***Crevecoeur Thread***

[exop]

Quote:
He looks like a hatchery Creve to me....

I second that...
He has a definite Crèvecoeur-ish look, and the crest is going in the right direction, but he's coming up short in the beard-and-muff department - though to be fair, I can see some feathers growing in in the muff area, so maybe this is just a bad day for him. I would also look for more bare, red skin on the face eventually. Is he still pretty young?

I have to say, it's difficult to assess a bird on the basis of a few photographs, especially for body type - his neck looks a little short to me, but he could just be standing that way. He looks like he's the right shape.

The long and the short of it is, Crèvecoeurs are very scarce in this country, and good ones (meaning up to the standard in weight) next to nonexistent. But the situation will never improve unless people are willing to work with what we have and improve it... if you cross him to a nice bearded hen you should be able to improve the beard and muff situation. You also want to watch out for a Polish body type - the body should be long, blocky and rectangular, sort of Dorking-y, not round shaped like a Leghorn or White Crested Black Polish.

Quote:
They would in France too

The French standard calls for a muff / beard which cover the earlobes, and inconspicuous wattles...

Not everyone in France has a good bird - same as in the U.S. The ones in that Youtube video look as though they have a lot of La Flèche in them! Ow. I think they might be Le Merleraults, misidentified.

These are also French Crèvecoeur photos,

Notice the short legs...

It's an interesting story, France had as much of a heritage poultry crisis as anyplace else during the last century, maybe more so because of the two world wars ravaging the countryside early on. The Crèvecoeur was very low in numbers when a group of dedicated hobbyists in the 1970s managed to save the breed... and it is now doing much better, although it's still uncommon.

Quote:
Please stay excited! The Crèvecoeur has a great history as a useful chicken breed, it's very rewarding to watch them forage and get around outside, and even if the meat side of things isn't what it once was, they lay a nice white egg. Stick with it! They're a cool chicken, and while I do like Polish - they're sweet birds - they seem semi helpless compared to a Crèvecoeur.

Best - exop

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Quote:
He looks like a hatchery Creve to me....

I second that...
He has a definite Crèvecoeur-ish look, and the crest is going in the right direction, but he's coming up short in the beard-and-muff department - though to be fair, I can see some feathers growing in in the muff area, so maybe this is just a bad day for him. I would also look for more bare, red skin on the face eventually. Is he still pretty young?

I have to say, it's difficult to assess a bird on the basis of a few photographs, especially for body type - his neck looks a little short to me, but he could just be standing that way. He looks like he's the right shape.

The long and the short of it is, Crèvecoeurs are very scarce in this country, and good ones (meaning up to the standard in weight) next to nonexistent. But the situation will never improve unless people are willing to work with what we have and improve it... if you cross him to a nice bearded hen you should be able to improve the beard and muff situation. You also want to watch out for a Polish body type - the body should be long, blocky and rectangular, sort of Dorking-y, not round shaped like a Leghorn or White Crested Black Polish.

Quote:
They would in France too

The French standard calls for a muff / beard which cover the earlobes, and inconspicuous wattles...

Not everyone in France has a good bird - same as in the U.S. The ones in that Youtube video look as though they have a lot of La Flèche in them! Ow.

These are also French Crèvecoeur photos,

http://elevageamateur.wifeo.com/images/crevecoeur-coq.JPG http://elevageamateur.wifeo.com/images/crevecoeur-poule.JPG
Notice the short legs...

It's an interesting story, France had as much of a heritage poultry crisis as anyplace else during the last century, maybe more so because of the two world wars ravaging the countryside early on. The Crèvecoeur was very low in numbers when a group of dedicated hobbyists in the 1970s managed to save the breed... and it is now doing much better, although it's still uncommon.

Quote:
Please stay excited! The Crèvecoeur has a great history as a useful chicken breed, it's very rewarding to watch them forage and get around outside, and even if the meat side of things isn't what it once was, they lay a nice white egg. Stick with it! They're a cool chicken, and while I do like Polish - they're sweet birds - they seem semi helpless compared to a Crèvecoeur.

Best - exop

Just out of curiosity, what does the standard say for weight?

 

[exop]

Quote:
8 Lb for the rooster, 6.5 Lb for the hen;
it was 8 Lb for the rooster, 7 Lb for the hen in some of the earlier standards.

You mentioned you had a nice large rooster, earlier?

I talked to someone a few years ago who said she had an 8 Lb hen, which would have been extraordinary, but she did not seem to feel it was urgent to breed from this large bird and save its genes. If the weight was due to size and not to fatness, it seems like a shame to lose that. But she was "holding out" for a mate of equal quality, with red earlobes...

I inquired afterwards with Duane Urch and with Yellow House Farms, both of whom told me that a quest for red earlobes in existing stock was more or less phantasmal.

This is probably the point at which I became annoyed at the fixation with earlobe color.

Rare Feathers Farm, I will be interested to hear your results with the red-earlobed strain you are adding.

I would very much like to know how the earlobe came to be delimited as red in the first place... was it based on observation of existing stock at the time, was it an aesthetic decision based on the idea that a red earlobe would look better with the red face, was it based by guesswork on the British standard which gave a red face but didn't discuss earlobe color... or had it to do with the fact that in especially large and vigorous roosters, white earlobes are often blotched with red at maturity?

When the APA's first standard for the Crèvecoeur was written, the breed would have only been in the U.S a few years; doubtfully long enough to obtain a truly red-eared strain out of a white one unless there was outcrossing to a breed with red ears. And unless the breeder or breeders with this red-eared strain achieved perfect market penetration

there would have remained some birds with white ears in the population. So I am hopeful that the appearance of whitish ears in American Crèvecoeurs may not always be due to Polish blood, but also to genes that have been out there since the beginning...

Ear lobe color inheritance is complex, it appears multiple genes are involved, so maybe the breeding out of white ears was never wholly successful.

Anyway! Enough of this, eh.

Hi everyone.
exop

 

[newchknmama]

My feed store just got some of these in. Can you tell me what kind of temperment they have? They came from Murray McMurray. I am picking up my polish there on Wednesday and was thinking of getting one of these too. it would make the 6th and final for now in my flock as my neighborhood only allows 3

so I know nothing about them and want to learn. Thanks in advance!

 

[chicken boy sam]

Mine is kind of skiddish, but that's because she wasn't socialized at all as a chick. Infact, I bought her at an animal auction!!!

On the first page, I have posted many links, and some may be helpful!!!!!! Especially mypetchicken.com

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=6018066#p6018066 Last one for a while....

 

[smallcitychick]

I have a crevecoeur question: Is it possible to get one from a hatchery? I picked up a couple of chicks labeled "assorted polish" at the local Big R. After searching for pictures of polish chicks I the only thing that I can come close to is that maybe it's a crevecoeur chick? Here's a picture:

Everything that I've read about creves is that they're rare and a heavy breed (this chick is small, about the size of my bantam chicks, my other polish are much taller). I'm not sure which hatchery Big R gets their chicks from either.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Quote:
Yes it's possible. Several hatcheries carry them and hatchery Creves might as well be Polish.

It will probably be leggy with white earlobes and a slender body.

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

I thought I'd add that it looks like a Creve chick to me.