Bresse Chickens

[Klutch]

I soak alfalfa pellets and wheat in a meat and bone broth and add it to the dry mash for my poultry. seems to help???

Good idea. Here at my home, I am at the mercy of the weather here to since I don't irrigate my farm. What really helps my birds is having a tree trimming company dump about 8 loads of wood chips on my acre. The bugs and the birds love it, they scratch, play, feed and in the end it turns into great compost soil.

 

[RinaRoo]

At last I have finally finished reading all 220 pages. I recently acquired 18 Bresse chicks from Keith Loeffler. I happen to live in NC, so I was able to pick up my chicks. I'm glad I was able to drive and not have them shipped.

I'm also very glad I was able to read how they should be finished. I can't wait until mine are old enough to process so I can taste them.

 

[speedy2020]

What I have heard (on good authority) is that shortly after GF released their first import they lost the entire flock to a predator attack. They have been able to import again, but those are the lines that people have reported the most problems with. Most people who have them now have the later imports or a mix of the three. I am one of the lucky ones who got the first import and never introduced any of the subsequent lines into my flock. I have not kept up with all the reported issues, as I am happy with what I have and did not plan on getting into the hatching eggs/day-old chicks game.

Since I learned that I may be one of the few people in the country with a “pure” flock of the first import I have gone to the trouble of getting NPIP certified and hope to be able to help in getting those genetics back out to people.

I have a block of White American Bresse around 2015, but not sure which line. They are little flighty and some make a lot noise when lay an egg or don't like other hen in the nest box. The rooster tend to follow and make noise with the hen. I am consider cross Ixworth rooster to the hen create something more quieter, heavier, and cold hardy. Of course, I still keep the pure Bresse line for awhile.

 

[speedy2020]

At last I have finally finished reading all 220 pages. I recently acquired 18 Bresse chicks from Keith Loeffler. I happen to live in NC, so I was able to pick up my chicks. I'm glad I was able to drive and not have them shipped.

I'm also very glad I was able to read how they should be finished. I can't wait until mine are old enough to process so I can taste them.

If you are plan to do taste test, it would be best divide into 2 groups; 1 with normal feed and the other special feed with milk. I feed my regular feed because don't have time and access to milk.

 

[RinaRoo]

I have a block of White American Bresse around 2015, but not sure which line. They are little flighty and some make a lot noise when lay an egg or don't like other hen in the nest box. The rooster tend to follow and make noise with the hen. I am consider cross Ixworth rooster to the hen create something more quieter, heavier, and cold hardy. Of course, I still keep the pure Bresse line for awhile.

I understand that Ixworth are as hard to find as Bresse. Good luck finding one.

 

[speedy2020]

I understand that Ixworth are as hard to find as Bresse. Good luck finding one.

Yes, I agreed the Ixworth is hard to find. I was looking for White Cornish for awhile, but no luck and lucky enough to find 2 Ixworth roosters locally. They are from GreenFire Farms stock. The only issue that I have my Bresse hens are noisy than I would like and some hens are broody so not much of a choice to make a selection.
I moved my box coop and currently working on the run. The project will be start by the end of this month.

 

[Jynuine]

Have any of you incubated successfully your eggs? Reading the popular opinion just about killed all the chicks I hatched from eggs on auction recently

 

[Molpet]

Have any of you incubated successfully your eggs? Reading the popular opinion just about killed all the chicks I hatched from eggs on auction recently

Out of 3 shipments of eggs...41 eggs.. I have one that hatched the post office does a number on them...at least that's my experience.

My own eggs in the same incubator hatch fine

 

[RinaRoo]

I had 10 Araucana eggs shipped this year. 3 hatched, and are currently 2 weeks old and seem to be thriving thus far. Bresse were 2 weeks old when I got them somewhat locally.

Once I moved them to the coop however, 7 escaped and my puppy killed them. I have 8 of my originals after I gave 4 Cockerels to a friend. I now have 8 nine week olds. 4 Cockerels and 4 pullets. I'll keep the pullets and 2 Cockerels. Only 2 will make it to the freezer camp this year, even though I was planning for at least 8.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Have any of you incubated successfully your eggs? Reading the popular opinion just about killed all the chicks I hatched from eggs on auction recently

Not sure what "popular opinion" you are talking about. I hatch my hen's eggs, both with an incubator and with broody hens. Some hatches are better than others but generally pretty good. I've hatched shipped eggs twice. One hatch was fabulous, the other horrible. The two averaged out to about 50% but each was way different in the results.

Actual hatching can vary a lot but usually when one hatches it lives. It sounds like you are talking about them dying after they hatch. Not sure what's going on there.