Chantecler Thread!

[GalaBoys]

Thought I would share some photos of my juveniles. Most of these will end up being sold as layers or in my freezer, but thought you guys might to see what I'm getting out my single pen mating this year.

The next bunch of photos are all of my June 8 hatch.



This young lady is destined for my pullet-breeding pen. I think she's out of my oldest hen, who was the foundation of coopslave's program.








April 29 hatch pullet. Looking a little rumpled and standing weird because I grabbed her and tossed her in this pen shortly before this photo was taken. She's mad at me.


June 8 hatch again, fierce head on this little guy!

 

[chickadoodles]

Thought I would share some photos of my juveniles. Most of these will end up being sold as layers or in my freezer, but thought you guys might to see what I'm getting out my single pen mating this year.

The next bunch of photos are all of my June 8 hatch.



This young lady is destined for my pullet-breeding pen. I think she's out of my oldest hen, who was the foundation of coopslave's program.








April 29 hatch pullet. Looking a little rumpled and standing weird because I grabbed her and tossed her in this pen shortly before this photo was taken. She's mad at me.


June 8 hatch again, fierce head on this little guy!

Very nice looking birds.

 

[GalaBoys]

Thanks chickadoodles! I am pleased with them, for the most part.

 

[chickadoodles]

I got my first Chanties 6 months ago and I am crazy about them I have a quad of the white ones. I am waiting for my pullets to start laying and my cockerel just started crowing but he is not servicing the girls yet.

 

[Northie]

Can someone post a couple nice cockerel pictures for me? I'm pretty sure I know which one I want to keep out of the pair that I have but I just want to double check. One is kinda growly, he's never done anything but I just get a bad vibe/energy off him.

 

[CanuckBock]

Can someone post a couple nice cockerel pictures for me? I'm pretty sure I know which one I want to keep out of the pair that I have but I just want to double check. One is kinda growly, he's never done anything but I just get a bad vibe/energy off him.

Here is one from OKA of a pair of White Standards...

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And of course from Brother Wilfrid... (sorry about the size dif in the outlines...hen should be bigger than she is displayed...oh well!).

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My fav is still Schilling's air brushed photo from 1923 that is used in the APA SOP...up until 1998... I have photocopied these two images, put them in sheet protectors and hung them up in the barns where I have Chants...the Veg Garden (Standard Chants) and the Duece Coop (bantam Project birds). I look at the photo, look at the birds...photo, birds, birds, photo...the silhouette is burned into my brain. I have done this with Schillings artwork for my Wyandottes, Booted Bantams and Brahmas...burned into the memory of what I am attempting to make selections to achieve...asking myself, "How close are we to the perfection??"

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Will post the female too ... I think I have posted these prior...

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Now in real life how these would be applied...

I do not probably have cockerels in the Standard Chants of the same age as yours--I begin incubation of eggs in June because that is more natural to my climate and what Nature is doing then here...hatching out baby birds...BUT no matter...I will attempt to assist.

Here at age of sixteen days, you can already begin to see these will be cockerels...the sheer size of them compared to pullets of same hatch AND the bones...them bones are there and bukly even at this tender age.

16 day olds; partridge standard Chanteclers - cockerel & pullet breeder colourations.


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Some Red Chanteclers (again standard)


I want to see them shaped like Cornish at this tender age...the bones, the bulk, the wide stance...the Happy MEAT!

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We have WIDTH...we have LENGTH--easily seen in their legs we have bones to drape meat off and make females that can make the good eggs within.


Next set...keeping in mind...these are BANTAM project birds...the head, wings, tails and legs...appear larger in bantams...when we minized the Standards...we kinda made them a bit cutesy pie I suppose...true bantam bird breeds would look terrible as true standard birds...but suffice to say, you should be able to SEE these birds are not large fowls in shape but miniatures.

Two bantam project Chanteclers...

Nov 23 2014 natural hatched - male top middle, female bottom left
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Note you can SEE even as a day old...the chick that was female was gonna be leaking more buff pigments and not be white as the driven snows...oh well--she has grown into a nice shape in my humble opinion (feathers are too soft yet but always some things we keep on about)...still working on colourations. I am breeding these two together and DO have White offspring on the ground from them...here you go, first one of the more white chicks hatched on the 7th of Aug...

F4 generation from white project pair (shown below)​

I am pumped about making this SHAPE into a more proper white VARIETY! Sorry...hard to hide that!

