Rachel,
You're absolutely right. They do seem to be more susceptible to diseases and problems than your average breed. Unfortunately, there are very few breeders of these bantams so the gene pool is very small. A friend of mine was discussing this with a head honcho from ALBC and he said that the best chance of improving the vigor in this breed would be to start from scratch - take good standard-size stock and work down their size to bantams. Understand, though, this would require several generations of breeding, which would equate to *years* of work.
I think there are far fewer problems with the standard Faverolles. It's mostly the bantams that suffer poor disease resistance and a variety of deformities. I got into bantam Favs last year and it was a *nightmare*!!! Not only did I hatch chicks with fused toes (the middle and outer toes of both feet were fused on several chicks) - they, along with some other "normal-looking" ones came down with Marek's disease and now I vaccinate all of my incubator-hatched chicks. I thought I'd lose ALL of my birds, but incidentally, it was only the Favs and one Fav/leghorn mix that succumbed to Marek's. The BLRW bantams and one silkie that were raised with this brood never got sick. AFAIK (these birds were sold), they're *still* alive and kicking, over a year later.
I'd love to work on the vigor of this breed, but I just don't have the room that would be required to execute such a project, nor do I have the patience...
-Naomi
You're absolutely right. They do seem to be more susceptible to diseases and problems than your average breed. Unfortunately, there are very few breeders of these bantams so the gene pool is very small. A friend of mine was discussing this with a head honcho from ALBC and he said that the best chance of improving the vigor in this breed would be to start from scratch - take good standard-size stock and work down their size to bantams. Understand, though, this would require several generations of breeding, which would equate to *years* of work.
I think there are far fewer problems with the standard Faverolles. It's mostly the bantams that suffer poor disease resistance and a variety of deformities. I got into bantam Favs last year and it was a *nightmare*!!! Not only did I hatch chicks with fused toes (the middle and outer toes of both feet were fused on several chicks) - they, along with some other "normal-looking" ones came down with Marek's disease and now I vaccinate all of my incubator-hatched chicks. I thought I'd lose ALL of my birds, but incidentally, it was only the Favs and one Fav/leghorn mix that succumbed to Marek's. The BLRW bantams and one silkie that were raised with this brood never got sick. AFAIK (these birds were sold), they're *still* alive and kicking, over a year later.
I'd love to work on the vigor of this breed, but I just don't have the room that would be required to execute such a project, nor do I have the patience...
-Naomi
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