Breda Fowl thread

[gritsar]

Sorry you probably have to wait. Bredas are very hard to sex. Some have fooled me for months!

I figured as much.

Chalk, do you mind me asking if you sell on Ebay? My breda eggs came from an ebay seller from California. Unfortunately I lost the seller's email address. I wanted to let him know how my hatches turned out (broody hen had some, I batored the rest).

 

[RFR of CA]

Yes I am in northern CA near Sacramento and I do sell on EBay when I have extras (as in full incubators!). There are a few others in CA that sell eggs on EBay as well. One sells from birds they bought from me.

I am RareFeathersRanch. There is a batch on EBay right now. I hope your hatch went well. I have found that the Breda eggs seem to survive transit better than some of my other breeds. Not sure why or how?? but it seems to be true more often than not. I would love pictures

Sad day: I lost my foundation roo - Big Blue last week -- good bye you handsome gentle soul.. you will be missed.

Christine - Rare Feathers Ranch - Herald CA

 

[gritsar]

Yes I am in northern CA near Sacramento and I do sell on EBay when I have extras (as in full incubators!). There are a few others in CA that sell eggs on EBay as well. One sells from birds they bought from me.

I am RareFeathersRanch. There is a batch on EBay right now. I hope your hatch went well. I have found that the Breda eggs seem to survive transit better than some of my other breeds. Not sure why or how?? but it seems to be true more often than not. I would love pictures

Sad day: I lost my foundation roo - Big Blue last week -- good bye you handsome gentle soul.. you will be missed.

Christine - Rare Feathers Ranch - Herald CA

Christine, I am so sorry to hear of the loss of your beautiful roo.

We had to put our brahma roo down a few years back and I still miss that gentle giant.

The guy I bought from was named Mike. I actually ordered from him twice, a few days apart. I had one broody that had been sitting for months (no lie). I broke down and bought her eggs, she hatched 6 out of 12. The second batch I ran into trouble with, but it was in no way the seller's fault. My broody quit on me and the eggs got cold, not sure for how long. I set up an incubator real quick, but was only able to salvage 3 out of twelve.

I intended to get a video of them last night but we had a neighbor stop by and stay a little longer than expected. The nine breda and 2 bantam cochins hatched at the same time are all in a coop, all doing great.

They are 3 weeks old now. Here's a pic of a splash, taken about a week ago before the splashes really started to show up.


The day they moved to the coop...

 

[RFR of CA]

Right now I have a Splash rooster and only a few blue hens left. According to the Blue chart I should be getting a mix of blues and splashes, but he is giving me 100% splash! I am not sure that is even possible! HA. I do have a nice large black roo almost ready so I guess I can wait. The rest in my pen are all the barred and mottled colors I am trying to start.

Thank you.

Rare Feathers

 

[gritsar]

Right now I have a Splash rooster and only a few blue hens left. According to the Blue chart I should be getting a mix of blues and splashes, but he is giving me 100% splash! I am not sure that is even possible! HA. I do have a nice large black roo almost ready so I guess I can wait. The rest in my pen are all the barred and mottled colors I am trying to start.

Thank you.

Rare Feathers

That little splash guy (and I'm convinced it is a little roo) amuses me so much with his take charge, look-at-me! look-at-me! attitude. I can't wait to see him grow up. Unfortunately I promised a friend that the first one of the eggs to hatch would be named after her and he was the first. That means if he is indeed a roo, his name is Rita.

 

[Sylvester017]

Yes I am in northern CA near Sacramento and I do sell on EBay when I have extras (as in full incubators!). There are a few others in CA that sell eggs on EBay as well. One sells from birds they bought from me.

I am RareFeathersRanch. There is a batch on EBay right now. I hope your hatch went well. I have found that the Breda eggs seem to survive transit better than some of my other breeds. Not sure why or how?? but it seems to be true more often than not. I would love pictures

Sad day: I lost my foundation roo - Big Blue last week -- good bye you handsome gentle soul.. you will be missed.

Christine - Rare Feathers Ranch - Herald CA

OMG! What happened to this gorgeous boy!

 

[RFR of CA]

He was about 2 1/2 so not too old... not sure. He started fading out and you could tell he felt bad, then his comb started going paler by the day until he passed.... I dust for mites, and worm the birds and they all eat very well so maybe liver failure for some reason. It is so hard to say with chickens!

 

[Sylvester017]

He was about 2 1/2 so not too old... not sure. He started fading out and you could tell he felt bad, then his comb started going paler by the day until he passed.... I dust for mites, and worm the birds and they all eat very well so maybe liver failure for some reason. It is so hard to say with chickens!

That is just too young to lose a roo. Since necropsies run somewhere between $50-100 I think if ever I lose a bird that young I will have one done. Some birds can be carriers of pathogens that they can fend off and then a sudden suppressed immunity or something taxing like a moult can weaken a bird until its internal organs succumb to the pathogen they carried all those years.

I'm a worrier and would've had my bird at the vet if it didn't improve in the first 24 hours. That's just me and easy with only 3 hens to worry about. We've also had a rough bout of heatwaves this past month and I know EEs and Ameraucanas in particular don't like heat very much.

Your boy was a beautiful roo to lose so young. Whatever it was one can only hope it was an isolated malady and not something inheritent. So very sorry.

 

[RFR of CA]

I have over 100 adults and lots of babies about so vet bills are really out of the question for the chickens. Isolated cases I just accept as nature taking its course. The group he was in is healthy and happy so far. Crossing fingers...

 

[Sylvester017]

I have over 100 adults and lots of babies about so vet bills are really out of the question for the chickens. Isolated cases I just accept as nature taking its course. The group he was in is healthy and happy so far. Crossing fingers...

I knew you had a lot of birds because of breeding so I can understand about the vet costs.

My DH and I are softies and just haul a chicken to the vet when it doesn't change symptoms in the first 24 hours. We figure 24 hours of illness for a chicken is like a week of illness to a human - but again we have only 3 chickens right now and losing one means 1/3 of our flock gone! We suddenly had one very sick Silkie that we sat up with all night thinking we'd have to put her down at the vet but she had a digestive infection and he made her well with a shot and medication. These chickens can hide symptoms for a couple days before we notice they're a bit "off" so that's why we take our girls in right away because we figure they've been masking their illness. On the farm with 50+ Babcock Leghorns my folks had to let nature take its course too because taking chickens to vets back in the 1950s wasn't done - only for large livestock where more money was invested. Sad but large scale poultry seems to take a backseat to vet visits because a vet doesn't lower his costs just because a chicken is smaller than a horse!

I'm sure with your experience you know what to watch for. Crossing my fingers for you too! With that many chickens you must have quite an all-consuming day with chores. Chickens and geese were my favourite chores on the folks' farm. Adults got to care for the larger livestock but they felt safe giving a kid the poultry chores!