So I haven’t posted in ages, but sooo much has happened it’s going to be hard to catch everything up. In the meantime, here’s a roo walking his girls across a bridge. I thought you all might enjoy it:
First off, sorry I’ve been away. It’s been crazy with everything going on, I’ve been sick, traveling etc. Just no time.
Let me try to catch up from nearly a month ago when I was on my way to the ECBBA Chicken Show down in Camden SC. I went, I took Napoleon and Tiffany. Tiffany did pretty well, Napoleon not so well but he’s young still. Vicky, shown above, won Best Serama with her very pretty KIOTI won. He apparently won at the Oct 25th Morganton show which I wasn’t able to attend as well.
I got Bobwhite quail and Ringneck Pheasant at the show too but I’ll talk about that later. For now, enjoy some pictures from the show. It was a Bantam show so everything shown is a bantam (means smaller than standard size chicken). All of the pictures were taken with my phone so excuse the poor quality.
This is a bantam Appenzeller I just thought was very cool looking.
Here is one of the most interesting birds I saw at the show, Modern Game. One similar to the black hen below won Best in Show.
A Feather Foot bantam.
A black cochin. These things really just looked like big fluff balls.
And Napoleon, my very own Serama.
Aster is a Golden Campine and according to Henderson’s Breed Chart that means that:
I’m not sure if our other chickens just haven’t found their groove yet but Aster is by far laying the largest eggs we have yet. And she’s relatively small. Quite a bit smaller than Teresa and Julian, our Barred Rocks, enormously smaller than Meg, our Cochin, who’s size is likely 99% feathers but still.
If they all start to lay eggs the same size or bigger than Aster’s we’ll have some fantastic eggs. She laid her first one on Monday and we got the second yesterday – it was noticably larger than the first which had been our biggest to date.
I’ve changed around their diet some to make sure they are getting the proper nutrients and calcium (for eggs) but no hormones. We’ll see if that makes any noticable difference in egg size and production.
On a side note, I’ll be heading to the ECBBA Show in Camden SC on October 4th. I’ll be showing a couple of my Serama, though I haven’t decided which ones yet except for Valentino – although his sickle feathers haven’t come in yet. I guess I’ll just hope for the best.
Update: When I registered for the show I had to say who was going so, Valentino is going. Napoleon is going (I’m pretty sure I like him a lot more than anyone else will) and Cleopatra is going (She’s Valentinos main girl, no picture of her yet).
This is Vicki (or Vicky not sure of spelling) and a friend Eric. I didn’t manage a picture of Luann who actually gave Eric and I the Serama for us to get started. Luann is a breeder of Serama down in Greer SC. I got in contact with her and she got me excited about Serama and breeding them. Vicki is a fellow breeder outside Columbia SC who has been working with Luann for a while and is removing some of her stock so Luann can focus on Silkie Feathered Serama.
Anyway, this past Saturday Eric and I made the drive down to Greer and picked out a few Serama for our new breeding projects. I’ve shown you some pictures already. I’m working on a Mille Fleur and Dun project, Valentino is my rooster for the Dun breeding project. Eric is taking on Black, Mottled and Dun. If possible, I think I’ll add Black into my mix as soon as possible, because I easily have the space and Luann has good stock thats making some great progress as far as breeding true.
I’m sold on Serama now though. They are an absolute blast. Small, but proud little birds and very friendly as well. If you’re interested in Serama, I should have pet quality birds available by the end of the year. That’ll be the ones that aren’t quite good enough to breed but will certainly make great pets.They take up nearly no space, are too small to dig up mulch really but still eat bugs.