Breda Fowl thread

[BlueJayFarm]

Hello Breda Breeders!
I wanted to put up a couple pictures of my sweet blue Breda boy who needs a home and girls of his own. He was hatched here under my broody on 3/29.




He's so sweet! I'm trying to find him a good home with other Bredas (since they really like to stick together), so where better to look than the Breda thread. Does anyone have any interest in him? Anyone local? I'm in Oregon and would prefer not to ship. His parents are from the second Greenfire Farms line.

Thank you, love this thread!

Oh, I have a couple short videos of him on YouTube:

 

[LovemyBabies]

Ok I have to admit - this is a pretty bird- am I understanding right that they do lay through winter- when most quit?

 

[Sylvester017]

Ok I have to admit - this is a pretty bird- am I understanding right that they do lay through winter- when most quit?

Ask GaryDean26 on this thread about Breda - or ask chalk (Rare Feathers) on this thread as both are very knowledgeable raising the Breda. I am getting two pullets in the Spring because I want a gentle non-combative breed in my little flock. I have re-homed nice egg layers (a Marans, and 2 Leghorns) because they were downright cannibalistic or obnoxious to their flockmates. Leghorns aren't supposed to be broody yet I had one go broody for 6 weeks and she came out of her broody by getting assertive and pulling out all the beards, muffs, and crests of my gentler Silkies and Ameraucana.

Now Breda are not supposed to be broodies so egg numbers should be decent - of course there's always climate, diet, supplements, environment and such that contributes to egg numbers so I will find out next year how this breed lays and how it behaves among my other gentle breeds. Egg size or super-prolific numbers are not as important to me as having a non-combative breed. Our Ameraucana (my avatar) is non-combative and gentle with our Silkies except she is extremely noisy and loves to talk but we kept her because she is so sweet to humans and flockmates alike. Ameraucanas willingly admit orphaned chicks or injured birds into their flock without incident so she should be accepting of the 2 new Breda in the Spring.

The gentle white egg layers I was considering were Polish, Crevecoeur, Houdan, Polish, and Breda. When my DH saw the Blue Breda he was hooked. New varieties like Mottled and Cuckoo are being bred here in the States now. It will be nice not to deal with any beards, muffs, or crests for a change. The Breda feathered feet and vulture hocks will be interesting but then I'm accustomed to dealing with feathered feet on Silkies. Before I decided on the Breda I posted a lot of questions on this thread and dutchbunny83 along with GaryDean26 and chalk helped me to understand the nature of Breda. They are stunning birds but stunning is as stunning does and I will discover next year how this breed evolves.

 

[RhodeRunner]

Ok I have to admit - this is a pretty bird- am I understanding right that they do lay through winter- when most quit?

That really depends on where you live and how you care for your birds. I live in PA (last year was a rather horrid winter) and do not add light, heat, or anything special for the winter. The Breda's did lay for a large portion of the winter. The older birds stopped for their mol, and everybody slowed down/stopped when we where hitting the single digits and negatives.

 

[LovemyBabies]

That really depends on where you live and how you care for your birds.  I live in PA (last year was a rather horrid winter) and do not add light, heat, or anything special for the winter.  The Breda's did lay for a large portion of the winter.  The older birds stopped for their mol, and everybody slowed down/stopped when we where hitting the single digits and negatives.

-

Was curious since most off all ours quit - we live in wa state and in our area we got down to 20's - was rough winter for us as well. Be nice to have birds still lay through winter naturally without aid of light heat etc- maybe I can wiggle this breed into our bunch if I can find someone who carries them

 

[Sylvester017]

That really depends on where you live and how you care for your birds. I live in PA (last year was a rather horrid winter) and do not add light, heat, or anything special for the winter. The Breda's did lay for a large portion of the winter. The older birds stopped for their mol, and everybody slowed down/stopped when we where hitting the single digits and negatives.

PA and the whole upper USA and Midwest got hit extremely harder than usual with storms and cold this past winter so I wouldn't gauge any conclusions on how chickens were laying this past winter in snow climate. Better to gauge laying figures on less extreme record-breaking weather seasons. Just MHO.

 

[RhodeRunner]

Last year was not my first winter with Breda, but it certainly was the worst. They did lay during the winters, but it wasn't a good as their spring/summer production. They stopped in the fall during their molt, and didn't lay as well during the coldest/hottest spells.

