Moonbeam Chickens
Moonbeams are my passion project. A few years ago I drove to Indiana to buy a few silkies and happened to catch a glance of a beautiful hen with mostly white feathers and the most gorgeous black skin. I already had Svart Honas in my flock so the fibromelanistic skin was an attribute I was familiar with but the look of the white feathers in contrast to it was so visually pleasing to me. I ended up driving all the way back the next weekend, over an hour drive, to buy her because I just wasn’t able to shake the pretty bird from my mind. I named her Moon, as her white feathers against her black skin reminded me of the moon shining bright in the dark deep night sky. I lost Moon to crop issues only a few short months later, before I was able to hatch any chicks from her. I decided I wanted to recreate her and delved head first into my own project breed of chickens.
I don’t consider myself an expert in genetics by any means, I have gotten as far as I am now through trial and error and I have also benefited from the knowledge of other breeders in the bird community. Creating a white feathered fibromelanistic breed requires a dominant white bird that also possesses preferably two copies of the fibromelanistic gene. Changes in each generation are slow, one may mature into a bird with nice dark skin but then show too much “smut” or grey coloring in adult feathers. The next may be a nice bright white feathers accented by a few black ones here or there but then also have lighter skin, a more mulberry coloring rather than black. Most of the time, especially with roosters, I must wait until they get their adult plumage before they show their “true colors” in both feather and skin. Although I am currently hatching out mostly moonbeam chicks, a small percentage of chicks are still either all black, blue feathered with black skin, or a white bird without dark skin.
When I first started the Moonbeam project, I simply wanted a predominantly white feathered bird with black skin. As I have gotten further in, I’ve had birds hatch out with traits I didn’t expect- some that I loved and some I decided to select against. One great example of these surprises is the marble eye- now one of my favorite attributes in these birds. The marbled eye seems to be much more common in female moonbeams, so much so at first I would sex them at a week or two old based upon this trait. I have recently gotten a rooster that has one so I feel its no longer a way to autosex them (that would be too easy!) but its still an attribute I adore.
I have put great emphasis on making sure the birds in this project are not only beautiful but also well rounded in other chicken-y details. Hens lay well and are fairly easy to break of a broody stint if you must, but they are also are wonderful mothers if you allow them to hatch. I’ve been very picky which roosters I have kept back- basing the decision heavily on how they act around people as well as the flock. There’s a difference between keeping the flock protected and in order as opposed to being downright mean, and I have not kept any roosters of the latter.
I hope to be able to release some Moonbeam eggs for sale spring of 2021- please sign up for our newsletter to get a heads up when the waitlist is opened!