Houdans

I had 2 sisters. One just disappeared! I was devastated. No sign of her anywhere. So I have one named "Psycho". She cries in the coop all morning til I let her out, then she pecks my pants and wants to be picked up and carried around. But if I put my hand or face in front of her she pecks me real hard! I never get my face in front of her, LOL. Anyway I have 6 Houdan pullet chicks coming from a hatchery. They are lovely birds, real standard bird size, incredibly fluffy, and mine have never flew or ran away from me. Very docile. I was very lucky to get sexed Houdans. I have 6 silkie roos already and can't do any more.

Wow, just went back and re-read this entire thread! How is everyone doing?

I'm trying *again* to establish my Houdan project. Nearly a decade trying to get this going. Torture! I was devastated to learn that both the Universit of Arkansas flock and Duane Urch's program have been discontinued. This is a major blow to the breed. There are still some breeders working hard with them, though, and I'm working hard to gather some nice stock up and hope to be hatching this spring.

Who has what these days? Let's revive this thread!

ALSO, I came across this show catalog today and loved the Houdan representation. I also love the contrast to the Polish! Really illustrates how VERY DIFFERENT type should be in these two breeds!

Getting back into these birds, I've been doing a lot of reading about them again. In retrospect looking through this thread, I'm a little gobsmacked at how much talk there is about color and crests and beards and wattles and how relatively little there is about size and type and meat quality (though certainly quite a bit of egg talk!)

I was unable to secure any started breeding stock this year to hatch from in the spring, so once again I'll be making a big order from Cackle. I will likely do a single outcross with these hatchery birds to improve size and type and utility, while I continue to try to gather up some other quality stock. (To be kept separate, of course.) I guess I just don't see any point in being a purist over hatchery birds that already resemble Polish more than Houdans.

Anyway, I didn't see this book listed and if it was... It was WAAAAAY back, so if you're interested in this breed the way it *should* be, it's a good read:

• A Practical Guide [etc] The Houdan Fowl by Charles Lee (Free EBook on Google Books Project)
• Also, though it's been posted before, re-reading the Houdan chapter by Reverend C. E. Petersen in the 1905 "The Poultry Book" is an exquisite account of the breed in its early days in America.

And here is some additional FANTASTIC reading material on the Mottled Houdan and the development of the White Houdan in America.


(I believe if you click on the first one you will be able to scroll through and read them at full size.)

Another old article worth a read:

Champion Houdans at this past weekend's Andrezieux Bouthéon 2019. Courtesy Yvan Riv via Facebook.

I find myself quite thankful that we don't do the leaf comb here! I really don't care much for it.

Set up my breeding pens over thanksgiving. I do flock matings, not pairs and trios because I don't have space. My Houdan pen has 4 roosters (three mottled black, one mottled chocolate) over a bunch of hens and pullets (All are blue or chocolate, some mottled, but mostly solid/self colored- some split for mottled).
Right now, very few are laying (pullets are young, hens are molting). I plan to do a hatching in January of whatever are laying (I also have a pen of crevecours - 2 black roosters on Black, Blue, & Chocolate hens and pullets- and they are actually laying right now)

wcbpolish said:

Set up my breeding pens over thanksgiving. I do flock matings, not pairs and trios because I don't have space. My Houdan pen has 4 roosters (three mottled black, one mottled chocolate) over a bunch of hens and pullets (All are blue or chocolate, some mottled, but mostly solid/self colored- some split for mottled).
Right now, very few are laying (pullets are young, hens are molting). I plan to do a hatching in January of whatever are laying (I also have a pen of crevecours - 2 black roosters on Black, Blue, & Chocolate hens and pullets- and they are actually laying right now)

Click to expand...

Wow, how did you get those colors into your program? Do you have pictures?

When I was starting my flock (after moving back to the farm) a local-ish guy gave me a bunch of eggs. Out of the eggs, I hatched a pair of 4-toed blue crested birds and a pair of 4 toed black birds. These all had white ear lobes, and the guy I got them from called them polish, but I have showed them as crevecours.
The same guy gave me a VERY OLD 5-toed solid chocolate rooster (split for mottled) the next season. He didn't think the old rooster would be any good in the breeding pen, but I was willing to give it a shot. Not having any houdan hens, I used him on my 2nd gen blue and black "crevecours" and used hatchery mottled males over the resulting chicks.
So, now I have a few mottled blue and chocolate birds. My biggest issue is that mottled is now hidden in my crev line, and 4-toed is hidden in my houdan line... but otherwise, this season I finally have the 4-toed solid birds segregated from the 5 toed mottled birds (except that I am still using females that are split for mottled in the houdan pen)
I don't have many pictures - no smart phone. And I don't have that many birds that are all that great either.
Here are links to a few photos:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WfPKIE7JgrHUrnx5nkKdzwwgTD1zkaPb/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-d0EDhH70R2cH3ctvTRbOUJaSMAgjL5M/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y7-OAsbGGgDxokBYD8wyFofdYunhSVKm/view?usp=sharing

Holy cow I can't believe I haven't posted here in a year.

Last year I ordered a big ol' batch of Houdans from Cackle figuring I'd cull through them and probably get rid of them mostly when I could get my hands on better stock.

Well, long story short with the lack of shows it turned out being impossible to connect for birds this year, so I've got my little Cackle flock waiting in the wings. I have three cockerels and 8 pullets, but honestly I'm really only feeling perhaps two or three hens and one of the cockerels. I'm not super happy with them as a whole. They're the lightest birds on my lot other than the bantams! Even my standardbred leghorns are heavier and better muscled.

I did retain a couple of cornish cross hens and attempted to hatch eggs since the Houdan boys liked them quite a lot, but the eggs weren't fertile. That was disappointing.