Some Chants hatched on Jul 30 2014 - day olds & Jul 31, next day all poofed out.
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See the white white one? Compared to the buffy leaky one (use these ones on the more Buff variety side of the breedings...so not a waste at all...just heading to the WANT more buff side of the equations!). Same for Partridge like colourations...head to that side of the variety for the breed. Every colour can be covered over with White if you keep at it for enough generations (autosomal red can be a *cripers* to get rid of but you CAN do it eventually)...SO you should never have a BAD coloured GOOD shaped chicken...not if you look forward to the generations and what can be done if you keep trying. Rah rah...how is that for a pecky PEP talk?

White is a great salvation to have as a recognized variety within a breed. It means if you work on shape and other attributes (vigour, disease resistance, fertility, production, temperament & longevity) and keep on nailing that...but you can ALSO make that line a self-white and be absolutely prim & proper...har har har!

See the progression (albeit slow...slow)! Yee Haw!

Now here's hoping all the other attributes are lined up in the white white ones too...we shall see, eh...we shall see! Rome was not built in a day.

F3 Male natural hatched Nov 23, 2013 - Aug 4, 2014​

F3 Female natural hatched Nov 23, 2013 - Aug 5 & Jul 31, 2014 ​

Her "top line" is ragged from being bred...her pantaloops are too poofy but on the counter side, I bet that those warm softy soft feathers ensure she is not bothered by -45C this winter, eh? She is more "bantam White Wyandotte" like feather texture wise. Got her long Johns on? Hee hee...(he on the other hand has tighter feathers...just by simple gender...the males tend to have firmer feather expressions than females).


Do keep in mind...the length of leg on the young birds will seem too long on proper specimens (not bulked up quite yet!)...they will appear gangly (but also need to be wide...you need that skeleton even on the cockerel to be WIDE to hang meat off of and in the pullet to have room to make them big delicious eggers in!) and the young birds will not be these BLOCKS of substance we see in the two year old adults but you are looking for some good bone lengths/widths in the bird skeleton and the length will be filled in with a more ample body (gravity is wonderful for making them chunkins...too bad we humans don't see saggy gravity succumbing physics in the same light!) while the bones will thicken and strengthen over time as they grow on up (or is that widen out?).


Egg shells require three things in balance...Calcium (should be found in your base ration of layer crumble but also have oyster shell as a free choice offering...every hen is an individual with differing needs), Vitamin D3 (sunshine!), and Phosphorus (found in grains--why hens LUV hen scratch!).


Egg laying hens will bank their calcium inside their bones, tissues, and even their beaks to make withdrawals. Skeletons and structure in our general purpose Chanteclers are tres important...them boys you choose will sire girls and bone structures are important...I will talk on this...

Here is an awesome photo to enjoy on this topic...

http://mikethechickenvet.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/bones-shells-and-hen-health/

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I see this "slow growth rate" as a guarantee you will have long living, healthy, properly made up, THRIVING poultry that is productive for way LONGER than one season. You get years back in payment for the resources you invested to grow them into fine, fine adults that will produce premium quality delicious foods for you for years after...birds used for meat even benefit from slow growth...quality takes time and you can taste the chickeny flavours...not some mush meat with liquidy "flavour" packets added because they taste like Tofu and have a consistency of it too...not firm and tasty happy meats that take time to taste so fine!

I have Chant hens giving me eggs that were hatched June 2008...they are working on their SEVENTH year of life and still dependable "pets" with benefits...gorgeous big eggers to grace the family plates and sorry but I just love knowing them so well...there is huge comforts in knowing your flocks...years of happiness in a beneficial union.


Here is a bit more info... if you wanna investigate the relationship that our chooks have to banking up stocks of raw resources to make those quality cackleberries we so adore...

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps029:

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The answer is to feed hens a ration that is balanced with a lot of calcium in it, and appropriate amounts of phosphorus added. Feed treats and scratch as just that….treats and amusement. Don’t try to balance your hens rations piecemeal….it is all but impossible, and the hens will suffer. Another way to approach the problem is to use heritage breeds, which will go out of lay much more easily, and spare themselves the effects of calcium depletion. You will get fewer eggs, but also less problems.
Mike the Chicken Vet

Hmm...fewer eggs...perhaps if you counted eggs from the first year as the only way to compare production aspects but these heritage birds live long productive lives--fewer eggs compared to the burn out commercialized hybrids but like the tortoise, compared to the hare...I figure we get MORE eggs and better premium quality eggs if we factor in that the heritage hen is here to stay and she just keeps on producing for the long haul! Each time you ADD new stocks if you are not hatching from home eggs...you risk introducing something nasty in diseases or parasites...having reliable, steady producers at home for years...something fine about that!

