Chantecler Thread!

[RhodeRunner]

Today I acquired a partridge Chantecler hen. I am amazed at her docile nature and would be very interested to know if this type of disposition is more noted in one color more than another. Or is this just my lucky day? I were to get more Chanteclers, this temperament would be what I would base my choice on. Thanks for any input.

A great deal depends on how you raise them, but I have noted that the Partridge Chantecler has a very agreeable and social personality. A few of my hens are almost like dogs, and run up to be held and pet. My White Chanteclers where like chicken robots. Great egg layers, but nothing particularly special.

 

[chickadoodles]

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[unkadan]

I have 4 White Chanties and they all look the same, their tails curve downward. I cannot tell if they are pullets or cockerels. Can anyone tell me please?

pictures from a few different angles help

 

[chickadoodles]

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[CanuckBock]

I have 4 White Chanties and they all look the same, their tails curve downward. I cannot tell if they are pullets or cockerels. Can anyone tell me please?

- English poet Robert Southey (1774–1843):

Since chickens will go after snails and not so sure on snips (which are eels...yuck!)...the above rhyme don't help us much either...

What I do is let the feathers tell me...depending on their age, the girls will have roundy "cushion" feathers and boys will have pointy "saddle" feathers.

Male above, Female below​

These two were hatched on Nov 23, 2103...photo taken today.

Juice Boy left / Blossom Girl right​

Chanteclers certainly CAN look the same as the head gear often looks similar in size and shape in both genders (boys can have redder combs, wattles and earlobes). I usually go by the butt back feathers--points for cockerels and rounds for pullets.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[chickadoodles]

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[chickadoodles]

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[skookumchuck]

well the one young chantie didn't make it. So I lost all 4 of the potential roosters in my white flock to the Raccoon attack. So if anyone is close to Missouri and has a good White rooster I am looking for one. Thanks all help is appreciated.

 

[gootziecat]

Thanks.

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Gootziecat:

I have a fond bias for the bantams. Can't help it as I started out with bantam chickens...barnyard mutts for the first 30 years.

I find bantam chickens more productive regarding resources used for production. They take up less space on a per bird basis (I may have more actual birds to play genetics with), eggs from pullets are small grade, eggs from hens are medium sized and the cockerels dress out into a fine meal for two persons (like a Cornish Game hen). I find we have reduced the overall size of the bantams but some where along the line, kept the head size proportionately bigger than if we had truly miniaturized the standard fowl; so the long and short of it is that I feel that the bantams tend to be smarter...for bird brains that is. But no asking them to do calculus, eh?

​

I like that bantams produce less waste and I can barely tear myself away from a puffed up, gone setty bantam hen! Very cutester.

This female bantam project hen set and hatched out chicks several times this winter...here are ten bantam chicks of various breeds...no problemo fer her!!​

I find my project bantams to be utterly amiable...I walked away while I brought arm loads back and forth to load up this sawhorse...they sat there happily waiting. Silly birds.

The cockerel on the far left...slept thru most of the photo shoot...WAKE UP! ​

I have no issues with my bantams picking at each other, they seem to get along quite well, are amazingly fun to keep, forage outside well and return when asked to go back to their coop very sensibly...they are just as much a pleasure to have as the larger standard Chants. The reason we chose to acquire standard Chanteclers is we noted that the local hatcheries in our province where dropping production breeds left and right...in both landfowl and waterfowl...so...we chose to import the standard Chants, heritage turkeys, and Silver Appleyard ducks. All these birds, in my way of thinking, are focussed towards production for meat and eggs. We wanted to safeguard our own personal supply of FOOD and the Chantecler was naturally a choice we made for ensuring we would never be held for ransom by a grocery store.

I use three bantam eggs for any recipe that calls for two standard sized eggs. I have no issues with smaller eggs but do find it very gratifying to hold a Jumbo sized egg in the palm of my hand...something about those honkin' big chickener eggs that makes me smile! I know that egg customers like standard chicken sized eggs...it is probably because that is what the grocery stores sell and they are just accustomed to that.

I see now that a bag of three mush meat chickens has gone from $25 to $40! That is a VERY sharp increase on price and makes me happy we chose to raise our own birds. We get a better product AND better value for the money we spend on feed and caring for them--more so now than ever.

Fred Jeffrey's Bantam Chickens is an awesome resource and he begins his book as follows regarding the history of bantam chooks...

Francis Bacon - 1629:

We all know we cannot make all fit one mould...so how each strain will act in your particular situation is just a try it and see basis. Much in regards to behaviours is environmental, as is their genetics. To make a prediction that in your case, you are guaranteed to love bantams would be a shot in the dark. Give it a whirl...I know I love them and would be hard pressed to have to choose between bantams and standards in the Chanteclers--thankfully, I get to love having both of them.

Best wishes in your endeavours...

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada