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A little bit about us! Welcome to Sun Crest Belgians! ***ANNOUNCEMENT***:
Geocities is closing down, therefore this site will be moved to another web hosting site. I'm not sure which I'll use, recommendations would be appreciated, preferably free hosting sites. I'm hoping to transfer everything prior to Geocities closing down so I can post the new link here. Don't fret, I'll get a new site up soon, and will continue to raise d'Anvers and d'Watermaels. I wish you all a great hatching season!
Unfortunately due to college I have been scaling back a bit. As of now I only raise quail, silver quail, blue quail, black, blue, splash and cuckoo d'Anvers. And of course, I'm still working on the d'Watermaels, which are really looking good. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ :::FOR SALE::: If I have any birds or eggs for sale, or that I plan to list on Eggbid, pictures and info will be listed here. Check back often, something may be available one day and gone the next. > I am already up to my knees in egg orders, and college makes it hard to keep track of orders. So, to make everything easier and to keep things from getting out of hand, I will list auctions from time to time on Eggbid.com and post a link to them here. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Interested in d'Watermaels??? Please come check out the BWCA!  Click to join BWCA Come visit my store on CafePress! Here you can find a variety of Belgian bantam related products.
Looking for MORE PICTURES? Look Here: http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?username=danverqueen1&x=17&y=12 All the pics are there before they end up here, (for those of you who are just itching to see whats up next) Updated on February 18th 2009! * ☼ * This has turned into an update article I suppose, so check back often. Wow does this ever need updating! Once again, I've failed to keep this updated, but maybe this will be the year I actually update it monthly as I originally planned to.. or not, you never know.
So here is where I am now, as of February 18th 2009
I ended up missing out on the Ohio National this year. I really did want to go, but too many things were going on and it just didn't work out. Unfortunately my cousin's wedding is scheduled to be on the same day as the Buckeye Fancy Feather Club's show, so that too I will miss. Meaning my next show won't be until November... This does give me time to get together a nice group of birds and come back better than ever though. I think I need to create a new button... I will either replace the d'Uccle button (I just don't have the space to seriously raise them) or the Articles button, since I never update it. Either way, I need a new button- for d'Watermaels! I have tried to import eggs from both Canada and the Netherlands, but I didn't have any luck. I got close with the Netherlands being that the breeder there agreed to export, but due to all of the bird flu worries the U.S.A. closed all egg imports, even those from countries designated free of END (exotic newcastle disease). So, being that importing was entirely out of the question, I set out to make my own. Kristen Ramsdell had done the same, several years prior. Being that she had to sell off all of her birds, I ended up with some of her d'Watermael prototype stock, and so did another breeder, Gordon Davis.
At this point I have three lines going, Kristen's, mine (which still needs a lot of work) and a mix of both lines. I believe Gordon has done the same, so between 5 or 6 lines we hope to further develop the breed.
Here are a few pictures of what I have so far. The chicks from these birds, I think, will finally be able to be called true d'Watermaels, but only time will tell.
The black, blue and splash d'Anvers have been on an absolute roller coaster for those of you who remember. I have changed lines so many times and had to start over due to predators that it was getting ridiculous. Now, at last, I think I have things under control. I am working with mainly Kristen Ramsdell's line now, with a bit of Greg Romer's line mixed in there. Before Kristen had to sell off her birds she sent me a delightful little black cockerel who is in a breeding pen with a tiny blue hen and a typey but slightly larger blue hen. The hens share the same father- a blue also from Kristen Ramsdell. The smaller hen of the two is recessive for mottled (which may make things interesting in the future) and the larger hen has a bit of brown in her beard, but I like her type so much I'm sticking with her. I always say I will get pictures up, but I rarely do, I'm sorry for this. I will, once again, try to get some pictures up soon. I am really excited about the quail, they aren't completely there yet, but they really are looking nice. I have Thor's son in a breeding pen with a nice assortment of hens, it should be a great season. I am consistently winning best of variety, and quite a few best of breeds with this line now-(which, I think I can safely call my own now, after 6 generations of breeding and a combination of 4 other lines) I am eager to see how this season's chicks will turn out, but my greatest complaint with my own line is- they take forever to mature! With my other varieties it is easy to spot the best birds at 6 months, with my quail, I am still surprised after 2 years! Thor's son took a good 2 years to reach the point that he has. I guess you could say d'Anvers are comparable with wine- they seem to just get better with age. The Mille fleur d'Anvers are looking nice, I traded a few quail males for a real knock out trio of milles, I've never seen such nice milles if I may say so my self! They were bred by Ralph Malay and I must say he has the best milles I've ever seen. Finally they are laying- I should be getting chicks soon! 
The Silver Quail I thought were a lost hope. I lost my main breeding cock over the winter, and he was such an old bird the eggs were rarely fertile anyhow. Then of course my back up breeder was killed by a raccoon. Somehow all of the hens were turning out quail and whatever line I had was just funny, I never got what I had hoped for with them. I was then left with a silver quail hen and a stray lavender quail and hoped I could somehow make silver quail out of that. Then my luck changed, I was contacted by John Glowa who made me an offer I couldn't refuse- a dozen of my quail d'Anver eggs for a dozen of his silver quail d'Anver eggs, to include a few extra cuckoo! His stock comes from direct English imports, and his silver quails are impressive for d'Anvers, let alone such a rare variety. So, I had to include the link so you can all get a look at them- http://demijohn.tripod.com/id6.html (just copy and paste, I forget the coding for links) I am no longer raising Mottled.... that I know of, but one of my blue hens is recessive for mottled... so you just never know what may happen in the future. My mille fleur d'UCCLES are comming along well too. I've had some issues with sprigs, but they have foot feathering out the wazoo! I've bred Daisy's son back to her and the results have been stunning, the chicks have double the foot feathering of any mille chick I've seen. Not to mention they have magnificent beards and muffs, short backs, a nice tail spread, and the sweetest personalities (thanks to Daisy no doubt!). I am kind of holding off on d'Uccles this season, the d'Anvers and d'Watermaels come first. I think that's about it... To sum it all up, the quail are looking great, I finally have a good start in the blue/black/splash, the mille's just started laying, I've got silver quail eggs on the way, I am no longer raising porcelain or mottled, and I think I may end up with cuckoo some where down the line? Yep, that's about it. ��������Coming soon~ Breeder profiles! To include: Lineage of each bird, a short history, and a list of show placings. (If and when I get around to it, but I'll try to) With new varieties comes new building plans�. And thanks to Mr. Barth this is possible. For a long time now I have been eyeing an unused portion of the pasture beside the barn and garage. At last I have planned to cut the grass, (but keep the various scrub trees), and put up some new pens. After a quick call to a kind fellow who owned some property that was scattered with fences that once used to protect the old radio towers; I was set to go. Mr. Barth allowed us to have as much as needed, for free. Now, all that needs to be done is to pick up the fences and set them back up here. I will take pictures of our progress once we get started. ---We have picked up the fencing and poles, warmer weather is on the way, and with it, new pens. Pictures coming soon: I am redoing an 8 by 10 1/2 foot pen, and with what... 1/2 inch wire mesh, (the only mesh a weasel can't fit through) all sides, the top, and buried beneath. Pictures of the pen, (and my now wire pricked and gashed hands), coming soon. ----------- The pen is done, I need to get some pics up once I fix it up again, the turkeys had a field day with the Hostas. Member of The Bantam Chicken SiteRing Previous List Sites Random Site Join Ring Next You are visitor number
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