Hmm...the investment WE make in growing out our heritage hens...that HAS to count rather highly in my books at least! No fuss, no muss with a two year old hen...she has had the care and attentions needed to grow her out to be an adult (by the simple fact she thrives...I know she is disease resistant, weather tolerant, sensible and practical not to have gotten herself killed...!)...she has given us a season of delicious good & decent eggs...she will moult, take a rest to make feathers and replenish her egg making bank...then right back into production and I find the older hens give me bigger delightful eggs, consistent, reliable dear birds. Just so very lovely to have them around like a worn in pair of jeans or shoes...just about the time it takes to get to know her is two years...and she never seems to disappoint me as when she finally does go baron and completely up and stops laying...well we have a standing relationship here! She gave it her all, and well, like the dried up ol' milk cow...she will have a place here for as long as SHE decides she wants to stay and, well, chat it up with her other friends the old hens, just look pretty, keep those pullets in line, the cockerels too...just love my oldy hens I suppose. They know all about the routine I have and thrive under my care at my place...they all roost up in the choice spots, get to eat & drink first, the best choice pieces...nobody dares push her about or they will get a good beaking for not respecting their elders!

I like my oldsters...I guess the fact we make selections on the birds regarding how much we love them which means the older birds are the kind that are no real trouble to us...reliable and I guess because I am old myself...I am a sucker for them and their known behaviours.


Do go & read more of Mike's stuff...here is some incentive from the very same article...his intro alone makes me grin from silly ear to ear! The one word "henning" takes the cake!

Bones, Shells and Hen Health:

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Musculoskeletal System
Many peculiarities of the avian skeleton are related to flight. Others are related to egg production. As a two-legged animal some chicken bone defects may be similar to defects in man. Many avian bones are hollow and contain air sacs. Air sacs in bones are of practical significance in repairing fractures in small birds and in making a decision in meat inspection when a bird is affected with airsacculitis. Inside other bones marrow occurs and an accessory medullary bone is formed during egg production in the female. This medullary bone grows under the influence of estrogen as trabeculae of primitive bone almost filling the medullary cavity and in the pigeon undergoes breakdown as the egg shell is being formed. In the chicken no clear cut breakdown of medullary bone associated with egg shell production has been demonstrated but it is implied that some breakdown does occur. Hens when laying at a high rate utilize from their skeletons considerable calcium for egg shell formation.

So look to your cockerels for a decent skeleton...as cockerels they do not look like Schillings masterpiece until they GROW and mature out...but look for length of leg, some bone that will take another year to fully be realized as an adult.


On an aside...why keep back only one roo a doo? Now I do not expect everyone to be like me and keep equal numbers of Chantecler males to females for breeding (have two all male bachelor pens and the one large "laying" flock of females in winter--sometimes with one token male jest because I love my girls having a man about the house!--to hen peck <<wicked laughter!>>) but you do need to consider the "Heir and his Spare" in case something goes wrong from now to spring breeding (minimum of 14 hours of daylight which is mid April for us here in the Great White North!) time. I would whole heartedly suggest keeping the TWO males...lose the one most precious in the breeding program would be the LONE MALE and if predation is an issue, even slightly for you...the first to go get eaten will most often be the boy...protecting his harem savagely from any threat! I have had great success with keeping ONE pen of two males and four females ... not always one to one in genders...if I was not able to keep same number of boys to the same number of girls. Have you got enough girls to keep the boys from fighting--keeping in mind every single flock is different...environment, strains tendencies...all sorts of reasons two males will fight or will NOT fight if girls are present. Day to day sorta thing I guess...you watch them carefully for potential troubles.

I would make a suggestion that you keep three pairs minimum in any breeding program. Three females, rotate the one male through the breeding pen after 14 hours natural light exposure, meanwhile the two boys not with girls can keep each other company until it is their turn with the girls...remove the 1st male and set eggs until the eggs candle clear at day 7 or so and then add the next new boy if tracking pedigrees is your thing. You can also house three breeder pens as pairs only breedings...do up three separate lines and rotate offspring with each other for a sorta start on unrelateds but still kinda related to keep some "type" going along combined with healthy diversity. If yah wanna... To me, keeping a single male in a breeding program is just asking for Murphy's Law to visit and rein down and BONK one over the head...he's DEAD...now what to do!

