I made a monster!

[mandelyn]

This guy is 7 weeks old and 2 pounds, 9 ounces! He's 50% Bresse, 25% Marans, 12.5% Legbar and 12.5% Twentse. I did a project pen and I'd say it worked! I will say though that my Marans are especially deep bodied stock compared to what's typical for them.

The parents...

 

[AltonaAcres]

Wowza!

 

[Papmike]

Looks like all that hard work has paid off ! How close behind are any siblings? What's next for him and that project pen? Thanks

 

[RoosterML]

Nice work keep us posted.

 

[mandelyn]

Looks like all that hard work has paid off ! How close behind are any siblings? What's next for him and that project pen? Thanks

I'm going to wait and see if he finishes into something breeding quality and go from there. Siblings are pretty typical for Bresse and then there's this elephant, so I plan to hold back the roundest shaped pullets for him and see if I can get that bigger size more consistently. He's definitely the odd ball. I can barely feel a keel bone on him.

Haven't had a chance to get them all on a scale but I sorted by feel at 7 weeks. When I got to him I ran back up to the house to get the scale, that's how different he was for the feel test.

I have enough of them now that I can do several different pairings and see what they do.

 

[blackandtan]

Holy moly big dude! Big feet too

 

[mandelyn]

I just sorted out some more hatchlings and in this group there were a lot of them that did hatch with the Walnut comb. I'm hoping to get enough girls with the flat comb for the big guy to have, with the right body structure, to move forward on the comb change and keeping the table qualities in tact. I'm aiming to keep the legs blue.

I'm hoping to get a different feather pattern too but the Bresse are SO very dominant white. I may have to just keep them white and clean up the leakage some are getting from the cross.

The Walnut comb is a dominant trait so it shouldn't be too hard to set that in there.

 

[mandelyn]

Weighed him again, it's been a week. He's at 3 pounds, 3 ounces now. A 10 ounce gain in a week seems crazy to me, so I'm thinking I'll take him off the 20% starter and drop him to an 18% grower. He's bouncing around and playful, doesn't put up a fight when I go catch him. I REALLY want him to grow up to be a healthy breeder so I don't think I need to focus on getting him bigger so much as getting him to a healthy adult. He's already shown himself to have a hell of a growth rate for a bird of his genetic background.

Not sure what hidden genetics popped out in him, but I've stumbled onto something for him to be growing this way! I hope he can pass it on too, to reach towards consistency.

 

[RinaRoo]

I just happened to see this post in the Bresse FB group as well. I'm getting 3 day old chicks this weekend.

 

[Shamo Hybrid]

I just happened to see this post in the Bresse FB group as well. I'm getting 3 day old chicks this weekend.

You planning to eat them when they grow up? May gawd have mercy on your soul!