 

[Sylvester017]

Last year was not my first winter with Breda, but it certainly was the worst. They did lay during the winters, but it wasn't a good as their spring/summer production. They stopped in the fall during their molt, and didn't lay as well during the coldest/hottest spells.

I think that applies to about any breed. Fluctuations in climate as well as changes in diet, moulting, brooding, can affect any breed at the most inopportune times when you are trying to keep a record of their egg cycles. Leghorns are terrific layers and non-broody but we got a broody Leg and we lost nearly 2 additional months of productivity from her numbers. It's just not a fine science about gauging production. One of our Silkies is a terrific layer for a bantam but one bacterial infection lost us an extra 2 months from her production. She's back to normal again. You just never know. The best one can do is make sure routine health maintenance is maintained with Poultry Protector for lice/mite protection and to worm at least 2x per year and keep the coop environment clean. Everything else is in Nature's hands!

 

[RhodeRunner]

I think that applies to about any breed.  Fluctuations in climate as well as changes in diet, moulting, brooding, can affect any breed at the most inopportune times when you are trying to keep a record of their egg cycles.  Leghorns are terrific layers and non-broody but we got a broody Leg and we lost nearly 2 additional months of productivity from her numbers.  It's just not a fine science about gauging production.  One of our Silkies is a terrific layer for a bantam but one bacterial infection lost us an extra 2 months from her production.  She's back to normal again.  You just never know.  The best one can do is make sure routine health maintenance is maintained with Poultry Protector for lice/mite protection and to worm at least 2x per year and keep the coop environment clean.  Everything else is in Nature's hands!

It certainly applies to many breeds, and all that do lay through the winter. Here in PA, there are many breeds that stop laying entirely during the winters months. In my experience the Breda wasn't one of them, but it wasn't as good of a winter layer as the Dominiqes and Chanteclers. The Dominques where non-stop (1/day) layers, the Bredas Egg production dropped to about 2-3/week/hen.

 

[Sylvester017]

It certainly applies to many breeds, and all that do lay through the winter. Here in PA, there are many breeds that stop laying entirely during the winters months. In my experience the Breda wasn't one of them, but it wasn't as good of a winter layer as the Dominiqes and Chanteclers. The Dominques where non-stop (1/day) layers, the Bredas Egg production dropped to about 2-3/week/hen.

I'm not a Chantecler fan after watching videos about how skittish the juveniles and adults were. As a utility they have been specially bred for Canada's snow climate and I'm not surprised they do so well in winter. I just don't happen to need a large snow bird. Our weather is mostly hot or humid throughout most of the year. We have an Ameraucana and she does not like our hot climate but that hasn't stopped her from laying her blue eggs since she started last winter.

The Doms seem calmer and more versatile in all climates and the Breda are very mellow tempered. The Doms are probably THE most versatile being people-friendly, flockmate-friendly, dual-purpose (the roos dress out nicely) and the hens average 4 eggs/week which is decent for dual purpose, they are busy foragers, can brood their own young, they agree with all climates, and are unafraid/curious - probably hands-down the most versatile hardy Colonial barnyard bird every bred. The Breda are very mellow, almost aloof, are non-broody, handsome looking, average layers, but their huge feathered feet are not conducive to wet snowy ground (no problem for us since it doesn't snow here and we rather like the amusing clown feet on them).

I do want Doms again but I have so many pink and tinted eggs now that I wanted some gentle white layer breed and Breda fit the bill for us. We had a couple prolific Leghorns layers but they were too assertive/aggressive for our gentle flock and had to re-home them - they were pulling out the beards/muffs/crests of all the gentle breeds! I believe if the gentle breeds had combs those would've been chewed off as well!

A geographical area dictates what breeds will do best in different climates. In hot climates the Mediterranean class does best IMO as long as they have a cool pan of water to stand in

-- Leghorns, Anconas, Andalusians, Minorcas, Catalanas, Black Spanish, etc. as long as they are not mixed with smaller gentle non-combative breeds - Meds are not shrinking violets and can get very assertive. Large dual-purpose breeds weighing over 6-lbs can get very distressed in heatwaves and can start keeling over like flies in temps over 100. Smaller breeds and bantams seem to sail through horrific heatwaves better. For snow country Colorado we recommended Doms and Buckeyes to a couple and they got a quad of Doms with a couple Buckeye pullets and absolutely love those breeds on their snowy acreage. All seems relevant according to location. We have read reports of the Doms being the most versatile with owners keeping them from the humid Deep South to cold Minnesota.