Campines or Fauomis, anybody raising them?

[pascopol]

These breeds cought my attention lately, they are suppose to be survivers and excellent foragers.

Do they lay decent amount of eggs? They are surely very pretty birds.

Anybodys experience with them will be appreciated.

 

[hcammack]

Had a campamine once she was crazy laid well but escaped and was eaten by a dog.

Henry

 

[pascopol]

There is a thread "Rarest Breeds in USA".

I guess Campines and Egyptian Fauomis qualify, since nobody admitts raising them here so far.

 

[ejb3810]

I have some Golden Campine bantams. They are very active and inquisitive, but I would not consider them to be wild or flighty actually. I am quite fond of them, and they seem to be more personable than a lot of chickens in my opinion.

 

[pascopol]

Quote:
Standart Campines are smaller than most other light breed chickens (Medeiterranen class).

There must be not much difference in size between bantam and standart Campines or is it?

What is the weigh of your bantam Campines?

 

[KyBlue]

I have Campines and they are one of my favorite breeds. In my experience, the hatchery Campines can be a little flighty at times but the birds I have gotten from breeders are not. They are not lap chickens but are not wild at all. They are independent, full of personality and great foragers. Mine are excellent layers of medium to large eggs. In Spring and Summer, they are an egg-a-day layer. They usually take a break to molt in the late Fall and then pick back up laying before most other breeds. I have never had one go broody, so I don't have to worry about this interfering with their laying.

Also, I have never had an overly aggressive or mean Campine roo. Most of my roos are very chatty and are usually the first to sound the alarm if a hawk or other predator is in the area.

 

[pascopol]

Quote:
Do you have golden or silver (Campines)? For their small size medium to large egg is remarkable.

Are yours still laying now?

 

[KyBlue]

My older stock is all goldens, but I have a few young silvers that I hatched out this summer. I'm hoping to hatch out as many silvers as I can next year.

All my hens were laying until about 3 weeks ago. They all went through a major molt and I haven't gotten one egg since. But they are all fully feathered now, so I should start seeing a few eggs in the next couple of weeks.

The SOP calls for the hens to weigh 4lbs. and roos 6 lbs. I have a couple hens and one roo that are actually a little heavier. I prefer that they be a little heavier than too lightweight. The SOP also calls for them to be moderately broad at the shoulders and deep, well-rounded in the breast. In my opinion, this is where most hatchery Campines are lacking and this makes them a little underweight.
Here's a picture of one of my older roos. You can see he has a fairly broad chest.

 

[pascopol]

So do you think they lay just about as good as other colored light breeds like Brown Leghorns, Anconas etc?

Something like about 250 + eggs a year?

 

[KyBlue]

Quote:
Yes, mine do.

They actually lay a lot better in the winter than the hatchery brown leghorns I had. I sold all of the leghorns because they were way too flighty for me.