Chicken Breed Has White Feathers, Black Skin

Chicken Breed Has White Feathers Black Skin LIVESTOCK Poultry Danielle Noll went from raising her first chickens just 7 years ago to announcing a new breed this year She started out with common breeds and quickly moved into Polish and Silkies On a trip to Ohio to buy some birds she saw a hen that was visually striking “She had a black beak and black skin with white feathers ” says Noll “I called her a Moonbeam and decided right then to develop a breed like her ” Noll bought the hen but unfortunately it died before she could breed it So she got busy trying to recreate the bird which had resulted from a free-range flock of mixed breeds Noll started with breeds with more than the normal amount of melanin in every cell of their bodies The melanin gene is dominant and makes their skin feathers beaks and organs black She then crossbred them with breeds with a gene for white feathers that was dominant The first challenge was figuring out which breeds had the dominant white feather gene The next was to begin selecting offspring with potential to create the Moonbeam traits Initially perhaps 1 out of 5 would have potential Successive generations increased the desired traits but most often in hens not roosters Finally she bred a rooster with Moonbeam colors With it in the gene pool she has reached a point where she is confident enough to begin selling Moonbeam fertilized eggs “I have sold some chicks or juveniles locally but not yet formally introduced the breed ” says Noll “I’m hoping to sell more later this year ” Noll has selected for more than just black and white coloration Productivity and personality are other important traits She hopes that breeders who buy her Moonbeams continue to select for the same combination “I choose hens that are good mothers and will only go broody a couple of times a year ” says Noll “They lay pretty well producing a medium size egg with a cream color I tried to make them a pretty all-around bird ” Noll has priced a dozen Moonbeam Chicken hatching eggs at $50 She also raises and sells a number of other exotic chickens ducks peafowl quail and pheasants Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Danielle Noll 5269 Revere Dr Norfolk Va 23502 hotoffthenest@gmail com; https://www hotoffthenest com

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