Breese bloodline rant!

[CNJ]

I bought four live Bresse chicks from a local farm in Hawaii called, Paradise Poultry. I ended up with 3 males and 1 female. The males had different tones of blue on their legs from light to dark and the female had yellow legs with blue splotches on its toes. I wrote to them asking them what they crossed their Bresse chicken with and they said they got their line from green fire farms and they didn't cross it. Then they went on to say they use the hens with yellow legs for eggs and they cull the males with yellow legs. This tells me they crossed it with a leg horn and won't admit to it.

I have breese chickens from two other farms and none of their off springs have yellow legs.. Also the hen with yellow legs is very small in comparison to the hens from the other farms. Furthermore the Bresse roosters from Paradise Poultry bite.

 

[speedy2020]

I bought four live Bresse chicks from a local farm in Hawaii called, Paradise Poultry. I ended up with 3 males and 1 female. The males had different tones of blue on their legs from light to dark and the female had yellow legs with blue splotches on its toes. I wrote to them asking them what they crossed their Bresse chicken with and they said they got their line from green fire farms and they didn't cross it. Then they went on to say they use the hens with yellow legs for eggs and they cull the males with yellow legs. This tells me they crossed it with a leg horn and won't admit to it.

I have breese chickens from two other farms and none of their off springs have yellow legs.. Also the hen with yellow legs is very small in comparison to the hens from the other farms. Furthermore the Bresse roosters from Paradise Poultry bite.

I wouldn't save any chicken from their farm as future breeding.

 

[The Moonshiner]

I wouldn't automatically dismiss their claims.
GFF specialize in rare breeds not quality rare breeds. A lot of their birds are a place to start not a finished product.

 

[Dinoroar]

I agree it’s possible they didn’t cross them. They may not be liars. But if they’ve been selecting for yellow legged hens I think they should warn buyers upfront since most of them are going to be expecting blue. I would be pretty stinkin annoyed of I’d bought those birds.

 

[Burdi]

Good Bresse are really great chickens. Unfortunately their rapid increase in numbers and popularity has resulted in some inferior stock, be it by undisclosed outcrosses or bad selection of breeder stock. That is further magnified by the shallow nature of genetic diversity in the white bresse introduced to the USA by Greenfire. Give it a decade. We will either develop some really good stable Bresse lines or we will have a messed up mix of very different genetics being called Bresse. Time will tell.

 

[CNJ]

I agree it’s possible they didn’t cross them. They may not be liars. But if they’ve been selecting for yellow legged hens I think they should warn buyers upfront since most of them are going to be expecting blue. I would be pretty stinkin annoyed of I’d bought those birds.

They don't breed from the yellow leg hens, they just use them for their egg business. They will eventually weed out the yellow leg in their breeding program.

 

[CNJ]

I have a Bresse rooster from another farm, he has a little tan color on his saddle and I have another hen and rooster from a different farm with all white feathers. They all originated from Green Fire Farm, but the different characteristics point out the two different times they brought in new blood from France.
I just placed an order for hatching eggs from a farm that claim it comes from the original 2017 import. I will be able to tell which side it pulls on, the light tan or pure white.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Just piggy backing a bit, when were y'all able to tell sexes and if they had blue legs? Mine are about 6 weeks and one I can't tell if it's a slow cockerel or early pullet and all 3 have like a blue wash over yellowed feet

 

[CNJ]

Just piggy backing a bit, when were y'all able to tell sexes and if they had blue legs? Mine are about 6 weeks and one I can't tell if it's a slow cockerel or early pullet and all 3 have like a blue wash over yellowed feet

I just crossed my Bresse rooster with a Lemon Cuckoo Orpington hen and a Black Australorp. The white on the Bresse is dominant, all the chicks are white. However, there is a unique feather characteristic of the Bresse Chicken. The female feather out before the males. They have long wing feathers and the males look kind of bald with a prominent red comb.

 

[HawaiiCoyote]

I visited paradise poultry firsthand and got to see all of the breeding pens. I didn't see any leghorns (I'm not saying it's not possible, but it's not likely they were crossed.)