Faverolles Thread

[hcammack]

Henry, who in Maryland has those nice Favs?

Art Cosner at Cedar Ridge Pygmies in Williamsport MD. I can PM you his email if you would like. He has Pontious and Patterson line birds.

 

[lungewhipqueen]

Hey gang, does anyone know of a good source for LF Salmon Favs in or around the Kansas City area? I haven't lost a bird all winter and last night a raccoon got into one of my coops and wiped out all my Faverolles. :-( I can't tell you how upset I am. I have lots of chickens and the Faverolles were hands down, my favorites. Especially my young roo Angus. He was such a pet. I'd wanted Favs for several years and finally got some last summer. ~sigh~

The raccoon had a last meal of lead. I caught it red handed, unfortunately not in time to save my birds. The coop is secure and it was my own fault that it happened. I did chores, got chickens put away, goats tucked in and was in the house playing online after dinner and suddenly it popped into my head. Did I close the Faverolles coop?! I just couldn't remember doing it... so I threw on my coat and boots and literally ran out there. He was probably making the kills when it popped into my head because two of them weren't quite dead yet and there were only four in the coop. He heard me coming but couldn't figure out how to get out of the run so he went back into the coop. I shut the door and trapped him in there. My brother-in-law didn't even take 5 minutes to get here to shoot it for me.

I had just started collecting eggs for the incubator and only had six saved from them. I've fired up the bator today but the last time I hatched I didn't have great luck. It's been two years since I tried. I only got six chicks out of 20 eggs! Before that I hatched chicks every year and had great hatch rates. Now I'm scared... and these eggs mean so much now.

I do NOT want to buy from a hatchery. I don't show or anything, I just prefer not to support hatchery practices with my $$. Worst case scenario I guess I'll go to the Jacob's Cave swap and hope I can find some there.

 

[djkCR14]

Hey gang, does anyone know of a good source for LF Salmon Favs in or around the Kansas City area? I haven't lost a bird all winter and last night a raccoon got into one of my coops and wiped out all my Faverolles. :-( I can't tell you how upset I am. I have lots of chickens and the Faverolles were hands down, my favorites. Especially my young roo Angus. He was such a pet. I'd wanted Favs for several years and finally got some last summer. ~sigh~

The raccoon had a last meal of lead. I caught it red handed, unfortunately not in time to save my birds. The coop is secure and it was my own fault that it happened. I did chores, got chickens put away, goats tucked in and was in the house playing online after dinner and suddenly it popped into my head. Did I close the Faverolles coop?! I just couldn't remember doing it... so I threw on my coat and boots and literally ran out there. He was probably making the kills when it popped into my head because two of them weren't quite dead yet and there were only four in the coop. He heard me coming but couldn't figure out how to get out of the run so he went back into the coop. I shut the door and trapped him in there. My brother-in-law didn't even take 5 minutes to get here to shoot it for me.

I had just started collecting eggs for the incubator and only had six saved from them. I've fired up the bator today but the last time I hatched I didn't have great luck. It's been two years since I tried. I only got six chicks out of 20 eggs! Before that I hatched chicks every year and had great hatch rates. Now I'm scared... and these eggs mean so much now.

I do NOT want to buy from a hatchery. I don't show or anything, I just prefer not to support hatchery practices with my $$. Worst case scenario I guess I'll go to the Jacob's Cave swap and hope I can find some there.

So sorry to hear of your loss and ordeal. I've been through that myself with bears attacking the coop. It's pretty hard to keep a determined bear out of even a well built coop! Thankfully I don't live in that area anymore and I don't have much of predators around me anymore. I'd give you some chicks, but I live in Costa Rica, so that's not really feasible.

I have pretty good luck with my homemade incubator ... I keep the temp just between 99 & 100 and our humidity is high here, so maybe that's a help. My only worry is when our electric goes out. The other night my electric went out for a few hours and I have 12 eggs in the bator. I saw the temp going down quite a bit and so I ran out and put the eggs under the chickens in my coop. I have one hen with a lone chick and another sitting on only 6 eggs, so I split the eggs between them and they kept them warm. It was a good thing - the electric was off for about 3 hours - some kind of repair on the lines. We'll see if they made it in a week or so.

