Jest Another Day in Pear-A-Dice - Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm in Alberta

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

I would like to welcome you to my family...to my life living here in paradise.

Pear-A-Dice​

I am a retired accountant that drives school bus (to buy bird seeds!) and my husband Rick is a grader operator and cabinet maker.

1998 - This is the opposite of "HyBlading!"​

Latest photo of Glorph & my "Boy!" - July 26, 2014 ​

My spouse and I run Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm in Central Alberta, Canada. We are a biosecure hobby farm with no expectations of profit...happiness is not normally found on any Income Statement but we see that all the more reason to continue to pursue it with ZEST!

We love what we do and hope to be able to share that feeling through photos and my words about daily life living the dream.

Sign I carved for the Swan House​

We are intense and dead serious about our FUN! Not a day goes by where we sit idle (idleness is the holiday of fools!). Every day is precious and every day is a brand new start to the future fun. Something to look forward to and enjoy to the fullest. Bring her on!

I'm a truck gal thru and thru...lift that load, tote that bale...get her done so we can have dinner, eh!

Truck & different trailers fer hauling various loads

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Tractor for lifting, moving, tilling, snow removal...​

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Life has been made SO much easier here with equipment to use. My Hero takes care of so many tasks to help run this place.

Speaking of which...better intro the live things since they are the whole reason for the existence of the Ranch!

Foamy and Fixins frolicking ​

Our family has had poultry, dogs, and livestock since we were children (my spouse and I have a combined 90+ years of experience in having tons of FUN!). The happiness we seek is right behind our eyes and enjoyed here every single day.

October 2003​

We raise poultry (heritage chickens, heritage turkeys, pheasants, ducks, geese, Ruddy Shels, and swans), Jacob Sheep, Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats, and Australian Cattle Dogs. We blame the dogs for all the troubles they have herded us into...yes, bad stock dogs...BAD DOGS!

Muttley Crew of FIVE canines - Foamy, Stoggar, Fixins, HyBlade, and Makins
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Anyone just has to see the facilities and resources (some 30 buildings--go see "My Coop" for more on those) we extend to our animals to realize we are in this for the sheer love of the hobby. Our animals are raised as naturally as is sensible; we do not raise our waterfowl on wire (like many people do!) and have a zero predation record since Earth Day 2007.

Pastures and orchard​

We practise many biosecure protocols and will use chemicals as per our vet's advice to keep parasites under control.

Fecal Float to determine worm count​

Have done fecal floats here at home to determine worm loads and use labs to do DNA testing for gender in our swans and DNA colour genetics in our dogs (taught 450+ Biology 30 students canine colour presentations over the years with ACDogs Makins and HyBlade).

DNA gender testing Australian Black Swan cob​

Never used antibiotics on any of the poultry but would in an instant (have some on hand for emergencies which I often have to replace because they have expired--sigh!) as per our vet's instructions.

Rosy - Blue Fawn Call Duck; Reserve in Breed - 2006 ​

We are devoted poultry "Fanciers" and take great pride in our birds. I use to show waterfowl but quit due to biosecure concerns--my vet's preaching of "Do you want what everyone ELSE has?," finally sunk in! Our first entry at a sanctioned poultry show was in 2006 and our entry of Rosy was the very first Blue Fawn Call duck hen to ever go Reserve in Breed here in North America...at the time this variety was unrecognized (fully recognized now), so her win was totally against APA and ABA SOP rules. Was a neat way to start showing poultry, eh? Having our birds breaking the rules right from the very start!

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I get asked what we have critter wise, so let's get that part over with so we can get down to the daily grinding of living the good life.

Looking into the Bird Yard - 2008​

As of today...we have the following creatures!

Silver Appleyard duck Gala - February 2010​

Waterfowl:
DUCKS: Calls (24 varieties), East Indies, Mandarins (Wild & White), Crested Ducks (White, Grey, Black, & Black Bibbed), Australian Spotted (3 varieties), Dutch Hookbills (crested and non), & Appleyards (crested and non).

Mandarin Ducks​

GEESE: Buff, Buff Tufted, & Buff Pied American.
Ruddy Shelduck/Shelgoose.
SWANS: Australian Black.

Rick's Ruddy Shels & Dad's DOG Fixins...fiery RED things!

Landfowl:
BANTAM Chickens: Brahmas (Dark, Light, Buff, & Partridge), Wyandottes (White, Blue Dilutions, Laced, Barred, & Crele), Booteds (MDF & White), & Chanteclers (Partridge, Buff & White).
STANDARD Chickens: Chanteclers (Partridge, Buff, Red, & White).
Heritage TURKEYS: Wishard Bronze, Red Bronze, Blue Bronze (Red/Bronze Slate/Fawn), Red Blue Bronze, Blue Slate, Rusty Black, Dilute Rusty Black, Narragansett, Jersey Buff, JB Grey downed, Bourbon Red, Lilac, White & Sweetgrass/Ronquière (Black, Red & White (Desert Palm/Sweetgrass tricolour/Yellow-shouldered Ronquière), Black & White (Royal Palm BLACK patterned Ronquière Jaspee), Red & White (Royal Palm RED patterned Ronquière Fauve), & Rich red/chocolate patterned (Ronquière Perdrix).

Red Golden pheasant hen ​

PHEASANTS: Red Golden & Silver.

Waterfall and Fish Pond - 2006​

Registered: Australian Cattle Dogs, Jacob Sheep, Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats, & Llamas.
Pond Fish.

Heidi and Momma Dixie - Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats


Nascor & Rota - Jacob Sheep​

I wouldn't trade it for anything​

We do some pretty funky things now and again...this is the covered wagon Rick built for me...I braided up the harnesses, trained the rams, and Voila...

Draft sheep at the Big Horn Rodeo parade...Yee Haw and slop the chickens, eh!
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As with the birds, I use to show the Jacobs but for biosecure reasons, have now kept a closed flock since 2003.

Canada's 1st Grand Champion Jacob Ewe Melody - Olds, Alberta 2003​

I love the buildings Rick designs and builds for the ranch...he builds 'em and I fill 'em up! LOL

The Taj Mahal to house the Mandarin Ducks ​

Rick even comes up with some rather nifty economical & useful inventions...such a smart man that one!

Rick Higgins' Invention - The Five Gallon Pail Nest​

Oh, how I love my dogs & ducks (Fear The Duck!)

Fixins and Pudgy​

and my Hero, well he ALSO loves his trucks...

http://www.stovebolt.com/gallery/higgins_mapleleaf.html

Being a ranch, we are also working on restoring some big rig vintage farm trucks (six 1936 Chevrolet Maple Leafs, two 1928 Chev one-tons, 1989 Chev 4x4 one-ton, and our regular ride, a 1984 Chev 4x4).

Three of Six 1936 Chev Maple Leafs​

1989 Chev one ton 4x4 & 1984 Chev 4x4​

One of Two 1928 Chev one tons with Makins
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Because I often get asked about the names and phrases we use...

The Ranch is named after the first initials of our all our names RAT; R for Rick, A for Alexander and T for Tara and my name backwards "a raT" and no, we do not raise RATS! We just think it is cute to call the place this as Alberta is touted to be rat free--'cept for us that is!

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My salutation for each post begins with the greeting of Heel low to pay homage to the Heeler Dog's scissor grip and I will sign off each post with Doggone as that is where I am headed...to be with them dawgs out and about. Chicken UP! is a saying designed by Rick...for our youth exhibition poultry club. Round here in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, you will often hear the cowboys/girls say "Cowboy up," well we just simply "Chicken UP" here!