Eeeep....

So I guess I have meandered a bit off track and rambled on a bit...but I did answer and post some pics of male Chants and discussed how important the skeleton, the frame work "to put the meat upon/make eggs from within" is...

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[Northie]

Going to wander down to the coop with these pictures thanks
edit to add...
I took the tablet down, did a bit of wrangling and managed to get the 4 chanteclers locked out in the run without the others. I tried getting some picture but most were pretty blurry so I took a video instead. I'll link the video if I can get it uploaded

 

[CanuckBock]

Going to wander down to the coop with these pictures thanks

Hope I have helped.


I wandered down to the coop too and took some of the grower standard Chantecler ones out.

Need to upgrade the camera soon...not the best shots but still something to see I suppose.

You can begin training them to pose any time.

This one is messed up colour wise...buff and white-legs are pale (but showing a yellow tinge beginning)...but shape is not too shabby on a young bird.


Not feeding these ones any yellow corn yet but you can see some are getting yeller leg colouring...should really *POP* when I do begin adding cracked corn to their diet...
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Summerish still past a few frost nights...so no corn to over generate heat in those bird furnaces...not quite yet!

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Some of the yellow pigments could be attributed to them getting greens as they do get that (yellow plus blue = green colour) plus some is genetic too.

I usually see them with droopy tail, relaxed state is good too...calm during handling is what we do want. I am not much for birds that freak out and fly about. I like a non-flighty breed. Spazzy is not something I prefer and a "wild" demeanour can sometimes be genetic...so continue to choose attitudes you like and get along well with. Never seen a reason to have a bird I did not "bond" with regarding attitude. Beauty is as beauty does--no bird is a good one if it has a crappy temperament. We spend WAY too much time with them to be hating working with them.

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I ask them to hold their tail up by holding it up. If you hold it up and wait a bit and do this enough times, they kinda forget their tail is up or even in some cases, "learn she bothers with me if I don't stand to attention when she is messing with us." Same can be done with wing carriage...usually a good idea to let them flap a few times to get the wing feathers arranged properly...folded in nice. Above pic, wings are not flapped once and you can see they are not tucking in nicely. But don't want to go too overboard...tail up was good enough for today (shows off the long back!)...next time, work on the wingies. Some just pose instantly nicely. These ones are a delight to photograph/show. Problem with photos is we can instantly catch a nice bird looking terrible...it is just an instant we are posting, eh!

Really quite amusing I suppose...chickens are trainable...see that hand approaching so hold up the tail, hold those wings in nicely, stand level, look like a regal eagle!

I do prefer out of this grouping of pudgy puff puffs...

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The two males on either end...maybe the one on the left more so. Block head with a matching block bod. Some substance. He also has attitude too because when I primped with him...he pecked at the female beside him like she was doing the poking... So he is already willing to shove his weight around should something or someone be bothering him. Attitude!

Note the keel ridge. All these ones are cushion combed...so have Pea comb genetics which like the Cornish Standard states..."Males often showing bare keel line." I see it in both genders in the Chants...on the chest, running down the center.

Probably because the Cornish breed has such hard feathers (breed characteristic)...plus with the males having harder feathers than females, you would expect the breed to be more males with bare keel lines than the females.

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I did try to get all of them standing for leg comparison...HA--above we do have half of them standing up! No matter, some were asleep, some were awake...definately like a herd of turtles trying to get them to all comply at the same time. Usually easier to work one on one than with group of eight youngsters...do keep in mind that having other chickens around when they are use to being in a group does keep them calmer than if you have just one bird alone...that can sometimes make them nervous (am I invited AS dinner or?). Sometimes a bird off camera works, sometimes it just invites trouble as the one tries to join the other.

Nicer weather than in winter I suppose is one bonus this time of year.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[ChickenMack]

I have six Partridge Chanteclers, three roos and three hens,. They were fillers for a box of giants I had shipped from a breeder but I am so glad to have them, but I am going to have to make a choice of the roos plus I would like to show a pair in October. Does anyone here show their chanty's? Out of my hens, the necks feathers range from orangey to a rust, which one is more preferred at judging? As for the roos, do I take the biggest or the smallest? Any advice about showing these beauties would be great. I have never shown a chicken before but getting these birds from a breeder makes me feel like I need to get out there and show them! Thanks for the advice.

 

[GalaBoys]

Choose the birds that conform most closely to the Standard of Perfection. Take as many as you can, it will help you learn what to look for!