Well, good luck on your Fav search ...

 

[djkCR14]

Hey can someone post a picture of what a pure bred Faverolle's feet look like? I know I have Faverolle mixes, but I don't see the extra toe on them. Is it an extra front toe or back toe? Just really curious! Thanks!

 

[appps]

How's the temperament with these birds? I've heard they can be aggressive?

Any color projects going on? Lavender or mille fleur or?

Really? We bought them because of their reputation as a placid breed. I've even read things about them being picked on by more aggressive breeds because they are so placid.

Ours are the sweetest things no aggression in them.

 

[appps]

Hey can someone post a picture of what a pure bred Faverolle's feet look like?  I know I have Faverolle mixes, but I don't see the extra toe on them.  Is it an extra front toe or back toe?  Just really curious!  Thanks!

Its like a silkie, the extra toe is at the back. Sorry no photos on my phone.

 

[lungewhipqueen]

So sorry to hear of your loss and ordeal. I've been through that myself with bears attacking the coop. It's pretty hard to keep a determined bear out of even a well built coop! Thankfully I don't live in that area anymore and I don't have much of predators around me anymore. I'd give you some chicks, but I live in Costa Rica, so that's not really feasible.

I have pretty good luck with my homemade incubator ... I keep the temp just between 99 & 100 and our humidity is high here, so maybe that's a help. My only worry is when our electric goes out. The other night my electric went out for a few hours and I have 12 eggs in the bator. I saw the temp going down quite a bit and so I ran out and put the eggs under the chickens in my coop. I have one hen with a lone chick and another sitting on only 6 eggs, so I split the eggs between them and they kept them warm. It was a good thing - the electric was off for about 3 hours - some kind of repair on the lines. We'll see if they made it in a week or so.

Well, good luck on your Fav search ...

Thanks I hope your hens did the trick keeping your eggs warm! Very lucky you had them.

Hey can someone post a picture of what a pure bred Faverolle's feet look like? I know I have Faverolle mixes, but I don't see the extra toe on them. Is it an extra front toe or back toe? Just really curious! Thanks!

Not a wonderful photo, but you can see his toes alright. The uppermost toe is the extra.

 

[Farmer Viola]

speaking of FEET........

I have 2 Fav chicks
Recently I noticed the pullet has an oddly shaped toe. I looked back at some of the photos from 1 week old and it wasn't happening then. She's 3 weeks now...

see how the smaller toe is going over the top of the bigger back toe?


see how the big toe is coming down next to the foot and looks calused/walked on? compare to the bottom foot with regular 5 toes..

I looked back at some pictures from 1 week old and the toes appeared normal then.. so weird

 

[ashandvine]

Thank you Henry. I have read a few times two things which make a difference to the growth and development of birds which I have yet to really try playing with: light and separating sexes. I read consistently that raising males apart from females gives the females a chance to develop and put on weight since they aren't being run around so much by the males. The light bit I read in a few little patches here and there but the gist is that the more light they are exposed to the faster they develop and the inverse of raising them in darker quarters allows them a slower development. If the whole light induced hormone shift is true, which it might be since we know light effects their hormones for "Spring"ing into action and laying eggs it seems possible that the longer they are in a darker environment the slower they are to hit the sexual maturity. Please, let me know your thoughts. I have also heard a lot about how caponizing influences their development and demeanor.

The two meatiest breeds of chicken I have had here so far are Favs and Chanties but they are so sweet I have to ask folks if they do any of this. I am teaching a three part class on poultry this year and that is what I am going to be saying to folks.

 

[Fancy Favie]

Hey can someone post a picture of what a pure bred Faverolle's feet look like? I know I have Faverolle mixes, but I don't see the extra toe on them. Is it an extra front toe or back toe? Just really curious! Thanks!

This is Angelique not the greatest pic of her toes/feet but i'm sure you can get the idea