Breda Fowl thread

[boskelli1571]

I was going to contact you , put me on your list please sue

Will do!

 

[boskelli1571]

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

[maryellen21]

Gary i have no clue either, only thing i can think of is the inbreeding. I got mottled birds from Dutch connection and mottled eggs from RFR that are related to a degree as rfr got some of her mottles from dutch.
The blacks i got from dutch and that i hatched are very sturdy. I havent lost any blacks at all. jut mottled from the eggs i got and what i hatched from a mottled breeding.
I feel like you are talking down at me , so if im wrong let me know. I e had them for a few years now. .
There obviously is a glitch with the mottled if my blacks are fine and the mottled are related...





QUOTE="GaryDean26, post: 20783623, member: 114355"]We got 5 Blue/Black/Splash Breda eggs from Green Fire Farm in 2012. We had two hatch that resulted in a Blue pullet and a Blue cockerel. We didn’t have coop space to keep a cockerel but want 2-3 hens for the laying flock so we set a dozen eggs and sold the pair. That pair is the only pair of chickens I have ever regretted selling after they were gone. We ended up with five cockerels and a pullet from the hatch. We wanted more that one hen so we kept the best cockerel (who was a very good quality bird). The following year we built new coops and were going to start a legitimate breeding program. We hatch about 35 Breda from that pair. We however got MS in our flock that year. The young Breda did not fair well. The cavernous nostrils seemed really to swell up and worse than our other breeds. We ended up culling all 35 to ride the MS from the flock. The following year we hatched from the F1 pair again in a single hatch. We then moved chicks to a new location away from the parent stock and rebuilt an MS free flock. We had 4-5 pullets and 4-5 cockerels in that hatch. We culled all the cockerels and after predators were left with 3 hens. One one blue hens was good enough to breed. I was going to wait until she was 4 years old and source a cockerel to hatch more from her in her 5th year. We lost her to summer heat. Yes it was a big lost. She was at least three generations remover from any other Breda in the world and had good vigor. We had gone through about 50 Breda and she was one of the best. I am not sure why breeders can’t keep birds alive for more than a year. The Breda is a good breed and shouldn’t have any problems with making it past 6-7 years. Hatching large groups and culling deep for vigor should be the standard practice. We are a small scale hobby breeders and have grown out as many as 200 birds in a year over several breeds only to keep about 8 birds for breeding. Breeding for vigor is our first priority. I may get more Breda to work with. I want cuckoo and self Blue. Anyone have them.[/QUOTE]

 

[boskelli1571]

ME - it's interesting to compare notes on breeders. I can say w/o reservation that the healthiest Bredas I have got have been from Chicken Danz - wtg Verna!
The birds I will be breeding next year are a mix of her birds and the two older hens I got from a friend.
Like you, my mottled hens have died off one by one. I have two left so I will throw them into the mix as well.

 

[maryellen21]

This is sad but good to know Sue, im not the only one with issues with my mottles. I spoke to a breeder in oregon who said she has heard issues with bredas not making it to 2 either. So its definitely an issue due to small gene pool and inbreeding, but she didnt say it was mottled , just the breed in general. The breed definitely needs a healthier gene pool whether for mottled or just in general.
Is chicken danz waltzs ark?

 

[maryellen21]

I can say my black i got from Dutch connection are very hardy, and when i bred them i got hardy chicks too. It might be because i got a mix of juveniles and older birds from her, but hers are definitely hardier then the mottle eggs i hatched from RFR . Yet rfr got her mottled from dutch, so maybe it was just bad for me to breed them together, who knows

 

[boskelli1571]

This is sad but good to know Sue, im not the only one with issues with my mottles. I spoke to a breeder in oregon who said she has heard issues with bredas not making it to 2 either. So its definitely an issue due to small gene pool and inbreeding, but she didnt say it was mottled , just the breed in general. The breed definitely needs a healthier gene pool whether for mottled or just in general.
Is chicken danz waltzs ark?

OMG - no!! www.chickendanz.com Verna is on here occasionally, hails from Kansas - nice lady. Very knowledgeable about Bredas and has done a lot of research about them. If you are looking for already started stock I would e-mail her, I would bet she has some available.

 

[maryellen21]

Ah gotcha thank you!!

 

[maryellen21]

My mottled cockeral from today. Hatched in the spring

 

[maryellen21]

My black cockeral is after the mottled.
Here is a mottled hen