Bresse Chickens

[flowerfaeiry]

Ive been raising a small flock for a few years and I can't believe what some people are trying to pass off as Bresse. I don't know how or why they are being bred so thin and small. I feel like the breed is vanishing! Many flocks aren't even recognizable as Bresse. I only know of two other flocks that I would even consider adding to my line. If you want chicks, I just set some eggs in my incubator that I was going to keep for my self, but I could be persuaded to sell.
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[MrsChickens]

Same thing happened to the Blk Copper Marans. Everyone wanted in on the fad - bought inferior stock (cheap) then proceeded to cover hens, sell those hatch eggs and before you knew it, the Blk Copper Maran is completely dilute. Similar to cocker spaniels, labs, gold retrievers, Arabian horses, Saddlebred horses. For some reason people seem to think concepts like phenotype, genotype, dominants, recessives don't apply to what they're doing with the concept of diversity not entering the picture. My Blk Copper Marans and Am Bresse flocks are closed and strickly spiral line bred. Not for sale. My goal is to produce egg and table meat.

 

[flowerfaeiry]

You're absolutely right! Don't even get me started on the Ameraucana! Pitiful! But I feel that at least if I sell my chicks I'm preventing someone from buying inferior birds.

 

[MrsChickens]

My Bresse flock is very small. I recently culled and kept only two hens with an exceptional rooster. I keep a golden cuckoo Marans (huge breasted), Splash Marans, a blk Marans (huge breasted) and a Buff Orpington (very large) in that pen with the intention to try a couple crosses as meat bird project. I'm interested in what hybrid vigor may do on the Bresse. But my meat projects never hatch more than I can process for the freezer I want to keep the Splash and maybe cross with Blk Copper Marans rooster to develop a line of blues - next year maybe. BTW - My Blk Copper Marans table birds are very good.

 

[flowerfaeiry]

We aren't raising the Bresse to eat anymore, it's become too difficult for us to process, and we've downsized quite a bit in the last year due to our own health issues. I had almost given them up completely, but I find them to be so personable. Our little area of the country is very much in need of this type of self sustaining bird, as it would be so beneficial to any homesteader, so we are hoping to establish the Bresse in our area to help people live a little better by their own means. My birds are excellent layers of nice large eggs, well, except for their winter vacation, and of course their table use is unmatched. It's a perfect match for the lifestyle of a lot of our neighbors. I've been raising longtails and some other rare breed birds that just aren't called for around here, though they are my passion.

 

[arkk]

These would be a 4-H project. My daughter wants to do meat birds, but I just don’t like the idea of Cornish X. We don’t need them until spring, but I’m just trying to see what my options are.

 

[MrsChickens]

We aren't raising the Bresse to eat anymore, it's become too difficult for us to process, and we've downsized quite a bit in the last year due to our own health issues. I had almost given them up completely, but I find them to be so personable. Our little area of the country is very much in need of this type of self sustaining bird, as it would be so beneficial to any homesteader, so we are hoping to establish the Bresse in our area to help people live a little better by their own means. My birds are excellent layers of nice large eggs, well, except for their winter vacation, and of course their table use is unmatched. It's a perfect match for the lifestyle of a lot of our neighbors. I've been raising longtails and some other rare breed birds that just aren't called for around here, though they are my passion.

Perhaps I need to get some of those eggs for diversity sake!

 

[BlueBaby]

We aren't raising the Bresse to eat anymore, it's become too difficult for us to process, and we've downsized quite a bit in the last year due to our own health issues. I had almost given them up completely, but I find them to be so personable. Our little area of the country is very much in need of this type of self sustaining bird, as it would be so beneficial to any homesteader, so we are hoping to establish the Bresse in our area to help people live a little better by their own means. My birds are excellent layers of nice large eggs, well, except for their winter vacation, and of course their table use is unmatched. It's a perfect match for the lifestyle of a lot of our neighbors. I've been raising longtails and some other rare breed birds that just aren't called for around here, though they are my passion.

I like that idea that you have going with the Breese. Too bad that you live so far from me or I would get a young cockerel or roo from you, to go with the female chicks that I will be hatching here after my girls start laying. At least I would know that a boy from you wouldn't be too closely related to mine.

 

[cactusrota]

My Bresse flock is very small. I recently culled and kept only two hens with an exceptional rooster. I keep a golden cuckoo Marans (huge breasted), Splash Marans, a blk Marans (huge breasted) and a Buff Orpington (very large) in that pen with the intention to try a couple crosses as meat bird project. I'm interested in what hybrid vigor may do on the Bresse. But my meat projects never hatch more than I can process for the freezer I want to keep the Splash and maybe cross with Blk Copper Marans rooster to develop a line of blues - next year maybe. BTW - My Blk Copper Marans table birds are very good.

I can't love this post more. I've started working on a long term project of bringing back the old Naked Neck. I've chatted with many long time keepers that say decades ago the NN used to be a huge meat bird. They recall growing up with lines so heavy even the hens reached 10+ lbs. I won't be getting mine that big probably, but I'm trying to at least bring them back to a worthwhile true dual purpose table bird. A nice round breast by 6 months would be a good start. My theory is that with the availability of the CornishX to the public, all other breeds got relegated to layers and people just stopped selective breeding for dual purpose. Just look at all the birds offered by hatcheries. They push the CX or Rangers for meat, and anything else they sell grows out with a keel about as sharp as a sailboat's. Everybody breeds for plummage, egg color, and in the case of the NN as well as many others: Ornamental. It blows me away how many people keep perfectly good dual purpose breeds, and still buy chicken meat at the store, refusing to process the birds in their own backyard. So I'm working on improving the Bresse line I have, as well as crossing them out to my NN's to help improve those, along with a few other breeds I'm trying. A NN that dresses out like an extra big Bresse would be a dream.

 

[MrsChickens]

I can't love this post more. I've started working on a long term project of bringing back the old Naked Neck. I've chatted with many long time keepers that say decades ago the NN used to be a huge meat bird. They recall growing up with lines so heavy even the hens reached 10+ lbs. I won't be getting mine that big probably, but I'm trying to at least bring them back to a worthwhile true dual purpose table bird. A nice round breast by 6 months would be a good start. My theory is that with the availability of the CornishX to the public, all other breeds got relegated to layers and people just stopped selective breeding for dual purpose. Just look at all the birds offered by hatcheries. They push the CX or Rangers for meat, and anything else they sell grows out with a keel about as sharp as a sailboat's. Everybody breeds for plummage, egg color, and in the case of the NN as well as many others: Ornamental. It blows me away how many people keep perfectly good dual purpose breeds, and still buy chicken meat at the store, refusing to process the birds in their own backyard. So I'm working on improving the Bresse line I have, as well as crossing them out to my NN's to help improve those, along with a few other breeds I'm trying. A NN that dresses out like an extra big Bresse would be a dream.

Unfortunately, by the time the commercial hatcheries are offering specific breeds, their genetics are already screwed up. There are two types of breeders that contribute to the dilution of breed characteristics - the ignorant and those who sell. Neither of these groups do anything to improve the breed and often through their efforts they manage to produce nearly all recessives or at least create an imbalance of function between egg production and meat development. Heritage breeds ALL USED TO BE SUITABLE MEAT BIRDS. Now unless you can get closer to their genetic purity, you'll need to spend close to one hundred generations to eliminate all the weaknesses... That's why I have Greenfire birds, they are the closest I can come to the pure genetics - no backyard breeder has had a chance to dilute the genome.