Bresse Chickens

[alisar]

Those are probably something else. Even if a rooster jumped the fence, They would still feather mostly white. And the legs are kind of a really light blue (and darken) as chicks get bigger. Hope they resend the right eggs next time

 

[ChickenFox]

The breeder did reply and believes her buckeye roo bred her bresse hens on the sly. While I'm sure it will still be a good meat bird I'm a little disappointed however the auction I was bidding on was a mixture of eggs anyway. That still leaves me with 2 pures that hopefully (fingers crossed) will be male and female.

 

[ronott1]

The breeder did reply and believes her buckeye roo bred her bresse hens on the sly. While I'm sure it will still be a good meat bird I'm a little disappointed however the auction I was bidding on was a mixture of eggs anyway. That still leaves me with 2 pures that hopefully (fingers crossed) will be male and female.

Another problem we are seeing is a belief that a new male will push out the sperm of the old male. This is very risky since sperm can live for more than 30 days. Even the seminar talk that folks are using to support this says to wait more time if it is important that the chicks be pure.

My guess, the breeder had the hens in with the Buckeye and did not wait 30 days to start collecting eggs. He likely used this new time of one week. I really wish people would stop doing that. You could be sending out three weeks worth of mutts that way.

Sadly the breeder likely does think the week is ok and that the buckeye snuck into the pen(would you not know that?) and will do the same thing next time.

 

[Tumbleweed Farm]

A week? That is crazy. A month is the least amount of time I give it

 

[ronott1]

A week? That is crazy. A month is the least amount of time I give it

Yes! A month plus is what works best.

A week will get chicks that look like the ones posted here recently.

 

[ChickenFox]

Quote: I got the impression that she did house her hens with this Roo but never caught them in the act so believed they had only been mating with her Bresse roo. I do believe it was an honest mistake as she informed me she had been hatching out the same results.

I was under the impression that hens mated to a new roo may lay eggs fertilized by both for a short period. Not 1 egg sired by 2 roo's but she may lay 1 egg that is fathered by one and the next could be fathered by the other. A very interesting fact to me but I can see where it would be a pain to breeders.

As is hubby is wanting me to just sell off the 1/2 breeds but I'm actually very tempted to grow them out and give them a shot as a meat bird. Won't be breeding them as I had planned at any rate.

 

[ronott1]

I got the impression that she did house her hens with this Roo but never caught them in the act so believed they had only been mating with her Bresse roo. I do believe it was an honest mistake as she informed me she had been hatching out the same results.

I was under the impression that hens mated to a new roo may lay eggs fertilized by both for a short period. Not 1 egg sired by 2 roo's but she may lay 1 egg that is fathered by one and the next could be fathered by the other. A very interesting fact to me but I can see where it would be a pain to breeders.

As is hubby is wanting me to just sell off the 1/2 breeds but I'm actually very tempted to grow them out and give them a shot as a meat bird. Won't be breeding them as I had planned at any rate.

Hens will be mated by multiple roos and they only have to be mated once every couple of days. You may never see them mate but they do mate. Sperm is held in organs in the hen. The egg is then fertilized as it passes through. If there are two roosters, there will be two sperms in there so one egg could be fertilized by one roo and the next days egg by the second.

So, Hens need to be separated with the rooster into a breeding pen. That needs to be done at least 30 days before you start collecting eggs. Doing a test hatch with the first eggs would be a good idea to make sure all of the sperm from the old rooster is not active any more.

You cannot have any other roosters in contact with the hens that you want to be pure.

We all learn lessons over time so this is a great one!

 

[DeltaBluezTess]

The breeder did reply and believes her buckeye roo bred her bresse hens on the sly. While I'm sure it will still be a good meat bird I'm a little disappointed however the auction I was bidding on was a mixture of eggs anyway. That still leaves me with 2 pures that hopefully (fingers crossed) will be male and female.

I got some Spitz eggs from an auction and grew them out to two months old...no crest and then they all got muffs....send pixs to seller and se asked if I mixed eggs up....well the only other eggs I had in incubator was the Marans so the answer was no....more time passed and no crest and coloring began to change....muff and silver spangled with gold streaks......finally after numerous emails, she thought her Amercana roo (spelling?) had gotten into the pen but that was in Dec and she sent eggs in beginning of Jan....I told her that the sperm can be viable for a month....and I am sure she did some research because she said she was sorry and sending me new eggs and guaranteed they were pure as she did a hatch. it took weeks or emails, photos etc to get this all squared away but I was persistent.

My policy here is 30 days ~~before I collect eggs and then I do a test run....my breeding pens are t self contained so visitors can not jump over and then go home!

I gave the mixed breeds to a friend of mine for free....

 

[ChickenFox]

An interesting thing I'm noting about these mixed chicks...they are larger than the 2 pures that hatched out the same day. Not a lot larger but still they are taller and wider and seem to be a little more energetic. Hybrid vigor maybe? The more I look at them the more I would like to grow them out to see what they develop into.

 

[ronott1]

An interesting thing I'm noting about these mixed chicks...they are larger than the 2 pures that hatched out the same day. Not a lot larger but still they are taller and wider and seem to be a little more energetic. Hybrid vigor maybe? The more I look at them the more I would like to grow them out to see what they develop into.

Yes, Hybrid crosses often do that.

Let us know how they develop and what you think of the meat and flavor.