Golden Campines

There are two varieties. Golden and silver campines. A few years ago I wanted to buy the bantam breed because of the pro's. But eventually I did not because of the cons.

Information from a Dutch site (levende have) about this breed:
The Campine also caused a furore in America.
The old type of Campine had an excellent reputation as a laying hen, and therefore received the prestigious title "The Everyday Layer" in England. The refined meat, even reminiscent of game, was in great demand. In 1914 the Campine was admitted to the American Standard of Perfection by the APA (American Poultry Association). A milestone in the existence of the then very young breed. Breeder Maarten Jacobs from Deurne near Antwerp has brought the Campines back to the Kempen. The first chickens (eggs) came from the United States, England and Denmark. From Belgium, the first Kempian fowls have also returned to the Dutch Kempen in Eersel.

Characteristics of the Campine (in the Netherlands/Belgium):
The Campine is hardened and weatherproof so does not need a luxurious night stay. If it is up to this chicken itself, he prefers an ordinary tree as a shelter from the weather. So high up he has nothing to fear from natural enemies like the fox. The Campine converts food into growth and lay in a very efficient way. The grouse combines a fine bone structure with a very meaty chest for its weight class. He is an economic eater and likes to collect his own food. In that respect, he still has many characteristics of his distant ancestor, the Bankiva woodland. He likes to forage in the forest where he can gather an extensive diet of critters, berries and grains. A group of Campines would therefore do well in an area with alternating low, medium-high and high vegetation, as a result of which the Campine holder can earn extra income from, for example, fruit growing. The Campine is also a very sustainable variety that is resistant to diseases. The Campine has a constant leg which means that it hardly ever inserts a winter break and that the effect of the moulting period is minimal. He is also a good laying hen during his 2nd and 3rd year of life, so that the rearing costs can be spread over a longer period.

I am not sure if this is the breeds fault or the hatcheries fault but I got 80 chicks in early May, 5 of them were golden campines. When they arrived 1 Egyptian Fayoumi was dead, all the other birds were alive. I had 25 eggs layers with this order, including the Golden Campines. Along with the 25 the hatchery sent me an extra GC and another extra. So I was up to 6 GC after 7 days one of the GC got sick and died, the next day another got sick and died, then I was down to 4. A few weeks later I had a coccidiosis outbreak, a few of my other chicks that I hatched died, I started treatment and a day after the treatment had started another GC got sick and died, the next day another got sick and died, then I only had 2 GC left! I am not sure if it was just a coincidence or if it was the hatcheries breeder flock that is weak but it seems odd that out of my 27 egg layers 4 of them that died were Golden Campines and the other was a DOA. I also got 53 meat birds with this order, 1 died from leg problems and 2 died from the coccidiosis outbreak, so the meat birds, which are Cornish Cross, are more hardy than the Golden Campines so far. Btw the meat birds are kept separate from the egg layers. Well anyways, I will give 1 star for every GC I still have from the 6 so 2 stars. They are a 5 star breed if you can get them to adulthood.