Various forms of chocolate & blue Call Ducklings​

A Dozen VERY Fresh Eggs!​

For 30 years, I apprenticed in chooks with a bunch of barnyard mutts...Oh the MANY things those birds taught me...lots of beaky bitey pecks and wing slaps to the tete...proves even the dull and dumb can make progress given enough time and incentives!

We've slowly progressed somewhat from the backyard flocks over the years!

May as well talk about some of the last additions, first since a lot of the in-betweens will show up here on a day to day basis summarized when I find a moment to post on this thread about our ongoing family life.

What a summer we had last year...summer of the swans!

Fire Ember in foreground, Rat Ranch Fixins in the shade, and Black Pearl flapping with joy ​

It was a life long dream for us to acquire Australian Black Swans.

Girls in 8-week quarantine nibbling on romaine lettuce​

In 2009, we brought in Stove Pipe (Holland import) and Smoke Stack (Alberta/Ontario cross).

Smokey in the foreground, Piper in the background.​

We completed the dream last year on our Ranch's 15th year anniversary by importing two unrelated pens from the Southern States to complete the uniting of the two cobs with their mates...life long mates. And yeh, Black Swans have a life expectancy of 30 to 40 years...no light undertaking that commitment!

Pearl & Ember​

This May 7th, Pearl gave us five beautiful swan eggs (see my hand trembling below?)...Piper was moulting and not so interested in the next generation of Black Swans...but it does give us something promising to look forward to (nice to have that pending, eh?)...a future with cygnets!

Australian Black Swan Pearl's egg - 230 grams​

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Veg Garden - July 7, 2014​

Because of so many weather factors living here, Rick built me a lovely greenhouse...now if I was not ever so busy hatching birds at that time of year...might see a bit more production plant wise!

Greenhouse in Orchard - 2007​

We hatch birds here late compared to most (June to September) but then I get to enjoy putting them outside on the lawns as Day Olds! No worries either that there is not at minimum 14 hours of natural sunshine to ensure good quality egg shells and fertility is at its peak. The wild Wood Ducks in our area hatch ducklings for the end of June...why fight good sensible Nature? So we mimic her and enjoy the benefits of that.

Bantam & Standard sized chicks - July 14, 2014


Red standard Chantecler doing "face plant" in chick starter
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We natural hatched all our poultry up until 2007 when we purchased Buster the Bator. We still natural hatch in the winter months, but do most of the other hatching using him.

Call Ducks the size of pocket change

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After a bit of learning how to prune fruit trees, this Dolgo crabapple survived my attentions and sure makes a spectacular show every June.

June 14, 2009​

I am a colour breeder and study colour genetics. I often find White birds terribly boring once they replicate truly. Our first attentions go to vigour and natural disease resistance, fertility & production, temperament and longevity....all BEFORE we care about "what the birds look like" as in phenotype!

Bantam White Wyandotte roo​

I enjoy taking good quality, well shaped birds (breed) and instilling that into different varieties (colour patterns). My thoughts are that all the varieties within the breed should have the same positive attributes no matter what colour patterns they possess. I like the challenge there is in producing a rainbow of colours and patterns and then investing the years of fun & creative work it takes to make them pure breeding predictable varieties once again.

F4 Generation - not quite White but getting CLOSER!
May 13, 2014 - winter natural hatched​

I have nine years invested already in making real blooded BANTAM Chanteclers from Standards.

Top - Standard Chant eggs
Bottom - Good quality eggs from the Bantam project birds​

I hope to have Partridge, Buff, and Whites in bantam chickens by doing what we have always done, retain the top three percent for breeding prospects and repeating that season after season after season.

Sweetgrass turkey girl Chiq and her "bowtie"​

Buff and Buff Pied American Geese parents and six not so little "goslings" - 2013​

Glenn Drowns wrote the latest edition of Storey's Guide to Poultry which has a farm profile on us in it...I figure it is a good short like summary of what we do here. I'll post that now to give you a general idea of some of the concepts regarding what we do here.


Storey's Guide to Poultry, by Glenn Drowns, 2012; Pages 318 & 319:

Pretty is, as Pretty does...​

Extra Large - July 27, 2014​

Production in our poultry is most important...you won't find me touting the virtues of heritage poultry that don't put good tasty firm meats and great delicious good-for-all eggs on our plates to be enjoyed.

Buff standard Chantecler cockerel harvested at 20 week old fryer - 2009​

For us, poultry = production or why would one bother raising birds without these BENEFITS to enjoy?

Bantam Duck Eggs
Left: 3 Indie eggs (note that the first eggs they will lay are dark!)
Middle: Circle of Call Duck eggs
Right: 3 Australian Spotted Duck eggs​

Waterfowl Eggs
Top: 2 American Buff Goose eggs
Middle: 3 Silver Appleyard Duck eggs
Bottom: Left; 2 Production Rouen Duck eggs AND Right; 3 Dutch Hookbill Duck eggs​

Easter 2012 - Heritage Turkey Dinner


Thanksgiving 2012 - Heritage Turkey Soup
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Whilst raising up heritage poultry costs MORE in time, efforts, and resources (feed & water well; your inputs = your outputs!) to do compared to the factory farm mush meats and grocery store swill eggs...the pay back in quality and taste <<a premium quality happiness product>> more than makes up for the added monetary expenditures! There is no price to be put upon the love that is created and shared when you choose to keep heritage poultry.

So let me close this beginning post with some of the lyrics from a great song that I adore and have used in the title of this new thread of ours.

A song all about...JUST ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE!

Just Another Day in Paradise
Phil Vassar:​

The kids screaming, phone ringing
Dog barking at the mailman bringing
That stack of bills - overdue
Good morning baby, how are you?
Got a half hour, quick shower
Take a drink of milk but the milk's gone sour
My funny face makes you laugh
Twist the top on and I put it back
There goes the washing machine
Baby, don't kick it.
I promise I'll fix it
Long about a million other things

Well, it's OK. It's so nice
It's just another day in paradise
Well, there's no place that
I'd rather be
Well, it's two hearts
And one dream
I wouldn't trade it for anything
And I ask the Lord every night
For just another day in paradise​

Hope y'all enjoy these posts...posts from the Great White Northern Pear-A-Dice living the happy family life.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

So I threatened to do this some time ago...tell my story (oh NO...not a story about chickens...have MERCY!) about the Higgins White Dove Bantam Chantecler Chicken project...anyhoo...here goes.

Started on this project in 2005.

INTRODUCTION

I had read about how the bantam white Chantecler had been attributed to Donald Dearing of Ontario. So I called him up. Chatted with him for quite some time. He told me he made the White Bantam Chanteclers by copying Brother Wilfrid's Chantecler breed "recipe" but he used bantam chickens instead of standards (large fowl).

Creation of the White Chantecler as per the breed accepted by APA in 1921 ​

What Mr. Dearing did not know was that the last influx of breeds that the Monk added to the Oka Whites was White Rhode Islands. How much Donald would care, not sure as the original recipe is what APA and ABA accepted as what created the breed recognized as Chanteclers. Oka Chants, therefore are NOT what the sanctioned poultry associations have accepted as representations of the breed. They have had another breed added and Brother Wilfrid has been quoted as saying his birds would not be "show" birds in the sense he wanted production above all else. Canadian breed for putting eggs and meat on the plates of the common folk of Canada.

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Arthur Schillings 1923 retouched photographs of a pair of Chanteclers - still used right up until 1998 in the APA SOP to represent the White variety of the breed of Chantecler chicken.

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So what I wanted was a real blooded bantam version of the standard Chantecler. How I was going to get there was to cross my bantam Wyandotte males on my standard Chantecler females. Would take years to accomplish, hundreds and hundreds of birds to see any success...but doable.

