Holy moly, Salmon Faverolles!

Hi! Good Morning!

Is she adorable or what?!

Introducing: Two salmon favorelles hens and one dark brahma hen. They are my replacement birds, and, quite frankly, I probably would have gotten them anyway. I have been WANTING salmon faverolles ever since I read up on them. They are very docile, polite birds that lay cream-colored eggs. But look at that headgear! And they have feathered feet. Adorable.

So here are the three newbies. Two salmon faverolles (the cream-colored ones) and one dark brahma (the one in the box). The dark brama's lacing was so incredible that I could not say no.
Close-up shot of the cowl/muff/beard on one of the salmon faverolles.


Such sweet, polite little birds. They will get to be pretty big-- 6-7.5 lbs!

The problem though, is that BECAUSE they are so polite, they may not ever be able to be with my other birds. This became evident yesterday, when I tried to introduce. My red birds were SO mean. SO MEAN. We're talking pin the faverolles down in the corner and peck. Gave me nightmares. So, the three newbies are currently in the baby pen, and the babies have been fine with the newcomers.

Still though, I notice things, such as: the faverolles let the other birds all eat first. They're very docile-- "oh, you go ahead. We'll come back later for food." Problem is, there is not always food left!

Apparently, this is pretty typical of faverolles-- they're polite to a fault. And, they are almost always at the bottom of a pecking order because of their sweetness.

So, I may have to do something I've been toying with: extend the one side of the pen. I'd build a small little coop. For 2-6 birds, it would not need to be very big. I fully expect that my buff babies and the wyandotte babies will be able to be accepted into the big flock. The newbie dark brahma will also probably be assertive enough to be eventually accepted too. But the faverolles may never be assertive enough to do this. By making the extension big enough, I could have the faverolles there.

Alternatively, I could easily build a portable coop. See photo here. I'm leaning more toward this idea, because that way, I could have the birds nibble lots of fun stuff in the back section. And with only two birds, this is a totally reasonable idea.

Here's a close-up shot of the dark brahma's coloring.

Another awkward "what is going on?!!" photo.

Another interesting kick with the salmon faverolles is that they have feathered feet. AND, the feet have FIVE toes, not four (typical chickens have three toes in the front and one in the back). FUNKY cool birds.
So that's the scoop. The more I think about it, the more I'm leaning toward a portable pen for these faverolles girls. They are quite sweet and really something.