Bresse Chickens

[Arielle]

Yes I see that now Juststruttin sorry for the confusion.

You were just keeping us on our toes!! lol All's good.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: lol, if not you, maybe one of your hens?

 

[ronott1]

Brice, what about my Reverse Indian Rivers? I'm hurt, man, really hurt

. Maybe this is the wrong thread...

I am with you!

It is a Bresse Thread but The Breed in my Avatar is a bit better. They are bigger at the same age and out lay the Bresse.

 

[piglett]

Say Piglett, Getting good results from mail order hatching eggs is such a minefield these days! you are sooooo reliant on many factors , For instance, the freshness of the eggs prior to posting, the handling of the eggs in transit and the timescale involved. Really you just cannot beat locally sourced hatching eggs, it sure feels good to get 100% hatch rates, and i have usually only achieved those results from home and locally sourced eggs.
Talking of Brooders.... what type of Broody hens do you use?

here is one of the roosters that i got from another BYC member "ReniesPeeps"

i have a few of these, i figured they would be great to improve my buff orpingtons

here is one of my lemon cuckoo splits
i plan to breed her & her sisters back to their daddy
which should give me better barring

& here is my English orpington rooster named Travis
along with me sweetie

now as far as broody hens go i have a couple of silkies but they can't cover many eggs (but go broody often even in winter)
when my buff hens go broody i often get 12/14 chicks per hatch

 

[Patsonline]

Hey wow! Lovely photos ... thanks for sharing.

Brrrrr that snow looks chilly.

 

[piglett]

Hey wow! Lovely photos ... thanks for sharing.

Brrrrr that snow looks chilly.

it was -22c a couple nights ago

 

[Arielle]

I think I need a hot cup of coffee now!!

Pigleet-- how much does the BO weigh-- and how is the breast muscling-- outof curiousity?

 

[piglett]

I think I need a hot cup of coffee now!!

Pigleet-- how much does the BO weigh-- and how is the breast muscling-- outof curiousity?

we have some buff orpington roosters that are still not yet full grown & they are already reaching 10lbs

their legs look like they came from a turkey (had to go with #16 leg bands which are tom turkey size)

my wife & i get more than 3 meals out of 1 buff rooster

now this is not to say that all buff orpingtons are the same

not a chance, the ones from hatcherys are much smaller

these roosters are from a line that has some imported english in them

English orpingtons are for the most part much bigger than American fowl


i'll see what i get by crossing my buff hens with monster buff roosters

the 1st 40 are already in the brooders

i also crossed a Bresse hen with a English orpington rooster ( the one in the 3rd picture)

so far at 6 weeks they are just as big if not bigger as the pure English orpingtons

i'm shooting for a bird with plenty of flavor & plenty of meat

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Cross breeding has many good points.

I finally figured out the English are bigger than AMerican; THe Dragon Lady has some of the better BO that I have seen. I have BO but they are small. I bought 2 from a farm that raised them fo r years but they too were no bigger than my hatchery stock.Good egg layers but not worth much of a dinner.

Crossing a supersized orp with a bresse could improve the the carcass wuality and increase the size of the carcass at the same time. The difficulty can be as you know, more surprizes show up than expected. THat's the fun of it though.

My goals are to find truley good meat birds as I"m tired of the skimpy hatchery carcasses. WHen I look in the freezer I know which one I really want to cook up. MEATY.

 

[piglett]

Cross breeding has many good points.

I finally figured out the English are bigger than AMerican; THe Dragon Lady has some of the better BO that I have seen. I have BO but they are small. I bought 2 from a farm that raised them fo r years but they too were no bigger than my hatchery stock.Good egg layers but not worth much of a dinner.

Crossing a supersized orp with a bresse could improve the the carcass wuality and increase the size of the carcass at the same time. The difficulty can be as you know, more surprizes show up than expected. THat's the fun of it though.

My goals are to find truley good meat birds as I"m tired of the skimpy hatchery carcasses. WHen I look in the freezer I know which one I really want to cook up. MEATY.

i have seen some of the Dragon lady's birds & they are very good quality

the other thing you could try is adding a monster buff orpington in with your current buff american hens

might improve the size of the birds & you don't have to wait for chicks to grow to adulthood before you get your 1st egg.

how far are you from Boston

i'm 100 miles away +/- and i have 4 buff roosters which is too many for my girls

are you in for a roadtrip some weekend?

i'm so chicken crazy that i went way out onto the cape for 1 cockerel

but as you can see in my 3rd picture he filled out well



take care
piglett
wolfeboro,NH