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We had Silver Laced Bantam Wyandottes.

The Bantam Wyandottes​

I bred the bantam White Wyandottes, exhibition quality from Reg Hughes that originated from Art Lundgren (a friend of Reg's) to our Silver Laced lines. My thoughts were to investigate what made the Whites and all colour combinations I could expect to POP out during my work to make bantams. I have no issues with crossing varieties, though I must state that I rarely cross chicken breeds. I like to play with colour patterns, but not shapes and traits unique to breeds. Only do that for a good reason and I guess I found one. Making a large fowl breed a bantam.

Super White, eh!​

I soon discovered the colour genetics I would likely be working with would be;

e-series - eb Brown in the Partridge / eWh Wheaten in the Self-Buffs / not sure what series from the White Wyandottes but likely eb Brown simply because any colour patterned like Golden Laced were very nicely detailed and eb seems to do this nicely.

Some of the colour patterns that POPPED out​

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s- series - gold, Silver

Male Bantam Wyandottes
Single dose of barring/cuckoo on left
Double dose of barring/cuckoo on right​

Various others: Autosomal red, blue dilution, barring/cuckoo, lacing, Columbian, Mahogany, Dominant White (from the Chanteclers), Recessive White (from the Wyandottes)...

Oka Chanteclers​

This is where I am at, twelve years later...what I figure is a nice clean, white as the new fallen snows...self-White bantam version of the standard Chantecler...good production of decent eggs, longevity, disease resistance, love their temperaments (tough and tenacious like us Canadians; what's not to love thar), fertility and vigour are good, just happy, happy / joyous joy!

F4 - Higgins White Dove real blooded Bantam Chantecler - October 20 2016​

Eggs, one per day and bully to her on good production!

Oct 18, 2016 - the above female's production - winter is upon us, so she has gone to moulting mode now and putting on a suit of winter feathers ​

I adore bantam chickens. I find them more productive egg wise than standards--they convert feed to eggs much more efficiently and you can have MORE chooks in the same space with them are bantams, eh. Three bantam eggs make up two standard sized eggs from chooks much smaller. Easier to keep, more intelligent (brain size is bigger compared to body), less mess, less resources to make those eggs...meat wise, sure, the large fowl are going to be harvested for a larger carcass, but hey, Cornish Games are delicious...so one bantam carcass per each person is a huge meal guaranteed to have leftovers, eh.

I guess I am a sucker for the attitudes I see in BANTAM chickens. Feisty lil' birds that make great mothers, great males that keep the peace in the flock, great producers of meat and eggs...jest all round GREAT form of the chicken. I love bantam chickens!

Bantam Wyandotte male chicken at top
Standard (large fowl) Chantecler male chicken at bottom​

HISTORY

So now that I have vision of 20/20 in that I can look back on how we got here...here goes on the beginnings to today, eh.

Bred bantam White Wyandottes to the Silver Laced (for the F1s to go forward with) for five years discovering what was UNDER the no pigment plumage...under the white.

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Then in 2008, we added the standard Chantecler (only large fowl we have) to our roster here and messed with those for a coupla years to see if'n I even liked the breed.

Real chooks...dust bathing, squishing mud between their toes...
napping in the shade, sunbathing in the sunshine...
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We managed to keep the traits we love in the large fowl in the project birds...all the things we love about Chanteclers continued in the progeny. Sure made the project fun.

Real birds that l00ked you in the EYE with confidence
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Real birds that raised naturally hatched babes in Canadian winters...



20 week old Cockerel, real tasty MEAT for the common Canuck folk's plate

Real chickens that produced real tasty eggs, good winter eggs, of great shape and contents...plentiful eggs in winter
Two JUMBO winter eggs in that mess of cackle berries from one day
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The original Chants were REAL chickens and so were the project birds...real to my very soul and not some factory farmed monstrosity...they had REAL chickeny qualities, I wanted more of.

Red Chantecler male​

In 2009, I made the Red Chanteclers which are merely Buff x Partridge...will never have that variety breed true because they are a F1 cross to express the RED variety pattern and colourations. After the first cross, the colour pattern gets messed up. Like a terminal or maternal cross...F1's are the point. Crossing hybrid to hybrid results in huge variation of expression without predictability in as far as colour pattern goes.

Hatched in 2009, Red Chantecler female - Medusa has won Cushion Comb contest here on BYC...alive and well and still going strong. ​

In 2010, began breeding for the Higgins White Doves...the bantamizing of the standard Chantecler in a self-white variety...

P1 females - Chanteclers in standard size ​

P1 males - Wyandottes in bantam size ​

Alot hinged on whether or not my big girls would accept the little men. My cuckoo boys...five of them had to woo the girls and woo woo them they did!

Resulting in lots and lots of F1's...

Rainbows in colour and pattern...of promise that the gold lay (eggs?) at the end of the bow ​

Yikes...near enough every colour, every pattern...endless opportunities to choose from​

And I knew, a rainbow of colours and patterns would ensue. Those faint of heart or confused by the mixture of colourations and patterns may well have quit then and thar...too afraid to delve in head long and nickers in a knot.

F1s and F2s...​

And the breeding continued...with each new generation, I saw more and more promise. Retention rates for breeding prospects here are normally 3% but in this project, I knew I had to hatch out 100's and select hard for the ideals I wanted. Keeping in my mind...whole host of other traits worth having over just phenotype, what the birds l00ked like was not as important as retaining all those great things that drew us to the Chantecler in the first place. No throwing babes out with bathwater. Some figure any old bird with a cushion comb and minimal wattles will do yah...HA on that. A child could pick that out once they know what a cushion comb.

F2s - yet more rainbows...magical melody of variations​

F2's being growed out...

Partridge promise, buff promise, white promise... ​

The arrival of the Silver Columbian male...that was my trigger to show me, Bro W was talking to me if'n I would only listen...he had mentioned the arrival of a Silver Columbian male and to me, to be walking down that same pathway the Bro had...WOOT...I was on the right track...a path he had already travelled and succeeded by.

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And always in the back of my mind, my selections stayed true to my objectives...to see beyond the rainbows and see the visions...the Self-Buff, the Partridge, and the Self-White.

F2 females...Partridge base, self-Buff base and the Higgins White Dove base, the self-White​

I knew the first variety I would be able to manage to get right would be the self-white...the buff and partridge would elude me further but for now, embrace the self-white...knowing that was the easiest to attain. All the white genetics IN the mixes, needed only to be lined up...focus and selected for. Exhibition white...it was there, not it had to be reclaimed.

F2 female - the colour is a messed up golden laced...the beginnings of Partridge
but the form, shape and temperament of this female...oh my, that be Chantecler breed type indeedy!​

So long as the characteristics in the two breeds; the longevity, the production, fertility, disease resistance, the vigour remained...I could continue onwards and upwards...to achieve merely the varieties and size wanted.

Yes, that sure Is a project bantam pullet taking on the biggest standard hen of my Chants
These are no ordinary chickens but then again...
these are not any ordinary breed that is in this WIP
The only recognized CANADIAN breed...they sure are way too much like Canucks eh ​

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Keep in mind, I wanted REAL chickens...I wanted my Chants...my "Fighting Leghorns" as the president of the Italian poultry association coined them when seeing them for the first time, in the flesh in Spain at the International Poultry Congress meeting in 1925. He loved this elegant new breed so much, he wrote to Bro W to get them included in their poultry standards in Italy.

Day one and already communicating to Momma​

The F3s...these two below are a pair, male and female...natural hatched out and that is how I like doing this. Having the F1 and F2 females hatch out the next generation of bantam project Chanteclers...and in winter...testing their tenacity, testing their tolerances, do they have what it takes to don the Canadian title...the national pride of being STRONG and yet, resilient in the face of adversity.

