Owlbeards

 Had a series of unfortunate events with free-ranging my chickens, the predators just got too smart and then coupled up with some life changes. I have not had chickens for the past year.. but after a visit from a neighboring flock, my heart has made me aware of this love still exists and I decided to begin again. And I picked another heritage rare breed to start. These are very interesting cause. There supposed to be cold hardy. Which I enjoy because it's less work in winter. Plus the beard is so cute. 

First week thoughts. 

Very hardy breed. They are very active. And do not need heat lamp ( temps are around 85 with high humidty) ofc im waking up several times a night to ensure their comfort level as the temps naturally dip. 

Enclosure. I needed to expand my indoor run. Bought about 200 feet worth of galvanized hardware cloth. With my family's help, we have about 4th of the way done.  

Coloration. Yes they are from a black and lemon flock so the variety is wide. And always will be. Found a check list online for them and have done some assessment. I think i have one homogenous pure lemon male.  

Thanks for checking in. SOF.

pg vs mottle

five months

5 months old, they are beautiful, the PG gene has really come out and not a lot of mossiness. I've had 2 birds taken and now everybody's in the same coop. I just had a tree fall on the big coop so now everybody's has to be in the new coop.. They're about getting to the age where they're going to start laying eggs. So that means I have to make sure that I have my egg laying containers firmly attached. And I need to make sure that I have enough perches.

four months 🥰😍

might sky

Beautiful mottle

almost two months old.

2023A

Almost two months old. They look just like their mothers.

^^^

Beautiful wild type e+ gal.

I hatched out 9 but I'm down to 8. 

2 of them have. Come down with some sort of skin condition where they're losing feathers around their face. I have seen this before only once and normally it means the chickens going to die. Some people have said it's a yeast infection or fungal infection. I just feel bad because I do not know how to treat it.

But i've isolated those two sick ones out. 

In the coop I have put fresh bedding down with some diatomacious earth. They instantly fluffed and cleaned themselves in it so that's a great sign. 

You can see how happy they are with the fresh bedding in the below pic. 

They are very friendly they come up to me they walk all over my feet they eat out of my hands. Their colorations very beautiful the pg genes. Is this playing very nicely just like their mother. Only two have the blue Dilution gene. One Wild type one big e.