Bresse Chickens

[sarahannecloud9]

I have read they free-range till finishing time. I found the info on GFF's site.


Has anyone done fodder? We're working on replacing most of our access to pellets with fresh wheat fodder. Last year we did some as treats but have slowly started adding in more. We also do more fermented now. Anyone feed fermented feed? Our birds free-range all day and get locked up at night. That is with the exception of 2 special coops. I do offer fresh cut daily greens and grass though. It also keeps them busy. I find our meat almost tastes like it was injected with chicken flavor bouillon, lol. The eggs are particularly outstanding. I only have 2 families we supply eggs to. Both now refuse to purchase elsewhere. The one woman's children told her ours don't taste like cardboard, ha! I thought it was too cute. My point of babbling on here is that what they eat has so much to do with taste, IMHO. I can say for certain, my birds sure love'em some snake! We used to have a copperhead issue. Lo-longer! Now that they have full access to all of the property we will occasionally see one, but it's dangling out of ones mouth with the whole flock in hot pursuit. These little dino's love their meat!

 

[homeworkin]

I hatched some white Bresse and acquired some Black Bresse eggs. The black eggs are much bigger, though, sadly, none survived the USPS still fertile.

 

[bayocum]

I hatched some white Bresse and acquired some Black Bresse eggs. The black eggs are much bigger, though, sadly, none survived the USPS still fertile.

We had similar luck last spring with shipping Black Bresse eggs…its hard to know if its USPS, old eggs, poor packaging…it's always a risk with shipped eggs. That said, we've shipped a lot ourselves and had pretty solid success, but it took a long time to find the right packaging method. We've also received a few batches from Greenfire, and in the case of White Bresse, had about a 90% hatch rate on the entire batch shipped. Very impressive. I would recommend talking to other individuals that have purchased eggs from the same breeder if possible. I appreciate the "don't rate us on the hatch, just on the shipping" that so many people put on their auctions, but I think that provides too much room and too little accountability. Yes, you can't control USPS, but we encourage people to provide feedback on their hatching experience and try to post it to our website. A 50% hatch rate on shipped eggs is pretty good in our experience, and should be about all that's expected. Good packaging and fresh eggs go a long way… Best of luck in the future homeworkin!
-Brice @ SF

 

[homeworkin]

I have had anywhere from zero to 67% on shipped eggs so far. Total gamble, but very hard to find rare breeds here so I keep trying. Most hatches I get at least a few to work with. My Delaware hatch was very good, 8 from 15 eggs. I find that foam shipping padding usually gives the best results.

 

[TNBEARCHICK]

We just had our worst hatch on shipper eggs in a long time. Zero. Dang it.

 

[BCMaraniac]

We just had our worst hatch on shipper eggs in a long time. Zero. Dang it.

So sorry......were they Bresse?

 

[DCchicken]

We just had our worst hatch on shipper eggs in a long time. Zero. Dang it.

Sorry to hear that. Were these from the same shipper you used before?

 

[TNBEARCHICK]

Several different breeds.

 

[BCMaraniac]

Different shippers or the same one? Could the cold be a factor??

 

[bayocum]

Cold can definitely affect shipped eggs, as can a number of other issues, but zero is a hard number to swallow. We use heat packs when the weather drops down as far as it has, and packaging is extremely important. Our birds are laying strong right now if anyone is looking for eggs. On a zero hatch, good "neighbors" will often offer a second shipment for the cost of shipping only. It might be worth asking.
Best,
Brice @ SF