F3 day olds - male at top, female at bottom​

I am not coddling these birds. I do not want weaklings...I want what we already see in the Standards...able to resist & thrive in Canadian temperature extremes; hot summers, long cold winters.

the F2 project hen not only hatched out project birds, she also hatched out other chicks in the breeds we keep here
This is NOVEMBER in Canada...



F1 Pewter - and her natural hatched out brood...making herself useful to the cause here
hatching out a variety of breeds and varieties in winter​

Natural hatched F3 pair as day olds - see from day one the female was not going to be as self-white as the male was going to be​

This pair of F3's growed up and feathered out..

F3s - female on right, male on left​

Not quite yet the whiter than new fallen snows...but hey, Rome was not built in a day, eh.

F3 female in the Higgins White Dove Bantam Chantecler project​

F3 male in the Higgins White Dove Bantam Chantecler project
Even as a day old, you could SEE he was going to be WHITER than the female​

The Chantecler IS a productive bird...the requirement to be structurally suited for producing meat and eggs...in my mind is WIDTH...width to hang meat off of, width to make eggs within...not those ugly V shaped thin bodies we so often see flogged off as productive birds...blah! The ABA standard for the breed compares the bantam Chantecler to the Rhode Island that is described as a brick with rounded corners. We want BLOCKS in shape...solid conformation and yes, we are talking about chickens here. Blocks of productiveness...

Never any doubt about width of structure in the project birds...
Backs you could throw a saddle upon, length and width of BACK = PRODUCTION ​

Not just the self-whites in the F3 generation had me happy and doing the silly chicken dance.

F3 partridge pullet expressing minimal cushion comb​

F3 Self-Buff pullet - again, minimal head gear...how very Chanty of her, eh!

I like the ongoing shape and knew, one more generation on the F3's and, and....

F4's - white, partridge, two buff prospectives and another partridge​

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Eureka...the project was starting to produce day olds I could see the variety they were striving to be. Not just a mess of rainbow colours and patterns, but REAL varieties were on the go.

F4 in a trio of Self-Whites - young stock
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F4 pullet


One of my fav photos of her...1st egg from this F4 pullet​

Same pullet...F4 girly, does she have what it takes to be worth going forward on...
Can't tell in her first year...she's a pullet, she's not a hen...
Breeding from pullets is too risky...live long enough to become a HEN...she's
validated longevity, production, fertility, disease resistance...
Judged worthy...​

Her first egg...very promising...will she continue to be productive?
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I know those of you that read my thread already know she made the cut...

Oct 18 2016 - Standard Chantecler male compared to Bantam Chantecler female​

Size of a Bantam compared to Standard?​

Did I get where we wanted to go...self-white and bantamizing the standard Chantecler? Well have I?

"I'm the BOSS Lady!"
"Yes Madam!"​

I retained the feisty attitude I adore in the female Chants...she nipped a few feathers outta this boy's hide during the photo shoot...

Stop that you monster...that feist is the same feisty attitude that allows her to raise and protect her babes, eh.

Lookit his face..."Don't pull any more feathers please Lady!"
Some lady...she's a brat but he's a total gentleman...​

I will post these two photos again...because now we can see as time went by, she never failed to please.

Higgins White Dove real blooded Bantam Chantecler F4 hen - October 20 2016​

She kept on laying good quality eggs to embellish our world
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My making the Chantecler widdle, that project continues...I have six partridge prospect hens and one partridge prospect cock for next season. The self-Buffs continue...lots of work still to go on these two varieties and knew that going into this. Self-White just HAD to be my first completion...had to be the easiest to see completed.

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Self Buff trio - F4's


F4 self-buff female​

And all the while, the Higgins White Dove project was one hurdle I knew we would get to first...and then all the widdle other projects are ongoing...my white feathered and dark skinned Booted Bantam project is now resolved...have more than enough white feathered dark skinned Booteds in both genders...success there too.

First Buff Standard Chantecler Chantelle
Way too soft feathered...this gal, still alive and well here...​

Putting harder feathers (these are NOT Orpingtons!) in the self-Buff standards is still ongoing.

Firmer feather, but miscolours in the tail...
Still a work in progress in this area​

Hind sight is 20/20...the progression to get there...again, not for the faint of heart, not for those that give up...

F4, F3 and F1 females - Higgins White Dove in baby step progression...​

As I said, 12 years to get Self-White worth breeding from...but man oh man...how that time flies when you are having fun and then...to see the success, eh.

Now all I gotta do is make more...and more and more...

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[getaclue]

Tara wake up!

She's out watching the antics of her little sheep. She'll be back when they go to college.

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

This will be my 1,000 post to BYC...LOL...I recall being nagged for like two or three years to join this place...then one day I guess I was having a weak moment and I did...I never posted for some months after that but now, with my own thread, I guess you get roped into it, bit by bit, eh?

So some past business, yes, copper was my choice and ever so glad to see it is unanimously endorsed! Thank you for replying peoples...reassurance over the top that COPPER is Lacy's colour when it comes to metallic!

Gone to three conformation drop in classes...Lacy is such a GOOD gal...she's got the stand for exam down pat...if'n I stuff bait in her chompers that is. Any reason a dog screws up...it is always it seems, HANDLER error...hee hee..that be moi!

So Lace-a-lot is better on the standing for exam by the judge (pretend one) at the classes (kisses and waggest tail...very UN-ACDish of her!) and Emmest is better on the gaiting around the ring (the run silly with your canine partner...both are excellent at running on a loose lead but Emmy paces much nicer than Lacy). Hope that explanation makes some sense. Only my second java cuppa this morn so far!

Had made arrangements with best son (the one and the ONLY BOY...apple of our eyes, eh!) to attend last Sunday conformation class...what a bomb that was! I had asked the owner of the conformation place if they needed my name and telephone number on the Tuesday before the Sunday and got told in no uncertain circumstances NO. They and I quote, "never cancel" even if only one person shows up, a class is still held..."Okey Dokey for me and Rick being neurotic and planning for the worst case scenario...it takes me days and unheard of preparations to show up for an hour and a half class...from keeping dogs clean to baking liver for bait and doing up my chores to a "T" but OK...fur being cautious.

Well we did as we always do, arrived half hour early for classes on last Sunday and Rick says to me before I even get outta the Winter Dog Bus..."Go see, there's a note on the window of the building!" Yeh, March 20 drop-in conformation class - CANCELLED" Yeh...whatever! You know when you get old enough that you can be the deer in the headlights and still not able to avoid the car obliterating yer body...yeh that kinda sinking feeling. Found out on Tuesday drop in class evening that our three hour round trip to class to find no persons thar for running it was beat out in disappointment AND expenses by a person with Great Danes that travelled from Estevan Saskatchewan (a thousand kilometers TO the event = a ten and a half hour drive non-stop!--good gracious!). There was no reason given for the cancellation. It was cancelled...OK.

Pretty precious- these THREE!

So on the Sunday, I had Rick quickly call the Boy when we realized what was up (no reason for him to traverse a country road now was there)...Rick told him to salvage the day, we would turn round and head back to the nearest town, meet in a small park and we'd buy the lunch and exercise the dogs where other families were with their dogs and babies. Pleasant springish day...and salvaged it quite well. The girls had their very first EVER ice cream (with Rick querying me about the bad sugar content in ice cream--I think he felt chided because HE did not think of this nasty nasty first...Girls were a bit quizzing me about the cup with a plastic spoon fulla coldish stuff but after two trying lickas, met with seal of approva;--"ARF ARF WE LUV THIS!! This thing you bring called vanilla ice cream!!!").

