Bresse Chickens

[cutipatooti]

Anyone have the blue bresse? How do they compare to the blacks and the whites. I have 3 chicks from GFF so I was wondering.

 

[ApiaryandAviary]

Anyone have the blue bresse? How do they compare to the blacks and the whites. I have 3 chicks from GFF so I was wondering.

Bresse Anyone?
Anyone selling Bresse Chicks Blue, Black or White? Please contact me

 

[DCchicken]

Bresse Anyone?
Anyone selling Bresse Chicks Blue, Black or White? Please contact me

I am in Maryland and should have Bresse chicks in September for the Maryland Poultry Swap. But if you want them right away, my brother-in-law @jcinadr here on BYC hatches white Bresse chicks all the time. They live in Texas but shipping is not a problem.

 

[chrissyr]

i have some Bresse boys about 3 months old. they aren't canonized. what is everyone finding a good age to process them? I don't have these ones on pasture, so it won't be the french method. but still looking forward to trying them.

 

[ApiaryandAviary]

i have some Bresse boys about 3 months old. they aren't canonized. what is everyone finding a good age to process them? I don't have these ones on pasture, so it won't be the french method. but still looking forward to trying them.

My opinion may be different from others. No less than 16 weeks and no more than 20 weeks in France. At the 12-16 week they are brought in to the pens from the pastures for polenta & porridge with goat's milk. Make a capon out of him or not, it is strickly up to you. Their breasts and such will not be able to marble completely without fattening them up with warm cooked porridge and corn mash w/goats milk or buttermilk. The unique thing about the Bresse is their ability to marble fat veins in the meats for a slightly gamie taste and texture will be tend if let to walk in the pasture. Not allowed to walk in parture and kept in cage they will be tough little boogard. They are appelated like vineyards. Strick codes Must be followed for maximum tenderness. I dont follow their strick codes.

 

[BCMaraniac]

i have some Bresse boys about 3 months old. they aren't canonized. what is everyone finding a good age to process them? I don't have these ones on pasture, so it won't be the french method. but still looking forward to trying them.

Here is link on BYC and the French Standard.....but it doesn't say anything about references for the number:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/866299/french-standards-for-raising-bresse-meat-chickens

 

[ApiaryandAviary]

Do the best you can with what you have and I wish you great success.

Most help is good help.
Too much help can be overload.
Dont sweat the small stuff on life.
I will try and help.

My questions would be; when getting information...is the information from France? If not who wrote it? How many times have they been to France? How long have they spent in Fance? Did they learn anything about how their relatives do things in their country? Are they chefs? Have they been to culinary schools? Things to consider.

A major fact to consider:
It is possible to raise Bresse or any other number of imports the best way you can even if it does not follow their strick guidelines of the bird's homeland. Sometimes just doing the best you can with what you have can sometimes have great results. Learned from Martin Yan of Yan can cook, one of my favorite instructors on the West Coast. I learned that serendipity is something wonderful coming out of a mistake, learned from an East Coast instructor.

Really we can not expect to have the same butter as they have. Because of duplicating the terra, grasses, climate breed of bovine. Yes it is true the best butter in the world comes out of France also. We do what we can with what we have and we are doing very well bc some of our wines have been beating theirs.

So here's to your chicken dinner as your great work (magnum opus) and I hope you try the boyfriend engagement chicken dinner recipe.

Bon Appetit. Enjoy.

 

[chrissyr]

My opinion may be different from others. No less than 16 weeks and no more than 20 weeks in France. At the 12-16 week they are brought in to the pens from the pastures for polenta & porridge with goat's milk. Make a capon out of him or not, it is strickly up to you. Their breasts and such will not be able to marble completely without fattening them up with warm cooked porridge and corn mash w/goats milk or buttermilk. The unique thing about the Bresse is their ability to marble fat veins in the meats for a slightly gamie taste and texture will be tend if let to walk in the pasture. Not allowed to walk in parture and kept in cage they will be tough little boogard. They are appelated like vineyards. Strick codes Must be followed for maximum tenderness. I dont follow their strick codes.

I've read before of "cereal grains soaked in milk" . Did not know they should be cooked. That is interesting. I just got a nice pen for them, so hopefully my DH will let me use more area for a pasture. I already too the back part of the property for other pens and pastures. I'd like to get these guys on grass.

Here is link on BYC and the French Standard.....but it doesn't say anything about references for the number:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/866299/french-standards-for-raising-bresse-meat-chickens

Thank you so much! I will check that out

 

[ApiaryandAviary]

You dont have to cook, warm, or soak. You do not have to caponize, you dont have to follow exactly like the "business farms absolutely must follow or they loose their permits because you do not have the terra or what have you. You can make do with what you have and do the best you can and you should be happy with the out come. If you want their rules and guidelines and plan to follow it to the dotted "i" and crossed "t" then you will have to move there bc the grounds, the vegetation( think herbs, lavender and fields of wild flowers as well as grasses. Some grasses we do not have here.
Someone keeps touting someone elses excerpts. That is great but remember that it is excerpts. My opinion and thw law do not always go hand in hand. Did that person read and interpret into American English? Did they find it on the internet? You can easily look on the internet fo their guidelines and not excerpts or someone elses opinions. So just do the best you can with what you have. Last time. That was stated in the beginning, my opinion and the next time I go back to France, German, Italy, Norway or any of the other countries such as Switzerland which BTW way THEY refer to as the Confederation of Helvetia. I will tell them to make it clearer so we dont have to decipher others excerpts.
And no matter the weather, I still cook a warm cereal bowl of grains, milk and fats up for mine several days a week. I get appx an egg a day even in winter.
Once in a while each takes a turn skipping an egg but they also do that in the summer too.
Last time I respond.

 

[BCMaraniac]

I've read before of "cereal grains soaked in milk" . Did not know they should be cooked. That is interesting. I just got a nice pen for them, so hopefully my DH will let me use more area for a pasture. I already too the back part of the property for other pens and pastures. I'd like to get these guys on grass.

Thank you so much! I will check that out

I haven't finished one out with grain and milk, but I have penned them. I had a couple of capon slips, and also a full capon last year from my starter flock. I processed the 2 slips at 22 weeks, and the full capon didn't get processed until he was about 11 months old. They were excellent roasted. This year I am considering giving a couple of mine fermented rather than cooked grain with yogurt or milk when I bring them in to pen them 3-4 weeks before processing.....just as a test. My oldest capon this year is 19 weeks old now, and he is around 5 pounds live weight. His intact hatchmate that I am keeping for breeding is in the 6 pound range already. They definitely like the foraging, running around and chasing bugs. Given their activity level, I definitely think they would be tough if you pulled them out of the field and processed them.

Right now mine are getting a 5-way scratch in the evening, and spend the rest of their day out foraging. The low protein scratch is supposed to stimulate them to get out and get their protein from the pasture, and these seem to be thriving. They haven't had any kind of chick starter/grower feed since about 8 weeks of age. They are going to be bigger than their parents, who for logistical reasons were not raised on pasture last year.

I would definitely get them out on grass if I could.