Faverolles Thread

[mame1616]

Quote: I've been told that with Favs, you breed two lines for males and females. The females with the smutty beards and the darker breasts will create nice dark males, where the males with white in their beards and lighter coloring will produce lighter females. Dick was telling me you rarely can breed two good looking birds together and get a batch of good looking birds. It has to be done in two lines. Kind of a pain.

Do the other breeders find this to be the case? I know the bantam chicks I hatched produced some nice females, from my good clean girls and my male who's got a good chunk of white in his beard. (see New to Farming's cock she just posted a couple of pages back - looks just like his dad.)

 

[Fancy Favie]

I've been told that with Favs, you breed two lines for males and females. The females with the smutty beards and the darker breasts will create nice dark males, where the males with white in their beards and lighter coloring will produce lighter females. Dick was telling me you rarely can breed two good looking birds together and get a batch of good looking birds. It has to be done in two lines. Kind of a pain.

Do the other breeders find this to be the case? I know the bantam chicks I hatched produced some nice females, from my good clean girls and my male who's got a good chunk of white in his beard. (see New to Farming's cock she just posted a couple of pages back - looks just like his dad.)

Well I have 2 Roo's and 10 hens that I have to work with as of right now I can TRY and put some pics of them up here for opinions but they don't always want to cooperate with the camera.

 

[Fancy Favie]

Well here is the best i can do on Photo's of some of my girls I will do ladies first and then my Gentlemen after I appologize ahead of time if there not Great Pics but here we go.

 

[Fancy Favie]

Well here is the best i can do on Photo's of some of my girls I will do ladies first and then my Gentlemen after I appologize ahead of time if there not Great Pics but here we go.

Here are my Boys

 

[elizmartin]

Mmm...I do think that beards have to go into the first part of that "what makes a Fav a Fav" as well.

Yup, Your absolutely right about the beards, (they wouldn't be as endearing, vbg) but i came from a background history (not chickens) where some of the most important aspects and traits were left behind in the quest of what someones ideal show animal was to be even if it became contrary to what they were originally bred for...

When you're selecting your male, you also need to look at your females. What do you need to improve, or move forward, from where you are? Are the girls too dark? Then use the male with lighter coloring. Are the girls too small? Then use the larger male.

Something else you can do, especially since it would be a big help in the learning process, would be to use one male, mark or band all the chicks, then use the other male, and mark or band them differently. You'll see as the birds grow exactly what you'll get from each male, as long as you hatch enough chicks to give you a good representation.

Love the Mahog. Fav. Roo, He's gentle, and this morning one of the older babies (2 + months) kept hiding under his wing and he just stood there with his wing out....

BTW, Cloverleaf, acute liver failure was the final diagnosis.....possibly from the abundant buttercup thats hard to get rid of.
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[Bentley]

I've been told that with Favs, you breed two lines for males and females.  The females with the smutty beards and the darker breasts will create nice dark males, where the males with white in their beards and lighter coloring will produce lighter females. Dick was telling me you rarely can breed two good looking birds together and get a batch of good looking birds.  It has to be done in two lines.  Kind of a pain.  

Do the other breeders find this to be the case? I know the bantam chicks I hatched produced some nice females, from my good clean girls and my male who's got a good chunk of white in his beard.  (see New to Farming's cock she just posted a couple of pages back - looks just like his dad.)

Yes, many other breeders of show quality exhibition birds report that a separate male and female line are necessary to get the best birds. I raise several other breeds and I know many very serious breeders of one or two breeds will have two lines. I have a couple of issues with this breeding philosophy. First, it requires more room and essentially cuts in half the number of breeds you can work with if you maintain separate male and separate female lines for each. I like variety so this is hard for me to to do. The second issue is that from a sustainable agriculture aspect and a heritage breed aspect I don't like the fact that in order to raise a breed of chickens you have to have two lines to breed chickens that meet a standard. Shouldn't a breed of chicken be able to be bred In a 'normal' fashion?

I have the same issue with breeds that are now requiring the use of artificial insemination to get quality birds. Breeds of dogs, like English Bulldogs require artificial insemination and I think this is unnatural. I am very capable of AI ing birds and will when necessary for other reasons, but not to maintain a breed to meet the standard.

Ok, of this particular soapbox. Nothing wrong with having sex separate lines, just not a method I want to use, I will give it a shot with one line and heavy selection.

 

[PGRanch]

Do Salmon Faverolles vary in shades often? I have 2 from the same breeder but they are two distinctly different shades.

 

[hcammack]

Do Salmon Faverolles vary in shades often? I have 2 from the same breeder but they are two distinctly different shades.

Yes its normal to have different shades of salmon in the same line.
Here is an example with two of my pullets both from the same line but different breeders.
Light "pink" salmon pullet courtesey of Keesmom


Dark "brown" salmon pullet from Dick Boulanger



Both have good type in my opinion but the second one is younger and has a lot of growing to do. So yours can both turn out fine and could produce good chicks. Which breeder are they from?

 

[hcammack]

Do Salmon Faverolles vary in shades often? I have 2 from the same breeder but they are two distinctly different shades.

Also just noticed this does the pullet in the second picture have a 5th toe or not? I can't tell from the pictures and if she does the positioning is off.

 

[PGRanch]

Also just noticed this does the pullet in the second picture have a 5th toe or not? I can't tell from the pictures and if she does the positioning is off.

Yes its normal to have different shades of salmon in the same line.
Here is an example with two of my pullets both from the same line but different breeders.
Light "pink" salmon pullet courtesey of Keesmom


Dark "brown" salmon pullet from Dick Boulanger



Both have good type in my opinion but the second one is younger and has a lot of growing to do. So yours can both turn out fine and could produce good chicks. Which breeder are they from?

Thanks! I wasn't sure so I thought I would ask They are from a local breeder, Napa Backyard Chickens.

Also just noticed this does the pullet in the second picture have a 5th toe or not? I can't tell from the pictures and if she does the positioning is off.

Here is a photo of that chicks feet. How does it look?