Rick's idea to switch from the enclosed dog crates to wire ones resulted in another excellent decision (he's so good at those). I have one already but required a second one. So on that Sunday, after a few days before where I had looked at crates comparing sizes (hilarious the variations in dimensions in a MEDIUM labelled wire dog crate, whatever!) and prices...we lept the leap and made the decision to choose one for Emmy. Not as tall as Lacy's wire crate by an inch or so but works well.

We walked thru the pet store (antoher FIRST for the girls--first saunter thru a pet store) and the gals quite liked it...bit hesitant with all those smells and the tall, tall shelves fulla stuff and the dog washing area at the back where some miserable but relieved looking pooch was having its beauty treatment. I caught Lacy giving the dog the "Oh my good gosh! You poor BEAST!" look...that look of knowing...what we dawgs hafta endure for living in the human cave, eh!

New crate on the left to the old crate on the right​

So with this being my monumental 1,000 post...I have made the grave error to read some of the "Chantecler" threads that pop up here from time to time...good

I have had some notion but never had the real proof in the pudding on how very bad the misinformation and ignorance runs rampant on the Internet...oh well...people are entitled to their opinions but when it comes to history...it is what it is. I suggest that people take persons on the Net at face value, that their words are only as good as their hands on experience and years of doing what they do with the topics they choose to write reports on.

Runs along sorta like the notion that if one keeps turkeys, heaven forbid that it rains...because, well the Internet SAYS that turkeys that are rained upon, turn their heads up skyward and DROWN...yeh, getting right on that...good gracious!


I see no persons that are spreading all this ignorance quoting their sources...no scientific methods of which I love to use OR when they don't have that at the very least, speaking of their own personal experiences with the topic they have...

I uses the scientific method most often because, well its logical and it is not often discredited and at its worst...spreading untruths and rumours. Scientific method is a way where you don't pull crap outta yer butt but you site your sources and personal experiences with the topic you are posting information about...Scientific method has people like moi, quoting segments of integral authorities experiences to PROVE what I am saying can be backed up with more than just my MOUTH spewing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method:

The scientific method is an ongoing process, which usually begins with observations about the natural world. Human beings are naturally inquisitive, so they often come up with questions about things they see or hear and often develop ideas (hypotheses) about why things are the way they are. The best hypotheses lead to predictions that can be tested in various ways, including making further observations about nature. In general, the strongest tests of hypotheses come from carefully controlled and replicated experiments that gather empirical data. Depending on how well the tests match the predictions, the original hypothesis may require refinement, alteration, expansion or even rejection. If a particular hypothesis becomes very well supported a general theory may be developed.[1]

So, without further adieu, it is by scientific method that I live my life and therefore have personally come to know the TRUE HISTORY of my namesake here on BYC...

CANUCKBOCK is my handle on BYC and for good reason. In this golden anal retentive mind of mine...I store details, my curious outlook in life are complied of thoughts developed upon facts not fiction, theory not conjecture...so here is my take on the Chantecler and maybe, jest maybe someone on BYC that has been mislead and taken so off course and down the garden path will read it and find the truth in it. I have my feathers in a ruffle on this topic because all these untruths are harming my beloved chicken breed...the sing brightly Chantecler flocks that I am blessed to live in the company of are harmed by misinformation about them.

So since all scientific method begins with a question, here I begin with one...

What are the characteristics of the true Chantecler Chicken backed by historical records and real life situations living with them since 2008?​

Evil Medusa...my first Red Chantecler that I bred in 2009

Best Cushion Comb winner here on BYC in 2015​

So, in the first place to go with the which came first the chicken or the egg, "Why Chants?"

I had a fellow I know raise Chants...he loved them but to me upon first viewing, they looked like snakes...snake head with the cushion comb. They were Standards that he kept and well, I never really warmed up to them. But he continued to flog them my way and while I never did like his TYPE in the breed...I did go on to get my own strains and work off them and now, the Chantecler is the ONLY Standard sized chicken we want to keep. No other temptations period. I find interest in other large landfowl but never hit by the urge to acquire any. So isn't it endearing I should become such an advocate when my first impression hit me as off.



Next thing we oft see is "What characteristics can we label on a breed of poultry?" Knowing full well that individuals do not always fall into the same slim characteristics listed for the entire breed but in general, what could we expect to see if we got the Chantecler BREED from a good source. GOOD SOURCE is a key point I want to make. Anyone getting poultry from a hatchery deserves to be cuffed up the side of the head for being point blank stupid on a stick. DUH...a hatchery is a business that produces bazillions of make shift sorta like birds that only vaguely suit the Standard of Perfection's description of the breed and the variety. It would be like going to the dollar store to buy a diamond. You'll get hosed, you'll come how with what you figure is a cheap price for a diamond and an expensive price for the zircon you bought. Pretty simple.

Higgins RAT Ranch Conservation Farm - Dark Brahma Bantam females
Are you able to SEE the pencillings that have taken DECADES of attention to maintain?
DO YOU???

Pictorial case in point...here's three visuals on what a hatchery produces and a breeder's stocks that have had 65 years invested in the TYPE for breed and variety. Buyer beware is the scare!

Dark Brahma Bantams
LEFT - four Hatchery 4 day olds
RIGHT - three Higgins 1 day olds​

Ever hear that saying, "you get what you pay for?" Common sense not taken, eh...

Dark Brahma Bantams
LEFT - Hatchery 4 day old
RIGHT - Higgins 1 day old​

BREEDER with a vested interest in their breed and variety...not a HATCHERY interested in shipping out chicks that arrive alive and they make money on that...

Dark Brahma Bantams
LEFT - Higgins 1 day old
RIGHT - Hatchery 4 day old ​

So the devil is in the details...some misconceptions from persons that are obviously NOT KEENERS...

This IS the proper shape of the breed...I don't care if you colour or pattern them as purple with pink zig zags...for any breed may be any variety. The shape of the Chant is likened to a brick, like the Rhode Island breeds...a brick with rounded corners as described by the oldtimer master chook person Fred Jeffrey's when he describes the bantam Chantecler.

Horrors of horror...lookit this monstrosity that is pictured as a Chant and has been used for far too many years...you see this shaped like a brick (I'd like to play at toss the brick at whomever decided this fray tailed, broken feathered, wing hanging, and dirty V shaped thing--where is the BACK on this bird?? the place to hang meat off of and make eggs from within space--was suppose to represent a Chantecler...because it simply DON'T). The poor thing does not even have the back of the head cut away portion that is a KEY ingredient to Chantecler breed SHAPE... Blah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

​

BRICK shape...block, the female more so than the male...a BRICK...so got that...not a V-shaped thing I keep seeing labelled a Chant...that is NOT a Chant and will never EVER be. Look it up in the 2010 APA SOP...page 21 and 22...study those figures in black and white...see the difference between vigor and productiveness...I mean the pens of Buff Leghorns resembled blocks even...back in the good old days when chickens were produced by persons in the thousands...where they went to the coop, the day of showing and plucked a few good lookers off the roosts and whisked them away to the shows and won against REAL competition of huge entries...consistently for FIVE years in a row at the GREAT shows that use to happen. The good old days, eh.

Unrecognized varieties of standard chants in males
​

No matter the colour...you want SHAPE in it for the BREED to be correct! And for productive fowl, broad backs are wanted! Blocks, building blocks to build upon!!

Some hackle clicks on some of my Chant birds here...note below the two kinds of Partridge...the red for exhibit female partridge breeder hen and the black hackle for the exhibit male partridge breeder hen...double mating at is finest! Royalty of the show ring from four kinds in two breeding pens. Hackle black is a whispered about phenomenon and if you don't have the extra black, yer partridge hens will lack in their colour pattern...jest sayin'.

