Faverolles Thread

[keesmom]

Thanks! I'm looking to get more Salmon Faverolles. I want to breed them. Do Salmon Faverolles breed true?

Yes as long as you only have Faverolles in the pen.

 

[sandiklaws]

Yes as long as you only have Faverolles in the pen.

...and understand that doesn't mean a perfect chick every time. Chicks can still hatch with small and big flaws regardless of breeding true, also color in this breed can vary widely in both sexes.

 

[n8ivetxn]

Are faverolles an early or late maturing breed?
I'm just wondering what the average age is they start laying?

Also they apparently lay through winter so does that mean the fact we are heading into winter over here won't affect when they start to lay?

Mine tend to be late maturing, especially the males. The pullets on average take 6-7 months to start laying. I hatch in spring, so most start laying in the fall.

Mine are on the slow side as well, especially the boys. I got 2 from Cloverleaf in November, they were 8 weeks old, now almost 8 months. The darker one is further developed in color and tail growth, the lighter one is the slower of the 2, but he's a nice, big boy!

I think my pullets are in the same range as Keesmom.

About your question: heading into winter affecting their laying - Some of my pullets started in the winter, some hens stopped (the 2 hatchery girls maybe?), so I'm thinking it's a roll of the dice....

 

[hcammack]

Poularde, its not quite get but it will be! We are planting pretty much the whole place to a permaculture of poultry fodder and pasture, hopefully in a couple of years it will be mature enough to support 75-100 chickens and ducks without any bought-in feed at all.

This sounds like such an awesome project. I went to a talk by Harvey Ussery at the common ground fair last year about feeding poultry from home resources. Very interesting talk I feed my birds all my table scraps and next year will plant some winter rye and other plantings for them. May even create two pens for them to rotate between. But for now unfortunatly I am in the city. Eventually when I settle down somewhere I plan to have a large pastured poultry system and would love something where it provides feed for the birds. You should get some geese to protect from predators and also graze they eat primarily grass which I think makes them a great pastured bird species. I plan to get some eventually when I end up out of the city.

 

[echosrevenge]

I'd love to have some geese, but we try to add only one new species per year, and this year it's bees. maybe next year, for now our two Australian Shepherd dogs do pretty well at keeping predators off our land - our one dog is pretty dumb (like bag-of-hammers dumb), bit he does "pee the perimeter" every morning, and our rooster is very alert to hawks and other airborne predators - he's chased off two hawks just in the last week or so.

We attended some of the Ussery talk at Common Ground (we live about 20 mins from MOFGA) but most of it was things from his book (which we've pored over since it came out) so we wandered off when my baby niece started crying. His book is AWESOME if you haven't got a copy yet, its well worth the purchase price. Probably one of the most-referenced books in our (qute extensive) homesteading library.

 

[elizmartin]

I recently attended a Barley fodder class at a farm that built a small set-up and they feed their alpacas and chickens and say that it has brought their hay and general feed bill down major. They built their own system and the foot-print is about 6' x 7'x 3' in a small insulated room with water and electricity. Because it takes a few moments every day to service it isn't right for me right now, but David did speak of larger scale sprouting in buckets that only takes a few days that will work for me now for my poultry. He has a video on their web-site. Think you have to search for it....Its pacapride.com. (doing this from memory so you may have to google).

 

[SarahC86]

you have Bantium? How big have yours gotten I have 3 and they are probally 3lbs Hen and The Roo is 5 or so and their chick who is 9 months also a roo is about 4lbs

 

[elizmartin]

you have Bantium? How big have yours gotten I have 3 and they are probally 3lbs Hen and The Roo is 5 or so and their chick who is 9 months also a roo is about 4lbs

Hi, am not sure who this is addressed too. I don't weight or show mine so not sure??? i just feel them once in awhile to check their weight.

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

Just popping in to say hello!

 

[ashandvine]

This sounds like such an awesome project. I went to a talk by Harvey Ussery at the common ground fair last year about feeding poultry from home resources. Very interesting talk I feed my birds all my table scraps and next year will plant some winter rye and other plantings for them. May even create two pens for them to rotate between. But for now unfortunatly I am in the city. Eventually when I settle down somewhere I plan to have a large pastured poultry system and would love something where it provides feed for the birds. You should get some geese to protect from predators and also graze they eat primarily grass which I think makes them a great pastured bird species. I plan to get some eventually when I end up out of the city.

Henry! Great to see you and especially to hear you regale the goose. I have a pair of Pomeranian Saddleback geese here and they are AWESOME!!

I was just giving some thought to how the chickens, when let out into a pen early in the year, kill all the weeds/grass and eat the bugs all the while fertilizing If I close off the such a pen or more than one, I could plant in it crops that would need protection or even just be 'for the birds' so that come fall they can go in and eat eat eat before winter. I have considered harvesting the grains for winter but I also thought that zucchini and pumpkins and corn would be great. I have mangels coming in this year as well. I do know a woman who feeds her birds sprouted grains regularly and raises her own bugs. Right now I want to get comfrey-- great for the birds and us.

Favorelle news: Keesmom's cockerel here mated with the Uof A girl several times today. I am excited. I like him better than the cockerel from UofA.