***Crevecoeur Thread***

[katzbantams]

You have a nice gentle assortment mixed together.  So good to see as so many chicken owners just toss heavy LF with their gentler breeds and that stresses out the smaller gentler breeds.  We've had to re-home several assertive LF that weren't playing nice with the gentler smaller breeds because I didn't understand that when starting backyard chickens.

It said bantam Cochins so they should be fine. my LF are gentle to the little ones too. I've never had a problem with my LF and smaller breeds.

 

[Sylvester017]

It said bantam Cochins so they should be fine.

my LF are gentle to the little ones too. I've never had a problem with my LF and smaller breeds.

I didn't have problems when LF and bantams were pullets. It's at about 18 months to 2 years old that the heavier LF started to bully the gentler breeds - pulling out beards and crests, chasing around the yard, pushing others away from food/treats, jumping and clawing the smaller birds, chasing out of the nestboxes - just really obnoxious stuff. I had 2 Silkie chicks that got along ok with other LF chicks but the larger aggressive chicks started to pick on the slower growing bantams so that the little birds had to hide all day from some of the larger LF. I didn't heed the input of experienced bantam owners about mixing heavier LF with smaller gentler breeds but I learned the hard way. Now I don't get anything but gentle breeds and under 5-lbs around my smaller Silkies. Leghorns are under 5-lbs but they are an excessively assertive Mediterranean class. After re-homing 2 Legs and a Marans the only gentle LF that plays nice with the Silkies is a Blue Wheaten Ameraucana (my avatar). We were considering to add either gentle Polish, Crevies, Houdan, or Breda to the flock and decided to try the Breda next Spring (no combs or crests to deal with LOL). Doms are nice smaller hens too but we never had a Breda before and my DH really wanted to try them.

 

[katzbantams]

I didn't have problems when LF and bantams were pullets.  It's at about 18 months to 2 years old that the heavier LF started to bully the gentler breeds - pulling out beards and crests, chasing around the yard, pushing others away from food/treats, jumping and clawing the smaller birds, chasing out of the nestboxes - just really obnoxious stuff.  I had 2 Silkie chicks that got along ok with other LF chicks but the larger aggressive chicks started to pick on the slower growing bantams so that the little birds had to hide all day from some of the larger LF.  I didn't heed the input of experienced bantam owners about mixing heavier LF with smaller gentler breeds but I learned the hard way.  Now I don't get anything but gentle breeds and under 5-lbs around my smaller Silkies.  Leghorns are under 5-lbs but they are an excessively assertive Mediterranean class.  After re-homing 2 Legs and a Marans the only gentle LF that plays nice with the Silkies is a Blue Wheaten Ameraucana (my avatar).  We were considering to add either gentle Polish, Crevies, Houdan, or Breda to the flock and decided to try the Breda next Spring (no combs or crests to deal with LOL). Doms are nice smaller hens too but we never had a Breda before and my DH really wanted to try them.

Ok I will keep an eye on them! Hopefully they play nice! Lol. I have four different sections to where I can separate breeds. I have a free range group, a bantam group ( there are two areas I can separate but I open the 2 areas so they have a bigger spot.), and then I had my LF area. Once it started getting warm I put the LF in with the bantams so they could go out since the LF don't have an area outside. They get along good but I do have to keep an we just in case lol.

Now my babies are in the LF area but the others ones are outside. They all seem to get along good tho.

But if anyone's mean I have a spot to seperate them.

 

[Sylvester017]

Ok I will keep an eye on them! Hopefully they play nice! Lol. I have four different sections to where I can separate breeds. I have a free range group, a bantam group ( there are two areas I can separate but I open the 2 areas so they have a bigger spot.), and then I had my LF area. Once it started getting warm I put the LF in with the bantams so they could go out since the LF don't have an area outside. They get along good but I do have to keep an we just in case lol.

Now my babies are in the LF area but the others ones are outside. They all seem to get along good tho.

But if anyone's mean I have a spot to seperate them.

We tried isolating our problem LF but we're softies and felt it unfair to isolate them so we just re-homed them to a friend's LF layer flock. Even after isolating problem behaviors they will just resume again once integrated back into the regular flock.

