Coopslave's project, Cooper breed, pic heavy -- 16 pictures

It is time to put a whole whack of pictures for my forum friends to see of Coopslave’s beautiful project.  Blue, winter hardy, dark brown egg laying.....they are awesome and have friendlied up.  Think it is the buff Orpington breed that is causing the calmness to surface in the birds.  I have four pullets, they have been laying for about 4 weeks now and lay the most beautiful dark brown egg.  A good sized egg, and I am pleased.

This past week has been a flurry of cleaning pens, moving all birds to appropriate coops.  I had the young cochins and buff orpingtons in with each other, as they were raised by mother hens, some had been incubated and left in the chick grow out pen, but it was time to move everyone appropriately, which occurred.   Between the chicken yards I had my camouflage tarp put up, to ease the birds’ minds, of this is a new home.  The melding went very nicely, and in a few days I will remove the tarp segregation.  I was very surprised at the Cooper breed and buff Orpington young ones that were living together, that they all moved nicely into their new home.  There was four Coopers and 8 buff Orpington, including the buff Orpington cockerel that has taken the place of his father.  They were a little confused the first day, but were not free ranging for one day, as they needed to know their new home.  The day of free ranging, they all went into that appropriate new coop. Never stopped laying for a moment, those 4 Coopers, the move unaffected them in any way, nor the buff orpingtons.  Usually such a change will cause upset and stoppage of laying – nope....didn’t happen.

So this thread is about those beautiful blue Coopers. A part of Coopslave that I am glad that I have, cause her physical part is no longer in the vicinity.  Although Beaverdell was about 3 hours away, she now is probably more like 4 or 5, sigh.  Oh well.  She says that she travels this way to visit people in the Okanagan and passes basically right by my farm, on her way, so all is not lost.

Enjoy this massive amount of pictures, I am sorry, but they must all be presented to show a very nice view from my camera.  Have a beautiful day, CynthiaM.

The four blue pullets

Thank you, thank you, CynthiaM!
This is the type of feedback and information I need. Yours are very much a darker colour than the ones I kept. I can see with these photos there is much to work on still!! At least the egg colour seems to be holding and the combs are closeish to the heads. Still a lot of variety in the combs and shape of the birds though. And some shank feathering I want to clean up, that is going to be a long road. But on a whole I am happy. They look big and well grown and purdy coloured! lol
I am interested that you ended up with some dark eyes in yours. I will have to go back and look at what colour eyes the rooster I used had. I know the Blue Marans hen last season had dark eyes, but she had nothing to do with these birds.
I think the two in the second photo are the closest to what I am aiming towards. As far as body, shade of blue, and the comb and wattles being close to the head. Need to get rid of those feather legs thou, just not a fan (sorry cochin lovin' people!).
Do you mind if I save some of the photos to my computer? I would like them for reference later.

My two are most like your pullet with the big wattles. They have that retarded rose type comb too. Ah well, lots to work on and many things to think about.
Thank you again CynthiaM for the photos and the feedback on the Coopers in the early stages.

They are lovely!

I really love the birds Coopslave! Thanks for sharing Cindi.
I would print and frame that second picture. All the colours in the frame, and the beautiful stance of the hens - what a nice picture! Save it Cindi, for a time when you again have wall space to hang pictures.

fabulous, excellent photography CynthiaM and the birds of course are so interesting. I really like the look of the one on the left, second picture down. A winning shot. Pretty pretty dapple shades in some of those feathers - not sure if that is what you are going for CSlave but soothing to mine eyes :-).

Those head shots make me feel like painting, Cynthia!

Over the next while, before the snow flies, I will try and get some pictures of the girls out free ranging, that does much better justice with background colours. That tarp is just a temporary fixture, then the pens will again be see-through. My Husband bought me an incredible Sony pocket camera, mine had broken, guess too much hanging out in the back pocket. It has the most incredible zoom, for a small camera with fast speed and clarity, even with zoom. It makes it very comfortable to get some good shots not being very close to the birds, its awesome! Glad you all enjoyed the pictures. Have a wonderful day, CynthiaM.