A Barbezieux Thread.

[CNJ]

Chiming in since my barbs have made it to the 6 week mark and are now outside! These will be this year's "special" meat birds--hoping to have a cockerel or two for the Thanksgiving table.

For reference: I started with a SR of 6 from someone who got them from a Gold Feather mix and didn't want meaties. I ended up with 2 cockerels and 4 pullets, though one girl has since passed from a coccidious outbreak.

Behavior: kind of flighty--not super into being handled, but once in hand they are (mostly) docile. They're inquisitive and curious of what I'm doing whenever I'm cleaning or refilling feed/water. They remind me a bit of Mediterranean breeds like the Andalusian. They talk A LOT and my monster of a cockerel is very chatty which makes me suspect he'll be an early crower (yaaay). They prefer to be up high and roost on the upper most branch in their brooder.

They are on starter feed and will be moved to an organic, high protein feed at 8 weeks. Entertaining the idea of fermenting their feed. Plan on finishing the french way with plenty of dairy!

Do the roosters bite?

 

[Deenok]

Very int

?? that bird has a crest.... thought they were a non-crested breed?

teresting

 

[piminuse]

Do the roosters bite?

I have 2 cockerels that are probably some of the best boys I've known. The head honcho is really handsome, great to his ladies and respectful of me and my other animals (dogs and cat). Curious, but not nosey, and protects his girls from real threats and not perceived injustice--ie has never rushed me, flapped at me or bit on purpose. The boys will aggressively eat out of my hand and sometimes nip skin, but that's no biggie to me.

So far they've all been great. If I was raising them as pets and interacted with them more then I'm sure they would be A+. As meat birds they've been easy to raise, fun to watch and I'm hoping delicious. Monday is processing day, so I'll let folks know what their final weights end up being.

 

[CNJ]

Thanks for the information, please keep us updated. I am very interested in this breed.
I want to know how long it took to reach the butcher weight and when they started crowing? I have a residential limit so I need to slaughter my crowing roosters before my neighbors complain. I can keep one if I use a velcro crowing collar.

 

[CNJ]

Yay! I've only got a Barbezieux roo, so I put him over some Bresse hens. Those chicks are heavy! They're about 4 weeks old now. Keep us posted on your eggs. Do you know how tall the roo was? I wondered if there was a size difference between American stock and stock closer to home

How did the cross turn out?

 

[piminuse]

I forgot to update, but I've had to push back processing until Nov 23rd due to work.

@CNJ Once cockerel started crowing at 8 weeks, the other at 12 weeks. They are now tidbitting, dancing and mating (albeit clumsily) at approximately 5 months old.

Here's a quick snap from last week:

 

[CNJ]

I forgot to update, but I've had to push back processing until Nov 23rd due to work.

@CNJ Once cockerel started crowing at 8 weeks, the other at 12 weeks. They are now tidbitting, dancing and mating (albeit clumsily) at approximately 5 months old.

Here's a quick snap from last week: View attachment 2402584

Wow, awesome looking roosters, one seem a lot bigger. Do they fly over the fence or do they have a territorial boundary. My Australorp and Jersey Giants won't go over the fence.

 

[piminuse]

Oregon went into lockdown again, so I had some free time to process, and I was tired of hearing five roosters go off at 6:30am. I'm sure my neighbors were quietly cheering me on when I started hanging up my ropes and heating up my stock pot!

Two of the birds processed were my Barb cocks who came in at 3.3 and 3.8#s at approximately 5 1/2 mos old. About 1 1/2 weeks ago we separated the boys into a smaller coop and fed them cracked corn soaked in whole milk twice a day. Coop was covered in a tarp to reduce light and discourage a lot of movement. They plucked fairly easily by hand, had nice pale skin and wonderful fat caps. While we originally planned to feed our barbs a high protein diet we ended up keeping our flocks together and they've been eating organic grower feed. I suspect they would be bigger if I had separated, but the second coop took me longer than anticipated to build. There's always next time!

We won't know flavor until Thanksgiving when we cook up the smaller bird, and again on Christmas when we have the second. Girls will be processed first week of December along with some spare Mosaics. Stay tuned!

 

[CNJ]

That's about the same dressed weight as my heritage birds at 4 1/2 months, but the leg and thigh of your barb in the picture look meatier. I have some Barbeziuex eggs in a 3 day lock down, they should hatch in a few days. The reason why I decided to raise some Bresse and Barbeziuex was to taste its meat quality. My heritage roosters were kind of tough fried. They were better suited for soups, stews and cold ginger chicken.

 

[Perris]

Do they fly over the fence

Obelix can fly up a couple of feet, but not more. He is significantly larger than my heritage breeds, e.g. here next to a mature Welsummer hen and a SFH roo (Barby hen behind).

He is a very gentle soul, and does not bite, even when his claws are being clipped!