Bresse Chickens

[chrissyr]

My white bresse are 4 weeks now, quite the little chubsters! I think they will fill out nicely, although I don't believe I'll have any to process this time around. Hoping for 4 girls and 1 boy. I'm just surprised they are doing so well. When I think of a non cornish X, up until now, I haven't had anything fill out nicely.

 

[racinchickins]

Hi Everyone.

I have 10 AB roos that have just hit 18 weeks. I plan to process 8 of them and keep 2 for breeding. As there is no SOP for ABs to give guidance on what to select for, I'm looking for guidance.

So I thought I would turn to people on this thread for ideas on the best things to look for when I am doing my selection. I already have 2 that have self selected themselves for processing due to being aggressive when I come in their pen. If anyone on here can give me an idea on what they look for when trying to determine which birds to keep, it would be appreciated. I'm also going to try to get good pictures of each one.

Here is my list of what I've thought of so far:

First cut: aggressive to people - 2 so far
Second cut: Vigor - Not much difference here in my stock so far. All are hearty, with good appetites, with no runts.
Third cut: general conformation. Do they move smoothly, and are there any obvious faults - might be a couple that fall out here. Some seem to move more awkwardly than others. Not sure if this is a meat bird thing, or a growth issue. I'lll check for straight keels and good leg and bone structure when I evaluate.
Fourth cut: Size and weight. These are meat chickens, so I'm thinking big is better. Although all are pretty decent size, there are definite winners and losers here. I'm planning on doing weights for all at 20 weeks.


It gets a little fuzzy after that. So I've come up with questions:
1. Comb size. I have some with very impressive combs, and some with more modest ones. Not sure what I should be selecting for. It's been pretty cold here so far this winter, with temps down to almost 0F. I haven't noticed any major issues with frostbite so far. It also gets pretty hot here in the summer, so I'm conflicted. Do I go for moderate combs to reduce chance of frostbite? or do I go for large combs to allow them to deal with the hot summer better? It isn't an overriding factor, but could be useful as a tie-breaker.
2. Is there another breed that is similar enough that I should consider comparing them to the SOP for that breed?
3. Not a lot of difference in feathering that I've seen. Is there anything here I should look at?

 

[Arielle]

I'm betting that your inital list will limit the number of roosters rather quickly to just a few given that you just have 10 to work with.

Would be nice to create a written SOP to work from and pic of good examples.

 

[piglett]

I'm betting that your inital list will limit the number of roosters rather quickly to just a few given that you just have 10 to work with.

Would be nice to create a written SOP to work from and pic of good examples.

i would cull any that were clearly no good for breeding
then i might allow just 1 or 2 roosters at a time to have access to the hens for breeding
the rest of the roosters could be in different pen
that way you get plenty of different DNA so inbreeding will not become a problem

 

[call ducks]

IMO a lot more time should be spent breeding numbers up before any consderiation is put in a SOP. After all the French government selects the legitimate bresse breeders.

More of a focus should be spent on production rather than a creating a SOP

 

[EllyHood]

IMO a lot more time should be spent breeding numbers up before any consderiation is put in a SOP. After all the French government selects the legitimate bresse breeders.

More of a focus should be spent on production rather than a creating a SOP

If you're only going to keep 2 roos and eat the rest though, it might be nice to have some sort of guidelines of which roos to keep. Not all of us can have large flocks.

 

[call ducks]

Quote: But when you start looking at a SOP if written wrong it will not benefit the breed. Also once a high level of inbreeding is achieved production ability will decrease.

 

[racinchickins]

What I am looking for is a general idea of what are current Bresse owners looking for in their birds, and what qualities should we push so that future owners will want to buy them. I have some ideas, but wanted to get others opinions too. At this point, with ABs so new to the US, I wasn't thinking that anyone was ready to start writing an SOP.

Since I first posted asking what qualities I should select for in my birds, I have given it a lot more thought.
I see potential in this breed of chickens as a possible niche alternative to cornish X meat chickens. They will never supplant them commercially, but I believe they could be a viable choice for people who don't want to participate in the 'Industrial chicken machine'. So I got a group of chicks to raise to evaluate. I'm just starting out, and at this point only have 10 males and 8 females. I believe that to be successful, I will need to come up with a direction I want to move in and a plan to get there.

Having read (and re-read) the history and popularity of the Bresse in France, it has gotten me thinking about their future, if any, here in the US. (Disclosure: I lived in France for a year and a half and am very familiar with the French culture and gastronomy and how it differs drastically from that of the US)

In order for a breed of chicken to be successful in the long term (even mid-term), it has to have one or more significant reasons for people to raise them that differentiate them from birds that already popular. At first glance, to the average person, the AB looks like any other white chicken. To the average chicken person, that could be modified to ‘looks like a White Rock with the wrong color legs’.

