Bresse Chickens

[montana74]

So I went and looked up the thread here for their diet and i gotta say....do I HAVE to castrate the roosters? Really? I'm not really down for the whole 'let's do surgery on my chickens in my kitchen' thing. If I'm getting out a knife and taking it to a chicken, I'm gonna just go ahead and butcher him. lol

 

[cree57i]

I have a big, beautiful group of week old chicks from Keith Loeffler. Very large and active. If anyone is in or near Middle TN, I need to split the order. There was a minimum which is more that I actually need. They just arrived and were a week old yesterday.

 

[tbird9]

Anyone in NE Oregon or SW Idaho? Here is a link to my Panhandle Poultry Producers Facebook page-

https://www.facebook.com/Panhandle-Poultry-Producers-669588303191574/

This is the panhandle of Baker County, OREGON, not Texas or Florida or wherever. We bought some of the very first pairs/trios that Greenfire ever auctioned off in 2011/2012 and have been breeding them ever since. Haven't eaten any other kind of chicken at home in years, got one in the oven right now. We have produced hundreds, though never with the proper finishing techniques.

Current flock consists of 40 hens and 5 roosters that will be my breeders for next year.

My last postings on this thread were in 2013, #497 on page 50 has some pictures of a trip I took to the Bresse region of France in 2012.

I am interested in creating a network of farms in my isolated rural valley that specialize in Bresse and in developing a reputation for them based on local feed and standards of production, at lot like the French have done.

 

[tbird9]

We got several weeks of negative temperatures last winter. Here are pics of the two roosters I have left that went through it. They all started out with beautiful huge combs and suffered serious frostbite, but we didn’t lose any to
that.

 

[tbird9]

So I went and looked up the thread here for their diet and i gotta say....do I HAVE to castrate the roosters? Really? I'm not really down for the whole 'let's do surgery on my chickens in my kitchen' thing. If I'm getting out a knife and taking it to a chicken, I'm gonna just go ahead and butcher him. lol

You don’t have to. Below is the text from a marketing brochure I picked up on a trip to Bresse. “Young” males butchered at 4-5 months don’t need it. The capons, raised to 8 months are definitely a rarer specialty.



Inside it has descriptions of the different ways they can be finished. I copied out the main paragraph for each one below the photos. The bolding is my emphasis.

Bresse Poultry
Firm and Flavorful

I am either male or female and I come from the "Gauloise de Bresse" breed. I'm fed on corn, wheat, and cereals grown exclusively in Bresse and dairy products (skimmed milk, buttermilk, etc.). My menu is supplemented by the food I find in my vast meadows (10m2 per chicken): larvae, worms and insects and also grass. I live for four months at least. After that, to complete my fattening, I eat and rest for ten days or so in my coop. I come eviscerated or oven-ready and I weigh at least 1.2kg.


Bresse Poulard
My flesh is tender and juicy, my skin is thin and pearly.

I come from a female chick. I'm fed on corn, wheat and cereals coming exclusively from Bresse and dairy products (skimmed milk, buttermilk, etc.). My menu is supplemented by the food I find in my vast meadows (10m2 per poulard): larvae, worms and insects and also grass. I live five months at least. I haven't laid any eggs. After living in the open air, to complete my fattening, I eat and rest for four weeks in my coop. I come eviscerated or rolled and I weigh at least 1.8kg.


Bresse Capon
My flesh is very soft and marbled, my skin is thin and pearly.

I come from a male chick of "Gauloise de Bresse". I'm fed on corn, wheat and cereals coming exclusively from Bresse and dairy products (skimmed milk, buttermilk, etc.). My menu is supplemented by the food I find in my vast meadows (20m2 per capon): larvae, worms and insects and also grass. I live eight months at least. I'm caponised (castrated) for Easter. To complete my fattening, I eat and rest for four weeks in my coop. I come eviscerated and must be rolled. I weigh at least 3kg.

 

[tbird9]

We got few inches of snow and the temperature around 20-26°F here for a week. The chicken refuse the be out in the snow. How everyone Bresse able to handle cold weather? How cold is where you are?

They won’t blaze their own trails in deep snow, but a couple inches shouldn’t bother them. I suspect your guys just weren’t used to it.

We have deep snow cover for 2-3 months of the year and they stick to the barns and areas that have been packed down. We throw straw on top and that gets them out there exploring and packing it down. We are regularly below freezing for those months and they don’t have a problem with it, other than frostbite on the rooster combs when it gets too cold for too long. The tips of the combs turn black and eventually fall off. Sounds ugly, but with weeks at a time of negative temps there is not a lot we can do about it. I wouldn’t want to have them if I needed to keep them in a heated barn all winter.

We also get stretches of 100+ degree weather in the summer and they handle that like champs, too, as long as they have plenty of shade and water. The first summer we were here I spent a lot of time setting up and moving misters for them, but no longer do that and don’t think it’s necessary.

 

[montana74]

Sadly, none of the eggs I ordered hatched. Half weren't fertile and the other half simply didn't make it. I REALLY wanted to raise some Bresse chickens for meat but now I have Icelandics cooking in the incubator and two more lines of eggs inbound so I think I may have to bow out of the Bresse festivities.

 

[speedy2020]

Sadly, none of the eggs I ordered hatched. Half weren't fertile and the other half simply didn't make it. I REALLY wanted to raise some Bresse chickens for meat but now I have Icelandics cooking in the incubator and two more lines of eggs inbound so I think I may have to bow out of the Bresse festivities.

The best place to buy hatching eggs or live bird locally (Craigslist). If you get from Ebay hit/miss, but %40-60 do happen.

 

[montana74]

Believe me, if I could find a local breeder for Bresse chickens I'd be all over that. I may try again in the spring.

 

[speedy2020]

So I went and looked up the thread here for their diet and i gotta say....do I HAVE to castrate the roosters? Really? I'm not really down for the whole 'let's do surgery on my chickens in my kitchen' thing. If I'm getting out a knife and taking it to a chicken, I'm gonna just go ahead and butcher him. lol

No, you don't have to castrate the rooster. Just butch him at 16-20 weeks.