Beards

[Stan Alder]

Are you talking about the lower part of the beard being more pointed Harry???

[Harry Shaffer]

Stan,  I am talking about there is no longer 3 distincts lobes on the muffs and beards.  Looks like a shovel the metal part.  Like a hollow effect

[Mike Gilbert]

The varieties with beard colors that contrast with the neck feathers have a big advantage.   Male silvers, wheatens, blue wheatens especially.   The beard stands out visually, even if it does not form a perfectly shaped lobe. 

[Shari Nees]

Flash gave her red eye, but this is one of my Blue Wheaten Ams.  Average beard?

[Tailfeathers]

Nice eye color!  I've not seen the color beard or on the head like that.  Do you have a pic of the whole bird?

[Lee G]

  Thanks Greenleaf for the pictures, that white hen is a beauty.

The varieties with beard colors that contrast with the neck feathers have a big advantage.   Male silvers, wheatens, blue wheatens especially.   The beard stands out visually, even if it does not form a perfectly shaped lobe.

I agree Mike. I especially love the contrast on silver males. So pretty!



Shari, what a lovely head your hen has! 

[Shari Nees]

Thank you Tailfeathers and Lee.   Lee, that contrast on your rooster is stunning.

I don't have the best photos of them.... but here is what I do have.

In the photo with the green grass, can see their beards are starting to get plucked out.  Drives me silly when they do that.

[Mike Gilbert]

Very nice shape on that blue wheaten rooster in the photo.    Do you remember the original source of this line?

[Shari Nees]

Thank you.  His beard was once much, much fuller than it is now.  Hens like to groom him .    He is in my avatar, managed to get a good photo of him, before his beard was thinned out.

Yes,  he is from Kat's line. She is over in MD.

[Mike Gilbert]

Not sure who Kat is.   Is she a member here?   

[Shari Nees]

Not sure.

Its hard to get good stock into this State and she was the most close I could find with the type of Am's I wanted.
I love her Blue Wheatens.

http://www.signaturefeathers.com/chickens

[Beth Curran]

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.

I don't think I have ever been able to successfully post a picture directly to either  this forum or the old one, I go through Photobucket as well, works great and takes less time than manipulating a photo trying to make it fit.

Not sure who Kat is.   Is she a member here?   

Kathleen "Peachick" LaDue. I don't believe she's a member of either club and, according to her website, doesn't show her birds but has quite a following on BYC for her turquoise eggs. He is a good looking bird, and from the pictures on her website she seems to be getting nice beard color in the males as well.

[Shari Nees]

Thank you Beth.

Kat's BW Am's are really nice all away around. They do go broody though, so it makes it a little tough to build up numbers.

[Dennis Heltzel]

My wheaten pullet, supposedly from Kat's line, lays small white eggs. I suppose they are a little blue, but very much lighter than my BBS Ams and my Legbars. I think they were just inbred too much over time to try to keep the name on the line of birds. I'm thinking of culling or selling them because they are so disappointing to me. The vigor of that line compared with the chicks I got from John is just night and day. I hate having to "baby" my birds just to keep them going and tend to lose patience rapidly with birds that don't thrive under my care.

I appreciate the value of the SOP and the physical characteristics of a breed, but vigor, productiveness and personality are just as important to me. For example, no mean roo will ever stay in my pens, even if he would be a show champion. My resources are too limited to waste on a bird I just don't like.

[John W Blehm]

My wheaten pullet, supposedly from Kat's line, lays small white eggs. I suppose they are a little blue, but very much lighter than my BBS Ams and my Legbars. I think they were just inbred too much over time to try to keep the name on the line of birds. I'm thinking of culling or selling them because they are so disappointing to me. The vigor of that line compared with the chicks I got from John is just night and day. I hate having to "baby" my birds just to keep them going and tend to lose patience rapidly with birds that don't thrive under my care.

I appreciate the value of the SOP and the physical characteristics of a breed, but vigor, productiveness and personality are just as important to me. For example, no mean roo will ever stay in my pens, even if he would be a show champion. My resources are too limited to waste on a bird I just don't like.

It is quite common to hear of LF wheatens that lay very light to white eggs and I haven't heard of a line that has truly overcome that reputation yet.  I've made many outcrosses between varieties, especially over the past several years, and believe that is the best way to make the needed changes...using blacks as the standard.  I'm not big on bringing in "new blood" for fear of breeding too close, but sometimes new genes are needed that can be borrowed from another variety without crossbreeding.  We've heard about building the barn before painting it many times, yet many continue repainting instead of first taking the time to fix the foundation.