Faverolles Thread

[sandiklaws]

No, don't worry at all about answering questions put to others, if you have relevant info!

I've read the same thing about game crosses being great broodies - in fact, I got to hear it straight from the horses' mouth, so to speak, when I had a chance to chat with Harvey Ussery for a few minutes at the Common Ground Country Fair this last year after he spoke on growing your own chicken feed crops. He has some amazing stories about teeny little Game Bird mammas beating up hawks, raccoons, minks, all sorts of predators. Our birds mostly free-range here, though the off-grid place we're looking at is in the middle of 4,000 acres of Nature Conservancy land so they probably won't free range there without supervision - there's a large greenhouse space I'll use as a brooder/broody pen, at least until they're big enough to be warm at night in a tractor grow-out pen outside. I've considered getting some game crosses - my last mixed-breed rooster was a NH Red/OEGB cross, and he was such a phenomenal guy that I let him stand over some of my not-so-pretty Faverolle girls on the strength of his personality and the reputation of OEGBs as broodies alone. My husband, however, loves Faverolles and only Faverolles, and Cloverleaf is the first person I've seen who says her Faverolles go broody regularly - most everyone else I've talked to has had them not be very reliable setters, and even less reliable mothers. Part of my impetus to let Soup (the OEGB mix) stand to the Faverolles was the hope of getting some Faverolle cross hens who would brood reliably and well (and if not, well, their dad was delicious.)

The trouble with getting a second breed as broodies, at least for us this year, is separate housing for the second breed - I would love to get some bantam cochins or game birds. But, Soup ended up becoming his namesake because he COULD NOT live in harmony with the two (much younger) Faverolle cockerels we have. I've never been able to successfully integrate Faverolles with other standard-size breeds, even just a couple of other-breed hens in a big flock of 20+ Favs, without the Faverolles suffering for it in some way, either losing beards and toe feathers, getting chased off the food, bumped to the floor of the coop at night even when they're TONS of empty roosts, etc. Any tips on how to get other non-bearded breeds to play nice with my floofy-faces would be great too!

I would just get some girl chicks to raise out, and put them in w/ the favs at as young an age as possible so they bond and behave well in the flock (I would brood them at coop floor level in a wire dog crate once they were 4 weeks) if they are anything like the cornish mixes my friend has they will lay roundish hard shelled brown eggs which should be fairly easy to tell apart... then just add a few girl chicks to the mix every couple of years to ensure you always have them... older girls make better broodies anyway, and your game hen broodies would be at if for years, maybe a decade or more even.

 

[keesmom]

I've read the same thing about game crosses being great broodies - in fact, I got to hear it straight from the horses' mouth, so to speak, when I had a chance to chat with Harvey Ussery for a few minutes at the Common Ground Country Fair this last year after he spoke on growing your own chicken feed crops. He has some amazing stories about teeny little Game Bird mammas beating up hawks, raccoons, minks, all sorts of predators.

I went to the Fair too, and also listened in on his talk. So did Henry. I can't quite do what he does, but I'll try something similar on a smaller scale here this spring.

I can't see any of my roosters being a serious threat to any predator. I think you're right - the best flock protectors tend to protect it from everything!

 

[echosrevenge]

Yeah, I haven't quite been able to implement his system, though I'm hoping to be able to imitate his poultry-house-in-the-middle-of-the-garden rotating-runs thing that he does, where his winter poultry house has half of the mulched garden to muck around in all season. Have you had a chance to check out his book? It's pretty good, mostly basic info for the new-to-chickens, but he's got a couple of really innovative things he does that it's well worth having photos of just for reference, and the health info is really well organized. It's nice to see more books that have a focus on breaking it all down to the "why" of things, like giving the actual nutritional needs for a chicken in lay rather than just saying "go get layer pellets from your local feed store".

The Faverolle roosters being such marshmallows is a LARGE part of why our chicken coop is no more than 8' away from the back door of the house. We can see it from several windows, hear clearly anything out of the ordinary at night, and get to it *really fast* if we need to - and their "hangin' out 'round the coop" space is close to the house as well so they're generally in an area where predators are loath to go. I'd rather scrape chicken poop off the deck rail once a week than lose birds to predators. And my Favs are SO SAD when they can't free range...

 

[echosrevenge]

We don't buy sexed hatchery chicks (same reason as Mr Ussery, I'd rather raise the boys and eat them than let them be tossed in a barrel to suffocate or ground up for feed while still alive on the same day they come in to the world, it's just too cruel), and our coop right now isn't set up well to put a cage on the ground (multi-story loft-type coop). But when we move that's definitely something to consider, I know I saw youngish game chicks at some of the poultry swaps locally last year. It's just a matter of selling my husband on it...he has this fear that once I get another breed, it'll never stop.

