Faverolles Thread

[HallFamilyFarm]

Will have to post photos later.... but.... we have 5 UofA Salmon Faverolles hatched out and their feet all have 5 nice toes! If they are not all roosters we should have eggs available this fall.

 

[sandiklaws]

Will have to post photos later.... but.... we have 5 UofA Salmon Faverolles hatched out and their feet all have 5 nice toes! If they are not all roosters we should have eggs available this fall.

congrats

...but I have found some fav girls do not lay until nearly a year (so you know what to send me for Christmas LOL)

 

[flowerchild59]

Congrats on the hatch.

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

But Dr. Bramwell selects for the best traits. A dual purpose breed should also be a good layer. So hoping these start a bit sooner than a year.

You were in Florida, right?

 

[echosrevenge]

I'd agree with that - most of the chickens I've run across that don't lay until close to the 12mo mark are seriously show-bred, selected more for color than productivity. From what little I know about the U of A line, it sounds like he's selecting for usefulness first, then for pretty. It's a lot easier to get both when you hatch out 10,000 eggs per year!

 

[echosrevenge]

The two new babies that hatched last Sunday! The one in front actually has a super fluffy face, it's just hard to see when she's at a quarter angle like that. The other, I think might be half Soup, with the dark yellow on the back of the neck and the almost-conjoined fourth and fifth toes. Any thoughts? Soup was (we think) a NH Red/OEGB cross, and he has now lived up to his namesake so will not be breeding any more of my Faverolles girls. So far, both chicks appear to be growing in tan and grey feathers on their wings! Fingers crossed for a pair of pullets, that would be astounding luck for the first test-hatch of 3 eggs in the inky (3rd was a just-for-kicks from my red sexlink, never went past go)...

Toe photos:

This is the chick in the background above, less-fluffy face (but still poofy, just not AS poofy), bigger wings, dark yellow splotch on back of neck.


This is the foreground chick, fluffier face and hatched out the color of spring cream (pay no attention to the crud stuck to her foot, it was schmutz, not a scab or skin discoloration). She's thrashing like mad to get away from the camera, so it's hard to see that her fifth toe is usually well separated, pointing almost back up her leg. Angry chick is angry.


Another shot of the two together, positions reversed (you can see the schmutz on the one's leg, standing in back). Please ignore the goofy husband chirping at them in the corner of the shot...



I'll try to get some pictures of their parent flock up soon, they're just hatchery birds from Welp but seem to be a generally somewhat higher quality than a lot of the Favs I've seen from other hatcheries like McMurray and Cackle.

 

[sandiklaws]

But Dr. Bramwell selects for the best traits. A dual purpose breed should also be a good layer. So hoping these start a bit sooner than a year.

You were in Florida, right?

Nope good old New England on the coast where it is super wet and cold... but that's OK Jim, my Birthday is in June, so if they are good layer they should start in tike for that LOL

 

[sandiklaws]

The two new babies that hatched last Sunday! The one in front actually has a super fluffy face, it's just hard to see when she's at a quarter angle like that. The other, I think might be half Soup, with the dark yellow on the back of the neck and the almost-conjoined fourth and fifth toes. Any thoughts? Soup was (we think) a NH Red/OEGB cross, and he has now lived up to his namesake so will not be breeding any more of my Faverolles girls. So far, both chicks appear to be growing in tan and grey feathers on their wings! Fingers crossed for a pair of pullets, that would be astounding luck for the first test-hatch of 3 eggs in the inky (3rd was a just-for-kicks from my red sexlink, never went past go)...

Toe photos:

This is the chick in the background above, less-fluffy face (but still poofy, just not AS poofy), bigger wings, dark yellow splotch on back of neck.


This is the foreground chick, fluffier face and hatched out the color of spring cream (pay no attention to the crud stuck to her foot, it was schmutz, not a scab or skin discoloration). She's thrashing like mad to get away from the camera, so it's hard to see that her fifth toe is usually well separated, pointing almost back up her leg. Angry chick is angry.


Another shot of the two together, positions reversed (you can see the schmutz on the one's leg, standing in back). Please ignore the goofy husband chirping at them in the corner of the shot...



I'll try to get some pictures of their parent flock up soon, they're just hatchery birds from Welp but seem to be a generally somewhat higher quality than a lot of the Favs I've seen from other hatcheries like McMurray and Cackle.

Nice looking toes on that non-soup chick, it seems the hatcheries might finally be figuring out that crap doesn't sell and is no easier/cheaper to feed/breed

 

[echosrevenge]

The toes aren't great, but if it's a cockerel and takes after his dad AT ALL behaviorally, he'll make someone a really amazing flock guardian - probably my sister, who wants to make up her own homestead breed, focused on behaviors like self-feeding, broodiness, etc (some people have to reinvent the wheel, but what can you do). Soup faced down a fox nose-to-nose for his girls and won when he was just seven months old, always danced and tidbitted for them, had a very pleasant and melodious crow (something that I *cannot* say for our Faverolles boys, though they are youngish yet (please tell me they'll get better as they get older?). He was generally the most awesome rooster ever, he even once schooled one of the young Faverolles for lying to the hens about having food! He was very patient with my toddler niece playing "try to touch the chicken", never challenged a human, but just couldn't cohabitate peacefully with the two Faverolles. He never went after them badly, but he picked on them in small ways all the time...needed to be the only roo. We tried to find him another flock to guard, but couldn't, so...Soup.

And I am really glad to hear that these birds aren't total crap. My husband got them for me as a gift last year, and I love them but had always hoped to help curate and preserve an endangered breed - not some half-bred adulteration of one. It's nice to hear that I maybe won't have *quite* as much work to do....

In other words, anyone got some hatching eggs available on or around the 17-23, within a four or five hour drive of Portland, ME?

 

[ashandvine]

You were in Florida, right?

Floridians come to Maine for a real vacation so.... when are you showing up with eggs??

Hurt my back a few days ago so I have been MIA. The Fav who was coughing (?) seems to be alright. Like Keesmom said, she seems to do that when the weather fluctuates wildly. I need to get some babies out of them so I can move commence Favcon 5! lol