Bresse Chickens

[mandelyn]

Nope, not my jam. I still haven't seen anyone post solid side-by-side taste tests with other dual purpose breeds or Cornish X, nor have I seen any carcass pictures or weights verified. I'm sticking with my Barred Rocks and may do some Cornish X here and there. The Bresse don't interest me nearly enough to build more pens and coops in order to keep them.

I only had to eat one Bresse to cycle out everything that wasn't a Bresse or Marans or a project out of my flocks. Then I gave a serious upgrade to the hatch room with a cabinet incubator and then we built a new coop with daily pasture access to grow them out in.

Our first year out here we invited 16 cockerels to dinner. I could not eat another EE ever again. LOL

After the Bresse we did a store bought Cornish again just to make sure this was all worth it. That poor brine soaked so-called chicken didn't even stand a chance. I mean it was good, chicken will always taste like chicken. The variations from one chicken to another is little differences in texture, how big the breast is (or isn't), what color and texture the thigh is, what the skin is like (the Bresse has very delicate skin, compared to a Marans that have a noticeable difference in skin thickness.) The shape of the skeleton and how the meat lays across it. How it was finished, how long it sat before cooking, the cooking method versus the type of bird...

We're going into this next season with scales too.

This is a 28 week BC Marans when his attitude went South and his comb sprouted side sprigs. The Bresse we did had a lot more breast meat but less thigh, the Bresse had been 20 weeks. Didn't have the scales then to know a weight difference.

Was toying with the idea of growing some Cornish out in one of the pasture tractors for a better side by side, being of the same feed/lifestyle. I know they'll get bigger faster... nothing will grow like a CornishX does. We have a deep freezer now too so having to do them all at once isn't a deal breaker anymore. We originally went dual purpose to avoid the all-at-once harvest of CornishX, as well as to provide an out for the extra cockerels resulting from breeding.

I have 1 extra Bresse cockerel growing out with some Marans and Oilve Eggers. We'll see how he finishes out, cull that he is. His brother is much larger and shot up fast, he stays for further evaluation later.

 

[Mosey2003]

I'd still like to see a picture of a Bresse dressed out

 

[mandelyn]

I'd still like to see a picture of a Bresse dressed out

Working on it! Looked at him this morning, I'm thinking that pen is looking ready to start their finishing diet, so 4-5 weeks.

 

[Mosey2003]

Working on it! Looked at him this morning, I'm thinking that pen is looking ready to start their finishing diet, so 4-5 weeks.

I'm wading back through this enormous thread and have seen one dressed picture so far. I still question whether breed alone really changes the taste that much, or if the milk grain finishing is responsible for much of it.

 

[cactusrota]

Nope, not my jam. I still haven't seen anyone post solid side-by-side taste tests with other dual purpose breeds or Cornish X, nor have I seen any carcass pictures or weights verified. I'm sticking with my Barred Rocks and may do some Cornish X here and there. The Bresse don't interest me nearly enough to build more pens and coops in order to keep them.

What's important to you for your flock is what is most important. You're the one that has to raise and feed them. They are certainly a niche breed. Personally, I have found that they really aren't any meatier than some of my naked necks, but I like their personalities, growth rates, and the oily fat they build up which is great for making schmaltz (rendered chicken fat for cooking). So I've found them worth keeping and am crossbreeding them with my naked necks to see if I can introduce some of those attributes I like to that line. I may or may not decide to keep a pure line of Bresse for long term. Haven't decided yet... but I suspect the line I have is very inbred as I keep getting offspring with an odd side curve to the breast bone. So if I do decide to keep long term I'll probably have to introduce some fresh blood at some point. The NN/Bresse crosses I'm getting so far are showing good hybrid vigor, though, which makes me happy.

 

[mandelyn]

The NN/Bresse crosses I'm getting so far are showing good hybrid vigor, though, which makes me happy.

I'm planning an outcross to Bresse with a Hybrid I did from Krainkoppe(Twentse) to Legbar, to see what that does to their body width. The legbar slimmed them a little but there was that auto sexing and blue egg thing that held true. The boys of the original cross took a good 22 weeks to develop any meaningful size, so I hope the growth will speed up a little too. I have enough birds to try the cross both ways, with a Hybrid roo over Bresse hens and a spare Bresse son who's coming along well over the Hybrid girls, whole also taking hybrid x's hybrid.

LOVE the personalities of the Bresse. I walked into their stall yesterday and told the rooster "I need to catch you." and squatted down. All the girls came over, he came over, I reached out and he didn't say a word about it until I had him lifted off the ground. When I set him down he didn't try to wing dance me back or act like he was insulted. Haha

 

[speedy2020]

I'm planning an outcross to Bresse with a Hybrid I did from Krainkoppe(Twentse) to Legbar, to see what that does to their body width. The legbar slimmed them a little but there was that auto sexing and blue egg thing that held true. The boys of the original cross took a good 22 weeks to develop any meaningful size, so I hope the growth will speed up a little too. I have enough birds to try the cross both ways, with a Hybrid roo over Bresse hens and a spare Bresse son who's coming along well over the Hybrid girls, whole also taking hybrid x's hybrid.

LOVE the personalities of the Bresse. I walked into their stall yesterday and told the rooster "I need to catch you." and squatted down. All the girls came over, he came over, I reached out and he didn't say a word about it until I had him lifted off the ground. When I set him down he didn't try to wing dance me back or act like he was insulted. Haha

I have White Breese x Legbar cross before. The hen lay light blue egg and the breed little flighty. The meat taste ok, but the bird size is smaller than the pure White Bresse. I do like to cross White Breese X White Cornish (old timer cornish, not cornish X), but can't find cornish locally.

 

[Chickenheadmate]

I've thought about Breese and white rock.

I have White Breese x Legbar cross before. The hen lay light blue egg and the breed little flighty. The meat taste ok, but the bird size is smaller than the pure White Bresse. I do like to cross White Breese X White Cornish (old timer cornish, not cornish X), but can't find cornish locally.

 

[cactusrota]

I have White Breese x Legbar cross before. The hen lay light blue egg and the breed little flighty. The meat taste ok, but the bird size is smaller than the pure White Bresse. I do like to cross White Breese X White Cornish (old timer cornish, not cornish X), but can't find cornish locally.

White Cornish are really hard to find. Breeders sell hatching eggs for almost outlandish prices. (We're talking $10-40 each egg with no refund if the USPS scrambles them!) I've done alot of research on those and have pretty much given up unless I can run across someone local so I don't have to have anything shipped. I'm pretty happy with my Bresse/NN crosses, and may just stick with them in the end. So far I'm basically getting a Bresse that's easier to pluck.

 

[speedy2020]

White Cornish are really hard to find. Breeders sell hatching eggs for almost outlandish prices. (We're talking $10-40 each egg with no refund if the USPS scrambles them!) I've done alot of research on those and have pretty much given up unless I can run across someone local so I don't have to have anything shipped. I'm pretty happy with my Bresse/NN crosses, and may just stick with them in the end. So far I'm basically getting a Bresse that's easier to pluck.

The White Chantecler or Ixworth may also work.