Then he says he wants emus, peacocks, and parakeets. At least *I* only want birds that either make things to eat or get eaten themselves.

 

[n8ivetxn]

Hello there,
My first Faverolle hatched yesterday, just thought I'd share a pic of the cutie


Of course, being that it is the only one of our dozen eggs to hatch, I'm convinced it's a roo and have called it Fabio, haha

Cute baby! ....Yeah, with my luck I'd have a roo too

I just discovered one of my pullets has gone broody....I suspected it, but I've been at home all day today and she hasn't gotten off that nest.... I'm curious what she's sitting on!?

 

[sandiklaws]

***EXTREME CUTENESS ALERT*** Fav chick pictures, comparing my stock to the improved hatchery birds, to make it easier to follow I will put my birds comments in blue and the Cackle in red, APOLOGIES FOR THE CRAPPY CELL PHONE PICS:

HERE IS A FACE SHOT OF ONE OF MINE



THIS IS ONE OF THE HATCHERY CHICKS, HAPPENED TO BE THE FUZZIEST ONE



SIDE BY SIDE SHOT OF THE BACKS OF THESE 2, YELLOW CHICK IS ACTUALLY QUITE A BIT BIGGER THEN THE OTHER, THEY JUST WERE NOT FEELING LIKE COOPERATING



PROFILES OF THE 2 (SORRY ABOUT THE BLUR)



SIDE BY SIDE HEAD SHOT... CHICK ON THE LEFT WAS NOT HAPPY LOL




CACKLE CHICK TOES, THERE ARE 5, BUT THEY ARE WEIRD IN SHAPE




HERE IS ONE OF MINE, TOES ON THE LEFT ARE COMPLETELY SEPARATE BUT A BIT CLOSE




THESE ARE MORE WHAT I LOOK FOR IN MY CHICKS... AGAIN ONE OF MINE



GROUP SHOT OF THE HATCH... IGNORE THE 3 BANTAM COCHIN CHICKS lol




AND ANOTHER CRAPPY PICTURE OF THEM... THEY ARE ON CHICK MASH ON PAPER TOWELING, (NOTHING EXOTIC, ALTHOUGH IT LOOKS KINDA LIKE CORDUROY)

 

[sandiklaws]

We don't buy sexed hatchery chicks (same reason as Mr Ussery, I'd rather raise the boys and eat them than let them be tossed in a barrel to suffocate or ground up for feed while still alive on the same day they come in to the world, it's just too cruel), and our coop right now isn't set up well to put a cage on the ground (multi-story loft-type coop). But when we move that's definitely something to consider, I know I saw youngish game chicks at some of the poultry swaps locally last year. It's just a matter of selling my husband on it...he has this fear that once I get another breed, it'll never stop.

Then he says he wants emus, peacocks, and parakeets. At least *I* only want birds that either make things to eat or get eaten themselves.

Peacock is eaten all the tie in India, and emu also is commonly eaten, by folks that raise it for emu oil... just not very practical for a homestead (and they ate parakeets in some movie I saw years ago about a cruise ship that was underwater/sunk w/ people living on it)

 

[echosrevenge]

I've eaten emu a few times, and I'm sure some other weird birds that we wouldn't generally think of as food in the US (lots of travel in Asia over a 20-year period...lots of street food, lots of weird mystery-meat kebabs. I'm positive I've eaten cat at least once.) Peacock was a very popular dish in royal courts of Europe for many years, often served with the feathers (at least the tail) stuck back on after baking. Saw it recreated on some foodie show about Marie Antoinette once, they thought it was gamey but obviously weren't the sort used to eating free-range lean birds in the first place. I'm sure if we raised them, we'd try it at least once eventually - aside from the parakeets...I just don't feel like those would be worth the trouble of plucking, outside the most dire circumstance....

 

[sandiklaws]

I've eaten emu a few times, and I'm sure some other weird birds that we wouldn't generally think of as food in the US (lots of travel in Asia over a 20-year period...lots of street food, lots of weird mystery-meat kebabs. I'm positive I've eaten cat at least once.) Peacock was a very popular dish in royal courts of Europe for many years, often served with the feathers (at least the tail) stuck back on after baking. Saw it recreated on some foodie show about Marie Antoinette once, they thought it was gamey but obviously weren't the sort used to eating free-range lean birds in the first place. I'm sure if we raised them, we'd try it at least once eventually - aside from the parakeets...I just don't feel like those would be worth the trouble of plucking, outside the most dire circumstance....

LOL the movie had the keets on a plate with their drumsticks sticking up... found a wiki on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goliath_Awaits

 

[n8ivetxn]

Wow! Now I can say I've seen it all! - Love the babies, Sandiklaws....and thanks for the feet pics....I like to see them for comparison.