Houdans

[aoxa]

Egg was a silkie egg. Not Skittles after all

Got some pictures though. One of the teenage houdan boys has started to crow.


Gigi and his chosen perch.


The teens


My favourite teenage pullet. Not counting Skittles of course.


Skittles, Who is having a terrible hair day.


Pullet again.

It's starting to get hard to tell the boys apart. Gigi is the only insane boy though. You get close to him and he flips out. The others don't. That's our identification process

 

[Puddin Fluff]

Good looking birds! We are wondering what a Houdan/Silkie cross might look like. Our silkie is doing his best to mate with Spike now that she is squatting. I am not sure he has actually hit the mark. He has a tendancy to be so enthuastic that he slides off the side and it doesn't look like he is very successful.

 

[aoxa]

Good looking birds! We are wondering what a Houdan/Silkie cross might look like. Our silkie is doing his best to mate with Spike now that she is squatting. I am not sure he has actually hit the mark. He has a tendancy to be so enthuastic that he slides off the side and it doesn't look like he is very successful.

That's a classic teenage silkie move

'

Reminds me of the bucking bull at the bars. They just can't seem to keep ahold of the girls!

 

[Puddin Fluff]

That's a classic teenage silkie move

'

Reminds me of the bucking bull at the bars. They just can't seem to keep ahold of the girls!

Do they get better at it? Right now all he is doing is pulling head feathers while the other boys try to mate. If he doesn't ease up all my girls will be bald!

 

[aoxa]

Do they get better at it? Right now all he is doing is pulling head feathers while the other boys try to mate. If he doesn't ease up all my girls will be bald!

Yeah he'll get the hang of it. How old is he? My teenage boys are 8 months old and still a little funky in that department. Gigi has skills in comparison!

 

[Puddin Fluff]

Yeah he'll get the hang of it. How old is he? My teenage boys are 8 months old and still a little funky in that department. Gigi has skills in comparison!

Mine were hatched in April. Same age. Zeus certainly has his plays down but isn't a "courter" more of a grab and jump on. My Fav. is the "suave" gentleman of the three. The silkie is definatly the spaz!

 

[Lilwanis]

Two days and I have finished reading this thread. This past spring. I told my three younger kids (we have seven kids and we group them as the older kids, the younger kids, and Kaia, who is two and our only child together), that if they wrote a report about a chicken breed of their choice, we could consider getting some next spring. My son, who is on the autism spectrum, was the only one who partially filled this requirement. The bird he chose was the houdan. Leave it to him to pick one of the harder breeds.

Since then, I have decided to start a few small breeding projects. I have remembered my deal with the kids, so now I am researching the houdans. It would seem that there are not many, if any quality birds to be found? After reading how horrible hatchery stock is with every other breed, is that really all there is? Does anyone have any leads? The UofA is, obviously, not an option for me anyone else? Thank you my father and I will be ordering meat birds in the spring, so I would be able to meet minimum requirements for chick orders. Any good experiences from a particular hatchery (if that is the only choice? Anyone know if meat quality is still up to par. I have limited space and lots of people to feed, I figure if it is not a keeper, it should be dinner...not sure if I will be able to stick with that attitude, I have never killed anything that had less than six legs, in my life, but my plan seems to be that we will be eating lots of chicken, lol. Well,I am rambling so I will scoot off now

 

[aoxa]

Two days and I have finished reading this thread. This past spring. I told my three younger kids (we have seven kids and we group them as the older kids, the younger kids, and Kaia, who is two and our only child together), that if they wrote a report about a chicken breed of their choice, we could consider getting some next spring. My son, who is on the autism spectrum, was the only one who partially filled this requirement. The bird he chose was the houdan. Leave it to him to pick one of the harder breeds.
Since then, I have decided to start a few small breeding projects. I have remembered my deal with the kids, so now I am researching the houdans. It would seem that there are not many, if any quality birds to be found? After reading how horrible hatchery stock is with every other breed, is that really all there is? Does anyone have any leads? The UofA is, obviously, not an option for me

anyone else? Thank you

my father and I will be ordering meat birds in the spring, so I would be able to meet minimum requirements for chick orders. Any good experiences from a particular hatchery (if that is the only choice? Anyone know if meat quality is still up to par. I have limited space and lots of people to feed, I figure if it is not a keeper, it should be dinner...not sure if I will be able to stick with that attitude, I have never killed anything that had less than six legs, in my life, but my plan seems to be that we will be eating lots of chicken, lol. Well,I am rambling so I will scoot off now

My birds started out from Mcmurray hatchery.

Selective breeding.

 

[flowerchild59]

You all have really nice looking houdans and have enjoyed seeing the pics in this thread.
Does anyone know if U of arkansas still has eggs for 2013. I am within driving distance and would do the trip to acquire eggs or chicks.
Anyone know if Duane Urch has houdans?

 

[Puddin Fluff]

You all have really nice looking houdans and have enjoyed seeing the pics in this thread.
Does anyone know if U of arkansas still has eggs for 2013. I am within driving distance and would do the trip to acquire eggs or chicks.
Anyone know if Duane Urch has houdans?

To my knowledge Uof A always has eggs as long as they are not already tagged to go to someone else. I believe they give priority to 4-H but beyond that I don't know what their requirements are. That is where our birds (eggs) came from.