Bresse Chickens

[flowerchild59]

i hope to see them more popular and less expensive. i would love to try them as a meat bird.

 

[ChooksChick]

I think that will prohibit the majority of folks from using them as meat birds is the processing age being so 'advanced.' The 4-7 mos is substancial when you look at cost of feed and care for such a duration, and most people wouldn't want to move to that from a bird that only took 8 weeks to grow out.

Paul, do you intend to take that step and sample the fare for us all?

 

[spish]

our poule de bresse here in belgium max out at about 2,25 till 2,75 kg for the roosters,, and between 1,75 and2,25 kg for the hens (live) the hens are also very good egg layers (with nice big white eggs weighing at least 65 grammes and they lay good through the winter too!)

i have at the moment 2 roo's and 6 hens over from this year and am hoping to start breeding them next spring. i picked out 'the best looking' and sent the rest to freezer camp. it really is a tasty chicken meat

but seemingly hard too breed

all eggs this year have been infertile so im hoping come spring we'll have better luck, perhaps the roo's are just too young at the moment?

theres a few different types of bresse here... the Poule de Bresse - the white ones with blue feet,
Bresse van Louhans - these are black
and Bresse van Bourg - silver/black/white

 

[AuroraSprings]

Quote:
I think it would be worth it, since you could charge substantially more for the meat. Like a delicacy.I agree, Paul needs to try some for us

 

[stoneunhenged]

My plan is to build a Bresse-mobile for day-ranging them in the spring and raise out about a hundred birds for the table. I'll hold back the best for 2013 breeders. Lots to do between now and then including learning how to caponize roosters. We have a FSU biology student with a specialty in genetics who is trying to bring a little scientific rigor to the breeder selection process, and we'll be measuring important variables like growth rate and feed conversion efficiency. If I can swing it we're planning on installing a Bresse-cam on the Bresse-mobile, so maybe you can watch them on the web next spring.

On the fertility issue mentioned above: Have not seen a problem with fertility so far. In fact, the very first egg laid was fertile. There was initially some newly hatched chick mortality from the very small pullet eggs, but once the eggs increased in size the mortality issue went away. We're into about our fourth week of hatching, and this week we hatched eleven chicks and lost one. This is better than the results of Week 1. Hopefully, the mortality rate will continue to drop.

We have two unrelated trios of the white American Bresse to work with. One trio is a few months older than the other. We can see minor differences between the trios. One has slightly more erect combs, the other has a deeper blue leg color, etc. They give us some diverse traits to play with and favor in the future.

It will be interesting to see the reaction of people to the processed birds. The traditional French method is to leave the blue legs intact on the carcass, and the leg color is a very pronounced deep blue. It should make for some interesting comments by people unfamiliar with the breed and unfamiliar with the idea that chickens really have legs.

 

[Oregon Blues]

I think this is all very interesting.

I'm willing to pay more and take more time to raise my dinner, but only if there is a very marked improvement in flavor. So I am looking forward to the day when I can taste one of these chickens.

The way they are raised might make a difference. The French are very precise about how their livestock is raised and what it is fed.

 

[stoneunhenged]

Here's a pic taken today that gives you a sense of the blue leg color I mentioned earlier. That should get a double take at the local butcher shop.

 

[ladyfaeden]

Do the GFF chicks come labeled with what pen they are from?

 

[slc]

I think it is great that you are working with the Bresse and making them available.

Also good to know you cull, even with these very rare flocks. As all responsible breeders know “A good mob is produced by what you cull, not what you keep.” It's often very tempting to retain for the sake of quantity but that is a sure way of loosing (or changing) a breeds original form. I know this very well since I'm trying to get the Beltsville Turkey back to it's previous form. It's taken literaly years to find and collect worthy enough specimens to begin serious breeding. The Beltsville was the Bresse of turkeys back in the 1950's.

 

[johnnymac221]

I think this is great. We need more good tasting, slow-growing foods here in America. I would like to know how well the tastes stacks up with the Dorking and the La Fleche, which are known for being great table birds.