Bresse Chickens

[PetRock]

That is a great plan! He is learning responsibility at a young age.

I missed an auto water fountain not working until the afternoon even with hourly health checks. I think I need a check list...

I think that if I had a check list, I would need a check list for the check list!

 

[tbird9]

So I went looking to read about them and then to see if I could find any hatching eggs and found Barret Valley Farm website.  Jon sells a dozen eggs for 50 dollars that includes shipping and extra's.    I sure hope I get a good hatch from them.  Back to learning about them.  

I got hatching eggs from him back in December when he had them on eBay. Not really thinking, I ordered the week before Christmas and they took a full seven days in the mail, then sat on my porch an extra day because my house-sitter didn't see them. Then she opened the package and set them right away without letting them rest. When I got back and checked on them I could tell they were pullet eggs and given everything else that had gone wrong, I did not have very high hopes for the hatch. Well, that ended up being my most successful hatch from shipped eggs, ever! I ended up with 10 healthy chicks, go figure.

He said that he has enough birds that he can collect and ship the same day, so I'm sure that helped.

Good Luck

 

[Texas Chickens]

I got hatching eggs from him back in December when he had them on eBay. Not really thinking, I ordered the week before Christmas and they took a full seven days in the mail, then sat on my porch an extra day because my house-sitter didn't see them. Then she opened the package and set them right away without letting them rest. When I got back and checked on them I could tell they were pullet eggs and given everything else that had gone wrong, I did not have very high hopes for the hatch. Well, that ended up being my most successful hatch from shipped eggs, ever! I ended up with 10 healthy chicks, go figure.

He said that he has enough birds that he can collect and ship the same day, so I'm sure that helped.

Good Luck

Sounds like Santa was very good to you that Christmas.

My eggs came this morning and are nice and good size, none were pullet eggs. I let them sit for 12 hrs and just put them in the incubator. Jon shipped them on the 11 and its the 14th. Thats about normal coming from Ca to Tx.

Would like to find another place to get some so I would have another line in there like I am doing with my Basques chickens. I got one line from Fl on ebay from this guy Ray and had a good hatch from 6 eggs got 4 a rooster and 3 hens and then got another 6 from him and got a good hatch from those 6 got 5 that hatched and then abt almost 2 months ago got 9 eggs from Calif from this place that raise them and got 6 chicks hatch 2 roosters and 4 hens. Those are the sweetest chickens I have so far. Very very friendly and they talk to you.
Hope I get as good as hatch as you did on yours coming through the mail. I have them put my phone number on box so the Post office calls me when they come in and I go get them.

 

[tbird9]

Would like to find another place to get some so I would have another line in there like I am doing with my Basques chickens. I got one line from Fl on ebay from this guy Ray and had a good hatch from 6 eggs got 4 a rooster and 3 hens and then got another 6 from him and got a good hatch from those 6 got 5 that hatched and then abt almost 2 months ago got 9 eggs from Calif from this place that raise them and got 6 chicks hatch 2 roosters and 4 hens. Those are the sweetest chickens I have so far. Very very friendly and they talk to you.

We have one Greenfire breeding trio that I have been really impressed with, I have only sold hatching eggs locally so far, but you can PM me if you want to work something out. Total we have two trios and a pair that came from Greenfire. I like this trio best because the rooster is has the biggest/best body type, is the friendliest, and they are producing offspring with legs that are much darker blue than the other breeding groups. We call them by their leg band color, this is the yellow trio.

Here is the rooster:


And here is one of his boys, now 5 months old:




and a study of hen feet:

this pic and the next are the average color of most of the bresse we are raising


but the yellow trio is also producing darker legs, like so:

 

[littlenell1]

I have these in UK and have been amazed at how friendly and fast they grow. The chicks seem to come out pretty much ready to set to eating and drinking! Not eaten one yet as Mr Fox took the one we were going to use as the breeding cockerel so had to keep the less than perfect one till I could add new blood line. The less than perfect has streak of black in tail...so not sure if there some black bresse going on.

Chicks should hatch with blue legs. I have hatched some boys with white legs which is considered a fault and these will become Sunday lunch at some stage soon. I also have some with fairly mid blue too, and these will not be used for breeding either.

I keep the hens with white legs and put them in with a different cockerel as they lay good amount of eggs, and they are charming birds to have around, really good foragers. The offspring I have yet to incubate but am thinking of doing so soon.