So what makes, or will make, the AB special? This is what needs to be answered for there to be any American Bresse chickens in the US 10 or even 5 years from now. This is what takes the breed past the initial 'fad/new bird' phase. The answer to this question should also dictate what we select for in our birds for the future generations.

Here are some of my ideas on what makes the AB a special chicken. Please feel free to add to, elaborate on, or even vehemently disagree with my list. I can’t fit all my thoughts on these in one post, but this will be a start to the conversation.

1. Meat -The Bresse is first and foremost a meat chicken. It is regarded as THE premiere eating chicken in France. However, except to certain minority, that carries no weight for American consumers. To survive in the US, the AB needs to be able to stand on its own with people who don’t know the history. The AB will need to compete in size and meatiness with other meat and dual purpose breeds. But to differentiate itself, the AB will need to stand out in regards to taste The AB will need to have a footnote like you see in descriptions of the Dorking or the La Fleche that it is recognized as one of the best tasting chickens around. . I have yet to eat one (That will change soon), and I am hoping that all this time and expense I’ve put into raising them will be worth it.
2. Rate of Growth – One thing I have noticed about my AB’s is that they have grown more quickly than any other breed of chickens that I have raised. At 18 weeks, they are some of the larger chickens on my farm. I haven’t processed any yet, so will be interested to see if they just have a big frame, or if they have filled out too. I process most of my roos from other breeds at between 20-25 weeks, so I will have something to compare them to.
3. Blue Legs – What we have here is a genuine Red, White, and Blue chicken. If you can’t market that in the US, what can you market?
4. Eggs - Some people on here have posted that the hens are surprisingly good layers of nice large eggs. Mine aren’t laying yet, but several are showing definite signs of being close (at 19 weeks!) If we have a superb meat chicken that is also a decent to good layer, we have some definite potential here. Most of the meat type breeds don’t lay that great (I have 25 week old Dark Cornish hens that LOVE to eat, but no eggs yet, or even signs of eggs) A lot of the well known heritage breeds are also suffering from having been bred to show, but their production aspects haven’t been maintained as well. Others are working on improving this, but we could have a breed here that starts out with both aspects doing well. I’m not saying they should lay like leghorns, but if they lay better than other DP/Meat breeds, that is another positive to point at.

I decided to stick to only 4 items, since more than that would be overwhelming to try and work with.

This is turning into a long post, so I’ll end it here. I look forward to discussions with everyone on what they think! And to how we can turn those thoughts into a direction to move forward.

 

[juststruttin]

Hi Everyone.

I have 10 AB roos that have just hit 18 weeks. I plan to process 8 of them and keep 2 for breeding. As there is no SOP for ABs to give guidance on what to select for, I'm looking for guidance.

So I thought I would turn to people on this thread for ideas on the best things to look for when I am doing my selection. I already have 2 that have self selected themselves for processing due to being aggressive when I come in their pen. If anyone on here can give me an idea on what they look for when trying to determine which birds to keep, it would be appreciated. I'm also going to try to get good pictures of each one.

Here is my list of what I've thought of so far:

First cut: aggressive to people - 2 so far
Second cut: Vigor - Not much difference here in my stock so far. All are hearty, with good appetites, with no runts.
Third cut: general conformation. Do they move smoothly, and are there any obvious faults - might be a couple that fall out here. Some seem to move more awkwardly than others. Not sure if this is a meat bird thing, or a growth issue. I'lll check for straight keels and good leg and bone structure when I evaluate.
Fourth cut: Size and weight. These are meat chickens, so I'm thinking big is better. Although all are pretty decent size, there are definite winners and losers here. I'm planning on doing weights for all at 20 weeks.


It gets a little fuzzy after that. So I've come up with questions:
1. Comb size. I have some with very impressive combs, and some with more modest ones. Not sure what I should be selecting for. It's been pretty cold here so far this winter, with temps down to almost 0F. I haven't noticed any major issues with frostbite so far. It also gets pretty hot here in the summer, so I'm conflicted. Do I go for moderate combs to reduce chance of frostbite? or do I go for large combs to allow them to deal with the hot summer better? It isn't an overriding factor, but could be useful as a tie-breaker.
2. Is there another breed that is similar enough that I should consider comparing them to the SOP for that breed?
3. Not a lot of difference in feathering that I've seen. Is there anything here I should look at?

All else barred, I would keep the largest and most mature as my breeding stock. I was surprised by my hatch, some clearly matured much slower than the majority.

 

[racinchickins]

A happy coincidence today. This morning I did a big post on Bresse and mentioned that I thought some of my hens were close to laying. I came home from work and was presented with my first AB pullet egg!