Recent content by dawsh2

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    Flock Composition Advice (Bresse vs Barnevelder/Marans)

    Thanks for your reply, to be clear I do have other birds at the moment (just a fun assortment I pick up from the feed store, usually grabbing 2-3 hens every few years to keep the flock going), but I'm wanting to transition into breeding. In comparing Bresse to Belifelder, the Bresse seems more...
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    Flock Composition Advice (Bresse vs Barnevelder/Marans)

    Part of my reluctance to get ‘meat birds’ (Cornish cross), is that you can’t breed them yourself effectively. Any bird that breeds true is either super slow and/or terrible egg layer (Cornish). I don’t want to have to buy chicks, it’s more an issue of principle or independence really. I like the...
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    Flock Composition Advice (Bresse vs Barnevelder/Marans)

    Is there anything that hits the mark better for a true dual purpose? Barnevelders only lay only around 170 a year from what I've read, so the Bresse is around 30-50% better as an egg bird, which is substantial. And yes unfortunately many descriptions for all breeds are also sales pitches.. I've...
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    Flock Composition Advice (Bresse vs Barnevelder/Marans)

    Hmm, I've read the opposite regarding Bresse it seems, consistently reading they lay around 260 eggs per year, and take around 16 weeks to be ready for slaughter. There was one resource that had them ranked as the most efficient bird on their farm in terms of feed conversion rate, and they had...
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    Flock Composition Advice (Bresse vs Barnevelder/Marans)

    Hi, I want to start taking my chicken husbandry more seriously and breeding my chickens, eating the males and selling excess eggs and chicks, and possibly work out some bartering for carcasses. I would like advice selecting a suitable breed and/or flock composition, I only have enough room for...
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    Black Copper Marans discussion thread

    Well that's good news, I have since read (in this thread) that some are getting darkness in the 6-7 range and getting 5 eggs a week, which sounds awesome! Previously I'd been a bit hesistant to try out Marans due to those concerns above.
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    Cornish Thread

    Huh guess I didnt realize it was that poor. That's like 16 eggs a year? I suppose hatcheries offering Cornish exaggerate the egg laying abilities to encourage sales but the breeders supplying the hatcheries also probably select for good egg laying so they can sell more.
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    Black Copper Marans discussion thread

    So is it generally accepted as true that darker eggs mean more time spent pigmenting the egg, thus less eggs per week in general? In that sense, by selecting for darker eggs you're selecting for a slower, less efficient layer? I also recall reading that there was a hypothesis that the pigment...
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    Cornish Thread

    Whats the difference between white and dark cornish? Why does white seem more rare/valuable? And why are these so hard to find!?
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    Bresse x Plymouth Barred Rock?

    I think I may just be sticking to one breed for the foreseeable future. I'd like to dabble with selling eggs, meat and chicks and need to decide a breed to settle on. I can only comfortably accomodate 24 free range chickens at the moment so will just be sticking to one breed and a spiral...
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    Help Planning Flock Breeds/Composition

    Hah yes, cream legbar. I'll edit that correction in.
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    Help Planning Flock Breeds/Composition

    Hi everyone, Let me preface this by saying I have room for say 20-25 free range chickens, maybe 30 maximum. I've been rethinking my flock as I'm switching to breeding my own chicks and intending to butcher and eat excess males. So I've got to tighten down my breeds. I'd like to sell eggs...
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    Bresse x Plymouth Barred Rock?

    Well, maybe it's time to switch to the Bresse x Black Copper Maran plan... Lol. Thanks for the advice thus far. I guess I just want a fun breeding project more than anything. I may still pursue this cross just in hopes of obtaining a Bresse with larger eggs and carcass. For some reason it's an...
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    Bresse x Plymouth Barred Rock?

    Yes, you'd have to do something like breed it prior to slaughter, then make notes during preparation and consumption to evaluate whether the trait is present. Something similar is done a lot in plant/fungi breeding I've done so it's a familiar idea to kind of retroactively select while...
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    Bresse x Plymouth Barred Rock?

    So there's no viable path to creating an autosexing Bresse? Breeding with Bielefelder wouldn't make any difference? If so, I guess I'll just be selecting for larger eggs and good marbling in that case and keeping a pure bred flock going forward.
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