Well I thought I should start a new thread for Dads chickens. As mentioned on 'my first flock' I bought Dad a trio of Redcaps and Dutch Bantams for his 70th birthday. When trying to decide which breeds he wanted from Avgen he had been trying to decide between the Redcaps and Crevecoeurs and having chosen the Redcaps hadn't been able to stop thinking about the Crevecoeurs - especially after Lynn from Avgenkept talking about what a lovely temperament they had on her Facebook site. Well I think we can safely say Dad is now officially a chicken addict as we picked up a Trio of Crevcoeurs today making it his third breed!
I have to say the Crevcoeurs are really beautiful and a lovely calm temperament - I'm a bit in love after day 1. They have that beautiful beetle green sheen on black feathers. The rooster is a really handsome, striking looking bird and the girls are lovely big girls with soft feathers. It's hard in words to describe how impressive and beautiful they are in real life compared to photos.
The redcaps continue to grow well and really strike me as a strong active breed that would be a tough hardy freeranging farm bird.
The Dutch Bantams are simply a delight - they are tiny but perfectly shaped birds. They are really calm and fascinated by people and come up to say hello and see what we are doing. I am already planning for my own flocks so dad and I can swap roosters between our two flocks.
It feels really special to have one of the oldest of the French and English breeds and one of the oldest bantam breeds - feels like we are helping keep some really special breeds going in Australia in even a small way.
I would also like to say how fantastic Avgen have been. The birds we have been sold are vaccinated and clearly really healthy. Lynn has made a real effort to select great starter flocks and is happy to help us to breed to the standard in the future.
The whole experience has been great and Dad is so excited and happy to have these lovely breeds.
And yes I know more photos

will have to wait until we get some more fine days to get some photos.