FEMALES - Red, Buff, 2 Partridge



MALES - Buff, Red, Partridge​

There are two recognized varieties in the APA and ABA standard for Chants...the White and the Partridge. People are working on the self-Buff getting recognized too...Mr. Franklin made the Buff variety in the Buff Chants.

Red Chants...it would be ludicrous to think that could be a recognized variety...you cross Partridge with Buff to get Reds...the very colour recipe is a heterozygous impure mix of two varieties, and you get the grey slate underdown form the mix of the e-series base of Wheaten (eWh) and Brown (eb).


If I hear one more time that the Partridge variety of the Chantecler is the ALBERTAN...I am gonna puke, quite literally...puke!

​

For all the research I have done...the years of investigation...the ALBERTAN is extinct...there could be some in jolly old England from some that were shipped over thar but the Albertan was abandoned by its creator, Dr. Wilkinson in Ontario...where Andrè Auclair picked up a flock of duck footed, low vigoured birds and crossed his white Oka Chants into them to save them. From this crossing Auclair began his black Chanteclers and keep in mind that line, any breed may be any variety!

The Albertan is dead...it is a cross of Oka Whites and the Albertan Partridges that survived to this day and it is now gone...


So I got me lots of colour varieties...rainbows of colours to dazzle yer senses...

Bantam Project Chant...l00k past the golden laced...see the SHAPE of the Chant



Red Pyles in both genders​

​

Blue tailed Buff male​

I raise PARTRIDGE CHANTECLERS as per the SOP Standard for THAT breed....

Day olds with cushion combs...



Cushion comb...a comb so welcoming other chooks MUST sit upon it




Some have NO wattles which is not correct for the breed
​

A Chantecler must have some wattles...not none which tho it is more cold tolerant, is not BREED correct.

female - small wattles and a good cushion comb fur a girl



male - great comb with some wattles
​

male - good cushion comb...square on head and good shape​

Read the Standard words and go for the for the most correct BREED type shape...

My avatar on BYC shows the Chantecler Shape ​

Colour pattern means nada if the bird has NO BREED SHAPE!​

Red Chants in both genders...see the Chant SHAPE???


​

huge and wide for production of both meat and eggs of the happy sorts

Some birds I chose shape over correct colour...she is too light in the background from a proper Parti girl
but she's a BIG gal

Dark wide girlies - big dark mommas, eh

Some I choose correct pattern for...correct saddle & hackle in this male Partridge is NICE

His son... repeats the same...make more of the same

​

So back to my Parti comments...I am done, period, over this silly Albertan revival that keeps rising its silly head...good gosh already! I raise PARTRIDGE CHANTECLERS...I also have other varieties of Chanteclers in the works that are blue laced, blue laced buffs, blue partridge, golden laced, blacks, buffs, red pyle, blue tailed buffs, etc. But throughout all these varieties, the SHAPE is what makes the BREED as per the Standard of Perfection for them...that and purpose and characteristics like foraging, predator avoidance, free ranging, ability to raise up their own young, fertility, productivity, disease resistance, longevity, production of meat and eggs in plenty....etc....

​

This is an Albertan above with its own Standard (which I dislike and do not mimic in my Partridge Chants)...below, this is what Chants of any variety of the many (be it white, buff or partridge or my blue laced buffs or my blue partridge or golden laced, blue tailed buffs, Red pyle, etc.) are suppose to look like.

​

As far as the Chant being or ever likely to be extinct...learn from past mistakes. Dr. Crawford screwed up royally and he has admitted that to me...he said the Chantecler was extinct and he got a backlash he is still reeling from!

The people in the province of Quebec...where Oka is...where Bro W made the breed to begin with...have always and will always have the Chantecler...it is no big deal to the farm upon farm that has them as their chicken. The PQ farm bird is the White Chantecler. Never any worry the breed will be extinct. The article "labour of .love" states that a small group of them have applied to the province to get special status for the breed. So please, quit flogging a dead horse already. I have a friend in Quebec that has raised White Chants in a pedigreed line of over 90 years. You read that right...ninety years... No biggie or concern the Chant in any of its varieties will go poof any time soon.

Extinct...threatened...depends I guess on your definition of in trouble I suppose...I own an original copy of the 1998 Chantecler Breeders Directory that is compiled of eleven pages with about 15 persons per page...let's see, eleven times fifteen equates 165 Chant persons...for that one directory alone.



Bro W created the Chantecler for Canada...for the common folk of this land...and our temperature EXTREMES...we have here in Alberta alone, temperatures that range from -60C/-76F to +43C/+110F. Here at Pear-A-Dice, I have personally experienced temperatures from -53C/-63C to +40C/104F. I get EVER so tired of these queries about how Chanteclers are good for cold temperatures but not hot. Good golly Miss Molly already! Bro W exported his beloved Chants to South America/...to South Africa...to FRANCE...for Petesake...already...UNCLE I cry...Chanteclers that are bred right and raised here in CANADA are good for temperature EXTREMES...both cold and hot...humid and dry...for Canada is a variable country of many types of climates...from prickly pear cactus in Drumheller to igloo living at the North Pole...UNCLE already!

Word it correctly..."Chanteclers THRIVE in temperature EXTREMES" Not just long cold winters but long hot summers pending where in Canada you reside...the Chants thrive!

Read it and weep and keep it correct, eh.

​

White Chantecler: Female (Dark Cornish Male X White Leghorn Female) x Male (Rhode Island Red Male X White Wyandotte Female) resulting Female pullets x White Plymouth Rock Male.

M. Wilfrid Chatelain (Monk at the Cistercian Trappist Monastery) of Oka, Quebec began developing the White Chantecler in 1908, presented them as a breed in 1918, and the Whites were recognized in the American Poultry Association American Standard of Perfection in 1921.

In 2010, I did not know that Wilfrid went on AFTER he submitted the White Chantecler to APA for recognition...that in 1923 (info from his obituary that one of my PQ friends sent to me...how wonderful eh!) he would add more breedings to his mix. He added in 1925, the Rhode Island White...which therefore makes the true Oka Chants, no longer the same birds that APA accepted.

July 27, 1927 - Chant stuffed on top,
real live birds in cages...keep in mind
these are OLD TIME correct for 1927 birds
Modern breeds do not mimic what was in 1927 ​

How important a detail...mega important to persons that are breeding and have been breeding pedigreed Chanteclers for eons. I have a fellow that can produce records that are over 90 years of his breeding methods...so like purebred registered canines...he has a true line of Oka Chants that stems from generations thru from Oka originals...heritage and bred bird by bird down thru the ages of decades. HIS birds are Oka Chants, and because Brother Wilfrid added more breeds than are listed in 1921 and has a different standard than the ones in APA and ABA...(differences like the males are like ten pounds if my noggin remembers properly)...the Oka Chantecler would not adhere to the SOP description we find today in the Standards.

1944 - Bro W with his Chants...no longer the Chants in the APA SOP
But his Oka strain​

Here's another nib in the smooth complexions of Chants...for the very purist (of which Dr. Crawford who edited the Poultry Bible concurs) form of heritage purebred (no pedigree police in poultry but many do choose to breed only pure lines and keep records for such), unless a line or strain of birds can be traced back and link itself to the true place it started from (with no additions of outside stocks), it is not truly THAT breed or variety...to the very purist of which, there are a surprising number of persons that do such things. There was a group started for Bro W that was an association that would have meets where you brought the Chants you created that year for judging and were judged and identified or culled as not meeting certain standards...you had to be a member of the association and there were strict enforcements of who you were allowed to have possess your stocks. Very confining in my opinion but that be that, back in the day.

