French countryside ornamentale chicken amateur (Japaneses bantams)

[AbL]

Hello everyone,
I'm living in the eastern French countryside and just began breeding my own chicks.

I fell for the adorable Japanese Bantams a while ago and when my flock started to fade (thank you Mr Fox) I wanted to add some new ones but I had trouble to find around here. So after 1 1/2 years of desperately searching I decided to hatch myself.

So far I got a bunch of millefleur/porcelaine chicks out of the incubator (eggs delivered by postal service), amateur as I am the success was rather disappointing, from the first batch of 34 eggs, 7 hatched (3 different sources) another 22 are due in a couple of weeks. ( Some do's and don'ts learned the hard way.)

I'am deeply interested in chicken colors and genetics and followed several threads I stumble up on googling informations, especially on mottled (why choosing an easy color when you can do complicated) and well here I am.

So happy to be here.
Kind regards from France
L.

 

[Boppo]

Glad to meet you and welcome to BYC. Best wishes with your hatching and new birds! You might enjoy the Beginner's Guide to Incubation, though if your eggs are shipping a long way, or are not well packed for the shipping, that can certainly cut down on the number you hatch!

Here are my favorite articles that helped me. I hope you will find them helpful as well. All articles are short, have illustrations, and reviews, which are often worth looking at for the comments.

1. Intro to chicken keeping

2. Common mistakes & how to fix them

3. Ventilation (important to chicken health), with helpful links to coop designs organized by climate (because what is just right for my New England hens won't work for my brother's Arizona chickens)

3(a). Farmers Almanac on Building Coops (Includes size requirements!) Allowing plenty of space for chickens is really important because, even as chicks, they will start pecking each other or plucking their own feathers, or become unhealthy if they are overcrowded. Here is a link to Colorado State Extension's publication on space and temperature requirements for chicks as they age.

4. Predator protection for new & existing coops

5. Dealing with a muddy coop and run

6. Gardening for chickens

7. BYC Lists of Chicken Ailments and Cures

To look for articles on your own:

A. Use the SEARCH button, but use the Advanced Search choice, and select ARTICLES at the top of the box. Just enter your keyword(s) and scroll through your results!

B. I find it helpful to notice the rating and reviews. All articles are by BYC members, and all the reviews/ratings are as well. The ratings help a newbie like me sort the most useful and reliable articles.

C. You can bookmark the articles or posts you think you want to refer to again using that bookmark icon at the top of articles or posts. You can find them again by clicking on your own avatar and looking at the list of bookmarks you have built up!

 

[Boppo]

P.S., what a very beautiful flock you must have!

 

[SilverBirds]

Welcome to BYC! Thanks for joining us. Would love to see pics of your flock!

 

[AbL]

This is my little family of buff black-tailed, the rooster was my first one 4 years ago and he is such a nice little lad. I breed him to the hen in the picture and to the only porcelain red / millefleur who survived this winter, even when they are not really standard material. I needed birds to begin with. their offspring is curiously buff/wheaten/mottled (it's possible that the rooster is split for mottled) and currently three weeks old, I wait impatiently how they turn out.

 

[AbL]

And my youngest 100% porcelaine/millefleurs born the last days:

In the incubator are blue/splash/black offspring and maybe some blue with gold neck, but I don't know if they will hatch, the first bunch didn't make it to hatching. It's a rare color here and I found only one source for eggs where I got 6. We'll see.

Be sure I won't hold back with colorful pictures

 

[AbL]

And this is where I wanted to go. Found a couple of mille-fleurs, unfortunately the fox had a midday visite, took two hens, and the beautiful young rooster drowned in a pond on the other side of the fence when he flew over in panique. Shameful. needless to say I upgraded to electric fencing and a net above the coop since. So beginning from scratch.

 

[TwoCrows]

This is my little family of buff black-tailed, the rooster was my first one 4 years ago and he is such a nice little lad. I breed him to the hen in the picture and to the only porcelain red / millefleur who survived this winter, even when they are not really standard material. I needed birds to begin with. their offspring is curiously buff/wheaten/mottled (it's possible that the rooster is split for mottled) and currently three weeks old, I wait impatiently how they turn out.

View attachment 3804769

And my youngest 100% porcelaine/millefleurs born the last days:

In the incubator are blue/splash/black offspring and maybe some blue with gold neck, but I don't know if they will hatch, the first bunch didn't make it to hatching. It's a rare color here and I found only one source for eggs where I got 6. We'll see.

Be sure I won't hold back with colorful pictures

And this is where I wanted to go. Found a couple of mille-fleurs, unfortunately the fox had a midday visite, took two hens, and the beautiful young rooster drowned in a pond on the other side of the fence when he flew over in panique. Shameful. needless to say I upgraded to electric fencing and a net above the coop since. So beginning from scratch.

Hello and welcome to BYC!

Beautiful breeds you keep! ❤ Thanks for sharing photos, best wishes with all your plans, breeding and hatching!

 

[janiedoe]

Welcome to BYC. I'm sorry for the losses. You have a beautiful flock. I hope your preventive measures will keep them safe.

 

[DobieLover]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.

This is my little family of buff black-tailed, the rooster was my first one 4 years ago and he is such a nice little lad. I breed him to the hen in the picture and to the only porcelain red / millefleur who survived this winter, even when they are not really standard material. I needed birds to begin with. their offspring is curiously buff/wheaten/mottled (it's possible that the rooster is split for mottled) and currently three weeks old, I wait impatiently how they turn out.

View attachment 3804769

How stinkin' CUTE! Aack! I want them!!!