Custom Chicken Breeds – Part One

Well Good Evening, dear reader.  Well it was a hot day today, the sun came out, and the flooded fields are still draining.  We had a chance to visit with Mike the custom chicken breeder who runs Poultry Plus.  Mike absolutely LOVES chickens, and if you like chickens, especially rare chickens, you should take a ride north and east of Bippus and visit Mike.

Rare White Sultan chicken

The Sultan breed is a split-comb bird that was developed for sultans, (royal family dudes) in turkey and/or Pakistan back in the 1800’s.  They have a wild tuft of feathers on their head, and feathery footgear.  They were known as the Sultan’s Fowl, and regular peasants were prohibited from keeping them.

Feather-footed white sultan

Mike has some Barnevelders, which is a gentle Dutch breed that came to America in 2007.  He showed us some Buckeyes, which are like a pea-comb Rhode Island Red, perhaps just a little heavier.  The Buckeye breed was developed in Ohio in the 1930’s.

Buckeye

Now if you are into rose-comb chickens, you might like the Blue Hamburgs.  Here is a*splash* hen:

Blue Hamburg Pullet

Here is the rooster with a good look at his rose comb.

Check out the rose comb on this Blue Hamburg rooster.

Now Mike can tell you all about how one breeds a black to a white Hamburg chicken to get what is called a splash, then breeds a black to a splash to get a blue.  What I know is that they are nice to look at.

Now for those that like banty (little) chickens, you will want to see the Golden Sebrights.  These are some beautiful and well mannered birds.  There were a couple outside the pen, and they provided us a ton of entertainment.

Golden Sebright Bantams

The Sebrights are the only chicken that is “hen feathered”.  This means that the male has the exact same plumage as the female.  The feather detail on these birds is fantastic.

Some of the other breeds we saw were Americauna- the chicken that lays the blue eggs, White Plymouth Rock, Barred Rock and Cochins- another feather footed breed.  I will have some photos and more details on these birds in a forthcoming blog post.

If you are interested in contacting Mike at Poultry Plus you can send him an e-mail at mgerringer2@gmail.com.  And thank you Mike for taking the time to show us around, it was a great tour!