Standard Chants in Canuck summer​

Early Canuck spring -


The girls RUSH the doors...let us out...we want outside no matter the conditions! ​

​

When Donald Dearing created the bantam Chantecler, he took the breeds he thought Bro W used and used the bantam forms of the standard (large fowl) breeds. What Mr. Dearing did not realize that in 1923 AFTER the breed was recognized by APA...Bro W continued to tweak the Oka stocks. He went on to add another breed...the White Rhode Island and Mr. Dearing never added this in the bantam form to his creation. In fact Donald never added a drop of REAL Chantecler blood to the bantams. To me, that screams it needed to be done. So I have done that and created my own line of bantam Chanteclers...the Higgins White Dove project...years now in the works.


Rainbows of colour...crossed bantam Wyandotte males with standard Chanteclers....

F1 Chantecler Bantam chicks


F1 and F2's ​

F2 females...already seeing a partridge, a buff and a white...so early too




Both genders showing mismarkings in a self white of some phaeomelanin...the red peaking



Females in this case, leaked more RED ​

Ah but success...you keep at it for years and voila...

Self white day old Higgins White Dove
Bantam project Chantecler

Keep in mind, self white covers over almost everything...from left to right is F3, F2 and F1...



Yee haw...a white chook and we kept the production all along the way, eh

Other improvements...the buff has some soft feather issues. Self-Buff Chanteclers, tho unrecognized should not be too soft feathered like an Orpington may be!

My first (and still going strong) Buff hen Chantelle...too poofy softy



Voila...harder feather in the self buff...BUT
Note miscolour in tail feathers...and so it goes
Never quite done now are we but ever so hopeful every new season
Brutes for punishment...perhaps? ​

Broodiness - oh for Petesake again...do you think a person like Bro W would keep Chanteclers when he was on the cutting edge of technology back in the day like artificial insemination (he even wrote a paper on the topic!). He was all into trap nesting and record keeping and he used incubators, so wanting good egg production he would not be keeping chickens that went broody to be able to keep egg records of the amounts he reported. Any hen that went broody DOES NOT LAY EGGS when she is in that state.

Bantam project Chant that hatched and raised a variety of chicks...
Ten of them in the dead of a real Canuck winter...what a hen!
Real bantam Chant in foreground on right by starter ​

This broodiness is a trait we select for or against. If you personally don't want Chants that are broody, you pursue people that keep egg laying records and make selections against the motherly trait for maximum egg production from their females. Me, I prefer birds that do go broody. In our severe winters, in a mere few minutes a winter laid egg freezes and splits. If I have a few Chants that are broody, those girls are worth their weights in GOLD. A good broody will allow other hens to lay eggs and she keeps those laid eggs from freezing by sitting on them to keep them from splitting. Once again, people making assumptions based upon NOT living in the Canadian conditions where WINTER EGGS = split frozen eggs. Duh...if you don't have the birds laying in heated facilities, the eggs split. I just shake my head in awe of the misinformation that is out there from persons without a clue on the reality here.

Besides, it meets with Rick and my thoughts that THE best birds are still naturally hatched and brooded by the BEST being for the job. A motherly hen. She clucks to her eggs, she teaches the chicks how to be a good chook (how to avoid being eaten by predators, how to forage, when to go roost for the night...chicken mannerisms and all that jazz)...she turns and coats her eggs with her own preen gland oils (find an incubator capable of that)...she does a better job at hatching and raising her brood than I can even with all the technology I can muster. Chickens raise chickens the best...we humans pale in comparison.


Egg size and numbers of eggs...Yeh...Bro W comes right out and states he is not after the best egg numbers (the Australorp, a black Buff Orpington of Australian descent holds the worlds record for egg production of an egg a day for an entire year) because he wanted a dual purpose bird...for winter eggs and meat for the plates of the common man...in Canada. Any real chook person knows, you have to have one breed for just eggs or one breed for just meat...look to the commercial factory farmed foods in that category...duh! A dual will not lay more eggs than the leghorn...or the Cornish rock cross will out produce the meat aspect...duh.

Real bird, real life, real enjoyment in dust bathing!
I want a REAL CHICKEN...not some demoralized dead beat thing that is so bred to be like the walking dead
That pumps out meat or eggs and has NO LIFE left in itself!

20 week old roo a doo Chant

MEAT - happy meat...tasty firm meat that lived a real life and chased bugs and sunned in the sunshine and lived!



Capons in 1919 with Bro W and his students
for Bro W was also PROFESSOR Wilfrid...​

Dual purpose...meat and eggs...

Eggs -- glorious EGGS


​

Show me the eggers...the cackle berries...


Not one egg a week, or three...but an egg a day and what eggs indeed from the Chantecler sing brightly hen flock

JUMBO - not small, medium, large or even Extra large...
JUMBO​

You select in the production YOU want in your flocks...you make more of the same...and keep at it.

​

Even in the Bantam Chant project...eggs of great quality and big size and numbers!

NEVER EVER set a bad egg...you choose the correct kind of eggs you want...you make the decision where you flock goes...never set BAD EGGS!

Unwashed eggs...chooks on top, turkey and duck on the bottom...
don't like poopy eggs, don't set more of the same!​

Select your birds for WIDTH
width of back for hanging meat off of and for making eggs within
YOU choose what you want more of the same or better of! ​

Want a line of show partridge...you choose the male to match the show females. You keep two pens, a female one and a male one...you double mate them...duh!

Female male (pullet breeder) on left the RED one
Male male (cockerel breeder) on the right the BLACK one
​

You can only get what you want by selection for the traits you want in the offspring.

Day old Standard Chants in buff, partridge and white ​

Produce in numbers so you don't limit your choices because you don't have the numbers required to select from!
​

We keep back the top three percent...for every 100 chicks hatched...that equals one trio...otherwise you will stagnate and not have numbers to choose from.

​

During hatching season (when the wild birds hatch babies...beginning in May and June when conditions allow chicks to thrive), I set eggs from Monday to Friday...daily so I hatch during the week daily. All kinds of birds in Buster the Bator at once.

​

Day old Chanteclers on the grass being REAL chickens



Birds being birds and having a real life


Too cute...so tired asleep in the starter!​

So for my 1,000 post...that be alot of clicks and personal views...oh well, that be me...moi!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Happy FLY Day...

​

Grrrr...where the hockey sticks is the dancy chook and flappy chook in the normal drop down menu fur emoticons on BYC....Grrrr had to steal them from my mangled sig file.... GRRRRR

Tara I think you , Rick and the girls are making the very best of your situation. Of course my only criticism is I notice you eat a lot of veggies but, not any lunch or dinners of ice cream straight out of the cartoon with a good digging spoon.

But I like you all immensely , anyway. PS no birch bark for me, too many loose teeth (also why ice cream makes a great meal). And I love your narration of the photos.

Thank you DD...

Eat yer veg...even the girl dogs get veg. Romaine (the stems are fav), cooked and fridge cold carrots (great for teething relief!), peas (frozen ones go in dish if I made a soup broth and it is too hot / fresh peas I plant jest for the dawgs to pick off the plants...make them feel like they are being naughty!), spinach, etc. EAT YER VEG!

Veg then ice cream.

Tried out a new pool (have to find some place to go in Sep & Oct as the current pool is shut down for renos. I did four laps fast pace and three half laps of butterfly (only tried two half laps thus far!). I don't need a rest between laps for 8 and up to 10 laps now. End of April, I was stopping after first one or two laps...so I am indeed bumping up the cardio and stamina. I may live longer now...longer to be a pain to more persons!

