The Moonshiner's Leghorns

[Amer]

Some people say a beard is a disadvantage, I say it's great facial insulator, a good substitute for those frostbitey wattles and tiny feathers that are usually on chicken faces. It's true they get gross and wet in winter when they dunk their beards in water (and then it gets frozen and stuck out at weird angles) but a frozen beard is much preferable to frozen wattles!
I'd like to build a pen with a fish tank heater in a nipple waterer so I can keep their beards drier in winter.

 

[The Moonshiner]

It's true they get gross and wet in winter when they dunk their beards in water (and then it gets frozen and stuck out at weird angles)

That happens to the best of us.

 

[Amer]

That happens to the best of us.

I don't have a beard but frozen hair is no joke

 

[The Moonshiner]

I don't have a beard but frozen hair is no joke

So many days in my youth I'd get to school with frozen hair.
My kid has a wet hair pet peeve. No way I'd get him outside to get frozen hair.
He won't leave the house with wet hair. He won't go to bed with wet hair. I've tried to tell him he should be thankful because there's plenty of kids out there that are too poor to afford water to even have wet hair.
If I'm not careful he's going to grow up to be one of those kids that thinks he's entitled.

 

[KF0002]

I never really got the complaining about feathered legs thing. After yesterday I'm thinking a nice featherless breed may be the way to go.
Last year mud was bad. This year it's already here. Having chickens I could quickly dunk and swirl in a bucket of water and have them come out looking like a new penny sounds pretty good.

Yes the mud coupled with feathered legs or feathers in general is a pain. We have had many roosters over the years with really long tails that get muddy at times. My husband washes their tails with the water hose (we have even washed them in the tub before) and we try to combat the mud with straw but its always an uphill battle.

Maybe we can figure out how to create a line of Naked Leghorns. Oddly after I type that it sounds mildly indecent and could probably be mistaken for something way off-topic.

 

[KF0002]

Some people say a beard is a disadvantage, I say it's great facial insulator, a good substitute for those frostbitey wattles and tiny feathers that are usually on chicken faces. It's true they get gross and wet in winter when they dunk their beards in water (and then it gets frozen and stuck out at weird angles) but a frozen beard is much preferable to frozen wattles!
I'd like to build a pen with a fish tank heater in a nipple waterer so I can keep their beards drier in winter.

My son’s Ameraucana hen always has a messy beard. I did get a decent pic of her beard yesterday evening to make sure she is homozygous for muff. The rooster has tiny wattles and a little peach fuzz maybe of a beard so I am assuming he is heterozygous? Whatchu think?

 

[Amer]

My son’s Ameraucana hen always has a messy beard. I did get a decent pic of her beard yesterday evening to make sure she is homozygous for muff. The rooster has tiny wattles and a little peach fuzz maybe of a beard so I am assuming he is heterozygous? Whatchu think?

View attachment 4105281

View attachment 4105282View attachment 4105284

He looks more like no beard to me.
I think that's just what is looks like when you get a non-bearded out of a line that has been selected for large, long, full beard feathers for so long. You can also see the dewlap that people use to achieve the long trilobe beard.

My Mb/mb males (and with the Dominique d'Anver crosses there have been many) never looked like that.

 

[Amer]

Beard feathers seem to be made out of the same larger feathers that grow out of the front of the chicken's neck but they grow out of the face instead of the tiny feathers that usually grow there.

 

[Amer]

Check out the "beard" on this Brahma I saw.

It's clearly just the tiny facial feathers being slightly larger and fuller than usual.

 

[Amer]

Check out the "beard" on this Brahma I saw.View attachment 4105287
It's clearly just the tiny facial feathers being slightly larger and fuller than usual.

She also has a rosette that looks suspiciously like a boule (the neck ruffle on bearded hens)