Campine Chicken thread?

[KyBlue]

I have also heard people say that they are early developers, but mine have not been. My roos seem to mature quicker than some other breeds, but not the hens. There may be some breeding lines out there that do develop early though. My Campines are from exhibition lines, so they may be a little slower than most. I'm not sure.

Do you have any pics of your pullet, Jane?

 

[Tigerjane]

Not any recent ones, but I can take some tomorrow. From what I had read about them, she doesn't sound like she's mature, but she started making this weird noise in the last few days that sounds almost like an egg song, and seems anxious, and it was mostly based on this information and her age that made the guy at the farmer's market tell me to start getting the nest boxes ready, that his had laid at around 3 or 4 months (mine is 14 weeks, so right between there). I wanted to get an idea from other campine owners what to expect. My golden campine is from Ideal, so just hatchery stock. Sure is an east-going bird, but I don't want any of mine to get used to laying their eggs where ever!

 

[tuesdays chicks]

my gold campine started laying around 20-21 weeks but she isn't pure campine so you can't go by mine.

 

[KyBlue]

This is a pic of my favorite Campine roo. He's always one step behind me and a real ham!

 

[sharol]

My 14 week old Campine is my most adventurous chick. She is competing with the gold laced Wyandotte for position in the pecking order, and she's about 2/3 her size.

Today I put an old stepladder out on the patio (I'm going to be changing coops in a couple of weeks, and the old ladder may be in there for roost access -- not sure yet) to see if they liked it. This was the result:

Of course Scout (my Campine) was the first to try the ladder. She may not like being handled (unless it is her idea to jump on my leg), but she is afraid of NOTHING. She marched right up to my cat when he approached and then later to the dog. She survived both encounters partially because she showed no fear. I don't know if all Campines are this interesting, but she is quite a character.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Quote:
Out of my 80 or so chickens, the Golden Campines are the ones to try anything first. Mine are brave and adventurous too.

They are good about approaching me to "smile" at me and say hi, but fly away if I try to catch them.

 

[SPRING CREEK FARM]

I LOVE my golden campines! Right now, I have 24 of them, 6 of them are roosters! I know that I do not need that many roosters, but I want to get thru the winter to make sure how hardy they end up being. We are finishing up a ginormous new coop with outside pen on each side just for my campines. They are so spoiled, they wait by their pen door each afternoon when I come home, patiently waiting for me to let them out to forage. They know that some days I am giving out special treats, and I have a few hens that will fly up to the top of their pen/coop and light on my arms looking for their treats! One day I was sitting cross legged on the ground making a small repair to the fencing around one of the coops and I was fairly engrossed in what I was doing, not quite aware that all my campine roos were circled around me, watching every move that I made. One of them jumped up and landed on my leg and I laughed and said to him "You wouldn't think of pecking me now, would you?" He just cocked his head sideways & looked at me as if I were crazy, but never made an attempt to peck or scratch at me. They are extremely curious and lots of fun to watch. It is my hope to be able to selectively breed the best of my flock and hatch out more campines this spring. The hens are just beginning to lay right now and produce very nice medium size white eggs.

 

[Illia]

Does anyone around here BREED Campines? Or know anyone who does? I would really love to find some quality Campines of proper color, but I've yet to find any breeders and hatcheries aren't worth the scores of chicks to sort through and cull just to find a halfway decent bird.

 

[KyBlue]

I snapped a couple of pics of my young Silver Campine roos. They are about 5 weeks old.

 

[NellaBean]

I ended up with a Golden Campine Rooster from the TSC bin. He is free if anyone wants him. He is flighty as can be, as is typical of my roosters since I do not handle them. He is currently free ranging on about an acre with approximately 80 other birds, both bantam and large fowl and does just fine. He is near the bottom of the totem pole.