Breda Fowl thread

[Sylvester017]

YUK....pens are a muddy mess right now. The girls solution is to hang out on their bench......and they are finally starting to lay! Took them forever

Ooo-ooo-ooo! So lovely! Even mud can't dull their beauty! They are breathtaking!

Question - the Mottled girl on the top left has a split in her tail - what causes that? Our Cuckoo from you had that during her juvenile molt but seems to have filled out ok now.

AFTER - TAIL FEATHER GAPS SEEM FILLED IN


BEFORE - TAIL FEATHER GAPS


FIRST DAY SHE ARRIVED - TAIL FEATHERS SHORT

 

[Sylvester017]

Muddy messes -- anyone? SoCal is getting drenched!

OUR FRONT YARD


OUR FRONT WALKWAY PLANTER


HOPE AT LEAST MY POTTED TREES SURVIVE


RAIN WAS POURING OFF THE ROOF AND FURTHER KILLING WHAT'S LEFT OF THE GARDEN BED


THE GIRLS STAY DRY UNDER THE COVERED COOP PATIO BUT A COUPLE CAME INTO THE KITCHEN FOR TLC & TREATS - THE PATIO SLAB IS COLD & THEY LIKED STANDING ON THE KITCHEN MAT FOR WARMTH.

 

[SilkiesForEver]

Muddy messes -- anyone? SoCal is getting drenched!

OUR FRONT YARD


OUR FRONT WALKWAY PLANTER


HOPE AT LEAST MY POTTED TREES SURVIVE


RAIN WAS POURING OFF THE ROOF AND FURTHER KILLING WHAT'S LEFT OF THE GARDEN BED


THE GIRLS STAY DRY UNDER THE COVERED COOP PATIO BUT A COUPLE CAME INTO THE KITCHEN FOR TLC & TREATS - THE PATIO SLAB IS COLD & THEY LIKED STANDING ON THE KITCHEN MAT FOR WARMTH.

Yes! In the walkways up to my coops there are puddles and sloppy mud. So ready for this rainy spell to be over and for the ground to dry out.

 

[SilkiesForEver]

 

[RFR of CA]

I assume two randy roosters or the usual feather breakage

. They did not molt out much since they are too young, and they are also still growing. It might just be the pic too. I will take a closer look.

 

[Sylvester017]

I assume two randy roosters or the usual feather breakage

. They did not molt out much since they are too young, and they are also still growing. It might just be the pic too. I will take a closer look.

I was worried for a while when we first got our Cuckoo that she had a split in her tail. "Char" arrived molting her juvenile feathers like crazy! She joined the outdoor flock before Christmas but I am still finding her Cuckoo feathers here and there in the house! She seems to have filled out nicely now with no splits and has a beautiful Cuckoo plumage. She's a finicky eater as Breda seem to be, preferring dry feed over wet foods - all my girls have access to Turkey grow crumbles, Scratch & Peck organic no gmo/no corn layer feed, Scratch & Peck 3-grain scratch, organic layer crumbles, oyster shell, calcium carbonate, all at-will, scattered bird seed as treat, so they pick and choose what nutrients they need -- not all the hens lay at the same time and have their favorite feeds accordingly. "Char" is getting accustomed to cooked meat, and to the organic cooked brown rice very lightly dusted w/ Selenium, Brewer's Yeast, Rooster Booster, and Bee Pollen. She LUVs shell-less raw Sunflower seed treats -- my DH breaks off the sharp pointy ends of the raw seeds so they don't stick in bird crops -- so cute. We get no-shell seeds because they're smaller in size for little Silkie beaks. The Silkies are showing "Char" the good stuff to eat but worms and big crickets are not her thing -- she prefers the itty-bitty tiny little bugs and spiders that crawl across the ground. She chases off the mooching Sparrows from the feed but I'm afraid she'll soon tire of those pests the way "Phaedra" (Blue Breda) eventually did! My new pullets seem to pick up the game of chasing mooching Sparrows out of the yard but realize its futile and then ignore them. We are enjoying her so much -- who knew Breda were such an outstanding breed?

VISITING AT THE KITCHEN DOOR & NOT SO SURE ABOUT GOING BACK OUTSIDE - IT WAS POURING YESTERDAY!


THE PORCH IS DRY SO GUESS IT'S OKAY TO GO OUTSIDE AGAIN!

 

[RFR of CA]

Always love your updates. She looks like a big girl. And she has come a long way from the goofy looking little dinos they are as chicks

My mottled are finally laying and I will be locking down my first test batch this week.

 

[Sylvester017]

Always love your updates. She looks like a big girl. And she has come a long way from the goofy looking little dinos they are as chicks

My mottled are finally laying and I will be locking down my first test batch this week.

Yes, "Char" is very tall and walks with a very upright stance - a really funny goofy look is always on her face when she turns her head over her shoulders. I am so glad we got the Cuckoo -- a nice pattern that blends w/ the backyard.

Your dino's are adorable!!! Have you noticed if all the Mottled hens have the solid white tail feathers or do you get some occasional darker hen tails? I'm testing my DH to see if he likes the Mottleds. He thinks they're absolutely gorgeous but he's not a fan of a bird with so much white and unfortunately the tails scream "white" - which is one of the reasons we never got a regular Splash Breda either. The Mottled roos are gorgeous with their waterfall B&W feathers but alas! we're not zoned for roos! I have a Blue pullet coming sometime later this year as I found a good breeder who is continuing the BBS. Your Blue "Phaedra" was so beautifully edged/laced she'll be a challenge to match up.

DH does the chicken chores starting at 6 a.m. every morning so he gets first pick as to Breda variety. He was devastated when we lost Phaedra so of course we had to find a BBS breeder and get another Blue. It's too far to plan yet but I am thinking another Breda in 2018. I stagger bird ages so the flock doesn't get old all at the same time. DH loves his Silkies so I think that's why he came to love the Breda so much -- because they are docile to keep around gentle Silkies. Egg production is a pleasant surprise w/ Breda too.

Phaedra had a surprisingly deep voice that sounded like a roo; our Cuckoo "Char" has the opposite high sweet soft voice. What I like about Phaedra and Char is that they're respectful toward the two old Silkie hens. Neither Breda girl ever retaliated at Silkie chest bumping. Any other breed would've gone into combat! How sweet is that for a large fowl breed to ignore chest bumping?

 

[maryellen21]

Does anyone breda roos make a weird like hawk like scream? .my roo crows, but he also makes a weird hawk like scream. I thought it was a hawk but actually watched him make the noise.

 

[Sylvester017]

Does anyone breda roos make a weird like hawk like scream? .my roo crows, but he also makes a weird hawk like scream. I thought it was a hawk but actually watched him make the noise.

That is funny - hope you can record it somehow!

I've only had one Breda cockerel and 2 females so far so don't have much input on the cockerel except that he was as sweet as could be and always looked for a handout. He DID however scare us at 1:00 a.m. with half-hearted crowing when we had him in-house for quarantine but nothing sounding out of the ordinary. Different breeds of roos have different sounds. I crack-up at hearing the squeaky bantam roosters in our neighborhood when they crow!

What's stranger still is when females will start to crow -- I've only seen videos of crowing hens but never had a hen in my flock do it. What surprised us was when our Blue Breda hen began her adult clucking it was real low and deep like a rooster's. Our Cuckoo Breda is the opposite -- her clucking is more of a soft cooing. So I guess they must all be different sounds even within the same breed.