 

[katzbantams]

We tried isolating our problem LF but we're softies and felt it unfair to isolate them so we just re-homed them to a friend's LF layer flock.  Even after isolating problem behaviors they will just resume again once integrated back into the regular flock.

Ohh. From the floor to the ceiling we have chicken wire for our areas. So all their areas are right next to each other. So they can fully see the other chickens just not touch em.

 

[Sylvester017]

Ohh. From the floor to the ceiling we have chicken wire for our areas. So all their areas are right next to each other. So they can fully see the other chickens just not touch em.

That is very nice and a wonderful setup!

Our cottage yard is half raised bed garden and the other half is too tiny to have separate coop pens - plus we're zoned for only 5 hens so our hens had better get along or else they're OUT -

 

[katzbantams]

That is very nice and a wonderful setup! 

Our cottage yard is half raised bed garden and the other half is too tiny to have separate coop pens - plus we're zoned for only 5 hens so our hens had better get along or else they're OUT -

Hahah! They better be nice to each other!

 

[ShelbyCoral]

Hello! Is this the only Crevecoeurs page? I'm like so lost in this site... only way for me to find a forum is google! So I found this one.

Anyway! Hi! I rescued 5 Crevecoeur chickens in the spring. The guy was going to slaughter them because he couldn't handle them. Honestly I had my hands full... turns out he had 4 boys and 1 girl. Anyway, a fox took 2 so I'm down to 2 boys and 1 girl. Also just so happens that my show quality named Dude is non fertile... so i had to use my other rooster named cassassnova (Loves Mirrors) to get one egg. Turns out, that egg hatched yesterday around 10pm...

Now, how do I sex it? Also, I thought they have bumps on their heads like polish...?

 

[seminolewind]

No, you'll have to wait. I currently have one with horns, one with small ones and one with none and they are all hens. There's just too many roosters , isn't there, and all are so cute

 

[Sylvester017]

Hello! Is this the only Crevecoeurs page? I'm like so lost in this site... only way for me to find a forum is google! So I found this one.

Anyway! Hi!

I rescued 5 Crevecoeur chickens in the spring. The guy was going to slaughter them because he couldn't handle them. Honestly I had my hands full... turns out he had 4 boys and 1 girl. Anyway, a fox took 2 so I'm down to 2 boys and 1 girl. Also just so happens that my show quality named Dude is non fertile... so i had to use my other rooster named cassassnova (Loves Mirrors) to get one egg. Turns out, that egg hatched yesterday around 10pm...

Now, how do I sex it? Also, I thought they have bumps on their heads like polish...?

So sorry to hear Mr. Fox took your 2 rescued rare boys. I thought Crevies would be prone to fly out of the way of a ground predator since they like to roost in trees but maybe the boys were still too young to be alert. Since they originally escaped slaughter yet still wound up killed perhaps the better death would've been to humanely/quickly butcher them as table meat rather than to be wasted in a predator attack - hindsight is always 20/20! Crevies don't seem to be very predator-savvy and yet they crave open active foraging - what a dichotomy!

Seems like the Crevies are difficult to breed to a consistant standard. Anytime I see a photo of one it looks different from a previous photo I've seen - if you can please post a photo of your new baby with a later update of how it grew up. I'd love to see pics. Of all the Crevie research I've done this thread has the most information and experience from owners - I hope you find the information helpful on this thread.

From my research I understand Crevies are a bit difficult to keep from roosting in trees rather than returning to their coop, that they are shy creatures and non-combative, can be confined but have an extra need for active free-range foraging - after researching these attributes I decided against getting any. I like my chickens to be as close to pets, sweet, and as manageable as a chicken can get but still have excellent predator-savviness, not be flighty, and return to its coop to roost on its own at dusk - my favourite to meet my needs so far being an APA Blue Wheaten Ameraucana (my avatar) - alert, quick to sound the barnyard alert, wary, non-combative toward her flockmates, and craves human inter-action like holding, petting, and conversations.

I felt the challenge of an independent yet shy temperament Crevie would be more than I wanted to handle. But I really appreciate people who want to work at preserving this chicken or any rare breed for that matter! It takes special kinds of people to take on the challenges of special rare breeds.