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Course after the swim, off to DQ for small cone for girls and banana splits for Rick and I...yup, sure hope that speedy work out UPPPED MY metabolism because we SLAMMED my efforts by having those treats...you only live once, eh. And we plan on living WELL...

Hey, Tara!

BB2K and I have been puzzling about this for a few weeks, and I figured if anyone I knew could tell me what's going on, it would be you. Can you tell me, what color/pattern is this chicken?

View attachment 1018569

(Yeah, I know, he's a mess - he was just literally in the feed pan before I pulled him out to take the picture).

A little background - he's a Serama, and I know there's a little bit of everything as far as color genes going on in that breed. This is the first time we've seen anything like this in the Seramas, and there are two like this. I know it's not Splash; we have no blue Seramas. Besides, I've had Splash in both Silkies and Cochins, and this doesn't look like they did, at any stage.

His chick fluff was pale yellow; I thought perhaps he was going to be completely white (which would also be a first for these birds). The other bird with this pattern has more black spots than he has; she also had a few black spots when in her chick fuzz, too.

Can you enlighten us? We're stumped!

Hey Bun Buns...

Recessive white perhaps? You need more than one kind of white gene to make a chicken exhibition white plumage--recessive white and dominant white are good starters on a pure as the driven snows white. Plus things like the bird being black (eumelanin) under the white instead of red (phaeomelanin) is best (slow red leaks more than faster black pigment does) plus Silver instead of gold, double dose of lavender, blue dilution....Barring/Cuckoo and mottling double dose; these are all ways to make a bird whiter (no pigment = white).

In chicks, I don't prefer a yellow white...I want a blue white. More likely end with an exhibition white.

Booted Bantams - yellow chick in right top corner will not be as WHITE
as the BLUE toned one on the bottom right corner
My Booteds come in light and dark skins and mixtures (pintos) of either
For whitest birds...I want blue, not yellow.​

Day old Bantam Chantecler project chicks - F3's
Female on bottom (redder), Male on top​

Some round about rooles on white...

Red Pyle male (with also with one dose blue dilution)​

Dominant white will be expressed as pyle, in red or blue or black...one dose leaves you with a pattern like these and nope, like blue dilution, pyle (or pile) pattern does not breed true. Heterozygous for dominant white.

Red Pyle female - she also hints at blue dilution as she is kinda bluey in areas
Blue dilution is GREAT for making self white chooks ​

The male gender expresses more white, he'll be whiter than a female of exactly the same genetics (think bro and sis, eh).

That photo above of the two day old chicks...same natural hatched chicks in winter...now same birds in summer

F3 pullet​

It is vividly evident...pullet is redder and cockerel is whiter.

F3 cockerel
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It took me twelve long years and many, many, MANY chicks and grow outs to end up with this one... ONE HEN!!!! Celebrations begin NOW!

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F4 - White white WHITE...did I say WHITE Hen???

Brother Wilfrid, creator of the Chantecler...he had this same Columbian
pattern show up in his creations...he went with a Columbian cockerel to set
the white in his new Chantecler breed
That man was a genius before his time
Already knew black base better than red base
No pinky or orange birds...thanks!
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What did I just write...better to start with a black based bird than a red one...

F3 - Cute as a button but NOT a white candidate
Fine for Self Buff though! You gotta take what you are given, eh.
Lemons - set up a lemonade stand!!!
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As with anything like breeding programs...plan and hope, do your best but go with the flow and take what you get. You may be looking over something given to you to accentuate if you get yourself bound and determined to have your own way or ELSE. I try, and try hard but am not foolish enough not to step back and go, so what is the good points I am overlooking with my tunnel vision to a wanted end.

Red Pyle Chants!
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Years ago, I was told I should not go forward on these not Partridge and not self-Buffs, but I flipped them the bird on killing them and used them to make some pretty fabulous basis for self-White in the Bantams. I saw past Red Pyle and grabbed the dominant white, which I did not have here in any other breeds. Grab it, embrace it and make the Higgins White Doves...both rec and dom white amongst everything wanted as white enhancers past I don't have any lavender here nor do I want that nasty short feather, feather stopper gene!

Accept the goodness gifts that appear when doing breeding projects and yes, do as you are doing, ask questions and research to understand it better.

Is the Serama recognized as a breed now? I am not up and up on that chicken biz much having sunk into my own happy joy world more often than naught.

Remember...any breed (shape) may be any variety (colour pattern).

What a lovely blessing to mess about with now...good show!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[CanuckBock]

Yah...

Peanut is lambing! Coupla days over (due on eighth, tis the tenth)...SO do I get my wish fur a boy?? DO ever hope so.

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Gotta go. Left camera at Ewe Barn...

Whee hee hee...

 

[Akrnaf2]

Tara
I think that you are ...mmm. ..... suffering from an ultra perfectionism syndrome.

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

How nice, they all looks so festive. . Happy Canada Day

Thank you DD and Happy USA Day, <eh>, to you too now!

Lamb toes behind the flag will be an interesting pic. Looking forward to it.

You'd have to be l00king for toes to notice! ​

I suspect it got a tad hot!

Hey, Tara, got this pic and thought of your similar sheep one... Meet the two-headed Australorp.

Number of legs may vary, not guaranteed to have two heads 100% of the time.
View attachment 1063704

Reminds me of reading dragon mythology and two headed ones. We had a four legged chick live two days when I was a wee child. Two sets of legs tucked up under its chin. Weird it lived as long as it did.

Stranger still. The will to live. We go on our loser laps on Saturday and Sunday and afterwards I am unloading the truck (taking in dog beds for washing)...I hear these bird noises.

A Junco has not only laid and incubated babes...they are obviously fed and growing!

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Dark-eyed_Junco/lifehistory
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark-eyed_junco

Junco hyemalis or Junco has built a nest...where...in the back bumper of the White Suburban...and we have made one trip to Red Deer and one to Calgary back to back before discovering our extra passengers...driven HOURS all over the place and these three babies have lived thru it all. Blows my mind, it does!

Couple weeks back, I found some grasses hanging off the back bumper and told Rick I thought a squirrel was building a nest in his bumper...nope. Was a Junco! Incubation I see takes a few weeks, so rather quick but really??

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The parents have found the nest, Rick placed on the top of one of his '36 Leafs. Being fed, continue to grow but OH NO...NO more travelling for these ones. Truly amazing they survived our loser laps. I would NEVER EVER have believed it unless we had witnessed it ourselves.

Bird nest with babies on board...in a truck bumper...and the White Sub, she is a rough ride.

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Not something Rick and I want to experience any time soon!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Yuppers...my duck project is happening...

I wanted crested ducks, in better and more interesting colours and patterns than just white crested...don't it ROCK when you plan, hope, implement and be patient, you see the fruits of your efforts happen!

Momma Silver Appleyard and her crested babe - natural hatched...NATCH!

Tis a BIG event too...note all the looky lou's
curious about the latest addition!

And yes, of course...the girls had to be introduced to the latest one too!

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Not FUD Lacy...NOT FUD!!!

"Mah brought us a snack!
"Crackers...right??"

Emmy, "Nope, not crackers Lace...
Maybe more QUACKERS, eh!"

Duckling smells Emmy back...not only reassuring her "I am NOT food!"
But also giving EYE to EYE back confidence...
aka as the STINKY EYE!

Emmy says, "Nope, it COULD be fud...but not HERE & NOW!"

"Nope...too cute and certainly TOO small to be for FUD!"

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That be that fur now's...summer weather, summer projects, summer new arrivals...summer time!

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Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[Akrnaf2]

We also have good ones!