We have dairy goats and add surplus milk, or the whey from cheese making to their grain. I often soak the grain (wheat) in milk overnight for them, and they gain weight really well. You can sex them at around 6 weeks going off comb development. The boys have the redder larger combs...girls come into lay at around 16 wks.

I have 3 different lines so far, and that does change the colour of the eggs you get too, so you can actually work out who is laying what by egg colour which helps when incubating.

 

[tbird9]

I have these in UK and have been amazed at how friendly and fast they grow. The chicks seem to come out pretty much ready to set to eating and drinking! Not eaten one yet as Mr Fox took the one we were going to use as the breeding cockerel so had to keep the less than perfect one till I could add new blood line. The less than perfect has streak of black in tail...so not sure if there some black bresse going on.

Chicks should hatch with blue legs. I have hatched some boys with white legs which is considered a fault and these will become Sunday lunch at some stage soon. I also have some with fairly mid blue too, and these will not be used for breeding either.

We have some Black Bresse, too, in a pen right next to some of the White. A while back a couple of the white hens got into the black coop. I did incubate, to see what they would look like and all have some splotches of black feathers and/or have a dirty/grayish tinge all over, rather than the bright white.










I don't know that any of ours hatch with what I would call blue legs, but the color darkens as they get older. The youngest chicks I have are two weeks old, was about to take legs pics, but the batteries died. I will get some when they are recharged.

My husband and I actually visited the Bresse region last fall and picked up some interesting looking literature at the tourist office in Louhans, but we don't speak/read French! I need to find someone who can translate them for us. Here is a picture of the cover of the one that looks most helpful:

It's about 80 pages long and seems to talk about the husbandry practices, both traditional and modern.

Anyway, the legs of the chickens on the cover of the book are not super blue, but some of the other pictures in the other literature do show chickens with much darker legs. Is there a standard in English that you all are using in the UK?

 

[littlenell1]

There is a website which offers information in English but I cannot get it to work for some reason with my browsers.http://www.pouletbresse.com/site/
The video is pretty self explanatory, though some may find it not to their taste. The standard I guess is not used outside of France as they cannot be called Bresse Gaulois if not from the region and certified.

Interesting about your incubation results from the white/black Bresse. My cockerel is not grey nor does he have spots all over. He is white, just has a few dark feathers in his tail... nice friendly chap too.

 

[Spifflove]

We have some Black Bresse, too, in a pen right next to some of the White. A while back a couple of the white hens got into the black coop. I did incubate, to see what they would look like and all have some splotches of black feathers and/or have a dirty/grayish tinge all over, rather than the bright white.










I don't know that any of ours hatch with what I would call blue legs, but the color darkens as they get older. The youngest chicks I have are two weeks old, was about to take legs pics, but the batteries died. I will get some when they are recharged.

My husband and I actually visited the Bresse region last fall and picked up some interesting looking literature at the tourist office in Louhans, but we don't speak/read French! I need to find someone who can translate them for us. Here is a picture of the cover of the one that looks most helpful:

It's about 80 pages long and seems to talk about the husbandry practices, both traditional and modern.

Anyway, the legs of the chickens on the cover of the book are not super blue, but some of the other pictures in the other literature do show chickens with much darker legs. Is there a standard in English that you all are using in the UK?

Google translate is a free application.

 

[ronott1]

I started 4 cockerels on Milk soaked Kamut scratch today. Two of them will be moved to the country to become breeders. I will process the two others in two weeks.

 

[drlcb]

Anyone selling Bresse locally? Are the cockerels priced higher? i only ask because I need to downsize for a move in the next two weeks and I can't manage the 45 I have plus my regular flock of layers. They are 5 weeks old and growing as fast as any red ranger I've had. I put an ad in Craigslist for $25 then lowered the price to $15 and no takers... I have about $8 into each one just for the cost of the eggs, incubation, starter feed, brooder supplies, losses and culls. That doesn't include any labor...
I could tractor raise them at my new place where I have about 1 acre of grass land but I would have to build the tractors quickly and of course spend more money and more labor... Thoughts? Ideas? What would a reasonable price be for a pullet/cockerel? Price per pound for fully grown dressed birds?
Should I just give them the Cornish game hen treatment?
Just rambling here but I would appreciate any input.
Thanks.