Thuringians at 11 Weeks

[dinosaw]

More photos of my favourites who are as friendly and curious as ever. Unfortunately the lovely green tint on the gold spangled birds hasn't come out on this set of photos, the cockerel who is a lovely confident fellow has just started to crow much to the annoyance of my ex batts.

[rick]

They look really nice (black is the penguin right?.) I like the last photo with one bird looking up at the camera.
They remind me of my blacktail a bit and she's very friendly. Is here a connection in the breeds?

[dinosaw]

There isn't a direct connection Rick, the Columbian blacktail which also goes by the name Calder Ranger is a RIR x Lt Sussex cross, not sure how the tail ends up black rather than white. The origins of the Thuringian are a bit obscure but theories seem to range between it being connected to the Dutch Owl Beard (which I can understand) to a cross between a Paduan and an extinct chicken called the Otterhead which seems unlikely given the Paduans huge crest and a bit of digging on the German and Dutch sites reveals that Otterhead seems to have just been another nickname for the Thuringian just the same as Pausbackchen rather than a breed of its own, what is known is that they were bred for cold and wind tolerance with a beard to cover their wattles and ears.

[valeriebutterley]

They really are beautiful little birds. They look so confident and happy.
Love their face muffs, didn't realise they were official cold protection, but it makes sense. I suppose the opposite end of the scale is for instance, a Leghorn's hugely long wattles and comb for cooling.

[MrsBiscuit]

I'd never made the muff connection either - I keep polands with muffs and beards and contrary to many people's views, they have no problem with our climate; that's probably why. Your thuringians are beautiful, I really really like them You will have to let us know how they lay and what size the eggs are. My polands have always been very productive, and although I am tempted to try thuringians, I do like my bantams to keep me in eggies!

[dinosaw]

Supposed to be around 150 eggs per year, but will let you know.

[chickenfan]

They are really spectacular birds Dinosaw! They seem to have grown really quickly and its lovely to see this beautiful and unusual breed. What sort of character do they have?

[dinosaw]

Super friendly, very confident and inquisitive little birds Chickenfan, they are also by chicken standards very polite, they take their turn for treats apart from the boy who is a bit of a snatcher.

[rick]

Oh, I so want to move to somewhere with a bigger garden now and room for some Thuringians too!

[chickenfan]

It will be very interesting to see what they look like when they get their combs and are fully adult. They look as though they might be quite good flyers. I love the bearding - like my faverolles!