up a photo of what you consider shovel head, or post a link to one?

[Harry Shaffer]

Mike,  the beard has no distiction from the muffs,  there are no three parts.  Looks like a shovel instead of three lobes. 

[Mike Gilbert]

Got it.   Thanks Harry.   Yes, I have seen quite a few with that look, especially among bantams. 

[Shari Nees]

This is Broken Toe ~ BW Am.  I like his muffs and beard.  Reading the standard, is hard for me to visualize. Being an Artist, I do better with photos.

Was hatched 5June15 and the photos are from a few months ago.   (

[Shari Nees]

Coming from a Belgian d'Uccle background, am very picky about the type of muffs and beards my birds have.

I wanted to post a large photo of Broken Toe, so its easier to see, but was not able to.

[Suki]

Yes the size restrictions are tough and it's rare that I can meet them myself.   I have found www.picresize.com pretty good, but far better is just using either www.photobucket.com or www.flickr.com and then pasting in the url that way you also get a full album and can post via your phone like instagram.

[Shari Nees]

Am pretty much old school with photos....  a computer and a real camera.   No phone sadly.

I can change the sizing of my photos with Photoshop, but even having the photo at 72  129x 200 pixels... still too large.

[John W Blehm]

http://ameraucanaalliance.org/forum/index.php?topic=4.0
"The maximum size of an attachment is 128kB, with up to 6 per post and a total limit of 512kB per post."
You'll see some photos are pretty big and still within the limit.

[Shari Nees]

I have tried to add photos at 128kb, but it won't let me.  Could only get a very small, low res photo up.

Let me try again.

[Shari Nees]

White AM bantam hen.

[Shari Nees]

Still to small to see any detail, at least with my old eyes.

[Lee G]

Mike,  the beard has no distiction from the muffs,  there are no three parts.  Looks like a shovel instead of three lobes.

ALL of my birds are like this, not a single one with muffs/beard that form three distinct lobes. And just when I thought my head obsession was over, heh. 

Does anyone have picture(s) of what I should be aiming for? Thanks.

[Harry Shaffer]

Greenleaf, your white hen is what I would like in all my hens.   The silver male may be the angle but looks like the shovel/spade look that seems to be taking over.

[Rebecca G Howie]

I have tried to add photos at 128kb, but it won't let me.  Could only get a very small, low res photo up.

Let me try again.

I am pretty good with PhotoShop and have had same problem, a bit frustrating