Chantecler Thread!

[GalaBoys]

An 8 lb. hen sounds like a lovely size. Would love to see photos of her!

I teach my 4H kids how to handle chickens properly and it makes a huge difference in the ease of handling them. Also allows you to have one hand free to examine the chicken as needed. A great skill to have!

 

[gootziecat]

No one taught me the skill, so I find bantams sooo much easier to handle. As to a picture of my hen, she died yesterday, due heat, I believe. She seemed fine in the morning and it got pretty warm. The temps were jumping up and down from cool to hot and I don't think she was able to handle it. Sad.

 

[Nordic Gretch]

My head is spinning from all the genetics in this thread! I started reading at the beginning of the thread, read about 14 pages, jumped to page 130- something, and skimmed. I'm crazy being up at almost midnight with a five month old baby going to wake me up soon after I get to sleep, but I must say I am fascinated with all this talk of colour breeding. I have raised white chanties, have two hens now, although I'm soon trading them for some eggs from a breeder near here that wants more genetic diversity in his flock, and after I drop the girls off, I will be driving to pick up some fertilized partrige eggs. Can't wait! I'm a bit worried about my new off the shelf incubator, but hopefully with careful monitoring of the temperature and room humidity I'll get a few birds! I'm new to BYC (joined yesterday), and I am interested in rare breeds and food safety too. Living in Northern Ontario it only makes sense to have chanteclers. BTW, did you know that chantecler means "sing clearly"?
Thanks to all for sharing so much information! (Don't know how you have the time with chores to do as well!!!)
-Gretchen near Timmins, Ontario

 

[Nordic Gretch]

These are some of the hens I'm getting eggs from.

 

[Nordic Gretch]

Is

this one a good example of the breed?

 

[GalaBoys]

Gretchen, the birds in the first photo aren't Chanteclers - they look like blue/black laced red Wyandottes to me.

The second photo is indeed of Partridge Chanteclers! It is difficult to tell much from the angle, but they don't look too bad. I see some shafting in her chest (light feather shaft where it should be dark, this is a common problem and something you will want to select away from as your program progresses), but looks like nice combs, nice small wattles, and fair-sized hens. I think I see some triple pencilled feathers and nice even spacing of the pencilling, so that's good!

I wish you the best of luck with them! I love my Partridges, they are wonderful birds. They do tend to broodiness, so will be great at self-propagating for you.

 

[Nordic Gretch]

Wow, you're good! I checked on the ad, and she does in fact have blue laced red wyandotes for sale as well! When I saw her ad, I was excited to read that she had partridge chanties for sale, because I've always had white ones, and would love to try a different variety of chanteclers. Then I saw the picture of the chantecler hen (not knowing yet what breed she was), and I said to myself, "Whatever breed that is, I want it!" I was delighted to hear it was the picture of the partridge chantecler. I'm going to get some eggs from some white chanteclers too, as I am not quite ready to give them up- I love the colour of their eggs. BTW, what colour eggs do partridge chanteclers lay? Are they darker than the creamy ones the white chanteclers lay? Thank you for the kind words, I'm very excited!

 

[GalaBoys]

My Partridges do lay a bit darker eggs than my Whites did, at least at the beginning of their laying cycle. They do tend to get lighter towards the end of a cycle - not as light as my Whites, whose eggs were nearly white. It varies from hen to hen, I have one that lays quite a bit darker than the others, and I have another whose eggs are almost ombre - darker at one end and fading to lighter at the other end.

I had a first-time broody hatch four chicks today (out of four eggs, a great rate!), more under a second hen, and a bunch of eggs in the incubator. They are a terrific breed, I can't get enough!

 

[Northie]

An 8 lb. hen sounds like a lovely size. Would love to see photos of her!

I teach my 4H kids how to handle chickens properly and it makes a huge difference in the ease of handling them. Also allows you to have one hand free to examine the chicken as needed. A great skill to have!

Hmmm... Please share! All this flapping and scratching tells me I am doing something, er...not right lol.
Sometimes I can wrap my hands (still meet both) around the whole chicken keeping their wings folded up. Other times well as I said lol not so good! Plus they're getting bigger....

 

[GalaBoys]

Hmmm... Please share! All this flapping and scratching tells me I am doing something, er...not right lol.
Sometimes I can wrap my hands (still meet both) around the whole chicken keeping their wings folded up. Other times well as I said lol not so good! Plus they're getting bigger....

Here's a link to a PDF: http://web.uconn.edu/poultry/4-H Poultry/showmanship.PDF

They are a breeze to handle when you're doing it right!