Jest Another Day in Pear-A-Dice - Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm in Alberta

[Wisher1000]

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Good luck with the dog show, a pic or 3 would be nice!
Scott

X2!!!

 

[CanuckBock]

Thank frig it snowed...finally some moisture, finally winter back. I have come to dislike spring and fall...like summer or winter...both but not visitations of on again, off again spring or fall.

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Yee Haw and slop the chooks!

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Everything is timed, has a season, these unseasonable seasons suck big time.

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Abnormal means things like fire, drought, high priced feed...yeh...springish can go away and stay away...lousing up my orderly planned plans...

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Showers and snow...moisture but not too much. A little moderation is in order I say, eh!

Always know it was a decent snow, when you cannot see the green of the roof on the greenhouse

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Girls inspecting what needs inspecting.

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They LOVE doing the inspection rounds...snow covered needs sniffing, investigation...ensure all is the same old, same old!

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We would call them busy bodies but well, uh...they are burning up youthful energy in a positive way.

Lot less risky than when they play...play the COW DOG way, eh!

Spinners...

From this morn...stopped and clicked up one of the turka flocks.

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Jersey Buffs - dark and lighter line...one Bourbon Red hen ​

Not hard to imagine that the turkey toms are related to peacocks...strutting their stuffin's ​

Eighteen chook wings a dings...

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Marinated whilst I drove afternoon bus...then doused in corn starch and...

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Deep fried in oil and turned out to drip off and cook further in oven.

Delish dish!

Quote:
Originally Posted by scottcaddy

I am a just a bit surprised that you thought that a young sales person would know the product that they are selling.
They should know, but so few have been properly trained anymore.
Good luck with the dog show, a pic or 3 would be nice!
Scott

Not all are cut from the same cloth.

The first store I went to had all pretty young women (and men folk too). One lady had finger nails less than conducive to horsing around even.

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My black pair of "horseshoes" I bought for going to a Christmas party were correctly tied at that store.

I guess the rub for me is that I know exactly what kind of "thing" tied the brown ones...and I know instantly that I would be told under no circumstances by that tier, that they know it all & have nothing to learn from the likes of us older stuff ...funny as we get older and the signs we can read and the

we are so ready to give out so we can jest turn on our heels and walk because we don't want to waste our efforts on the chosen to be deaf ones (the non-keener types). I don't think the oldsters are so much not willing to share their wisdom as per the thought that it is oft like casting pearls before swine.

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But no worries, I do often see a breath of fresh air...thinking re-incarnates, eh!...the ones that gobble up everything and suck in more...the ones that are keeners, far and few between but hey, not kidding myself keeners were ever common...the ones that are into real life and wonder and the joy of living are always a rare commodity we need to revel more often in knowing.

I guess I just find the dullness part of persons filling a space to be just that, wastes of skin.

X2!!!

Thanks both of you's!

The three shows are in April. So got lotsa time to get more nervous and fret!

I always do...by the time the events happen, what a relief...own worst enemy, eh!

I do find it difficult to click pics when I am actively involved in the thing, eh. Ha ha ha...I am gonna be a mental wreck, wanting to show the girls to the best of my abilities (really outta practise...been like 14 years since I ran silly round the ring!)...donna wanna hold them back but then, don't want to hand them off and hire a handler. So I guess it is my own pickle I am in. Do best we are able given the circumstances I know I have always held good animals back. I remember when I finished HyBlade (he was a good dog...easy one to do that with) and had handlers asking me to campaign him. Nope...did not buy a show dog to have it rot in some kennel, fly around the country side where the only action he saw was to behave in the ring.

Stogs, Makins and HB ​

Oh HB loved shows...he always lunged at the other red dogs (knew that and watched him on that habit!), he liked to heel any dog slow and in front of him (tried so hard to get the English Sheepdog in group several times!)...and I let my son show him in group because HE handled him in breed for Best of. LOL

Dec 2007 - My "two" boys going fur a walk ​

I am serious about doing the dogs justice but always, always, gotta remember it is suppose to be FUN...too serious and there goes the fun down the drain.

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When we are home on the range...

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I can click these ones, all relaxed

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Dogs just being them dog dogs.

I'll try for show pics but may have to settle if the girls get some points, we have the official show pics done...costs a pretty penny but hey, all spit and polished fur a show, that is a memorable event!

Located outside the Ram Pasture...this is the "house of immense cruelty" ...

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Emmy sniffing the remnants of liver she was given IN the crate yesterday...

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Maybe she is not seeing that she wants to be OUT of this crate....from the l00ks of her now...she wants IN!

I put one of the girls in the crate, given treat and take other girl for one-on-one training in the Ram Pasture for the upcoming dog show. Lacy is fine in crate and waits patiently her turn. Emmy...ha ha ha...she BARKS about her predicament.... "MY turn...NOW!" Hee hee...oh the patience of youth that has to show up...over time.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[drumstick diva]

I got a kick out of Emmy's frosted whiskers - can't see them on Lacey. But your girls sure enjoy the cold and snow.

 

[CanuckBock]

Fur the blue,black&tan ACDs, always used a silver chain collar, not changing that. I, myself am the most common colour palette...a winter season that is accentuated with silver toned accessories.

Keeping in mind, the dressage of the dog is to compliment the dog's appearance...not over power or look off.

So here's yer choices to voice.

Modelling the two chains...our red headed gal Lacy​

For our red dog Lacy...gold or copper? For years I showed my reds with gold coated chains...and the gold colour wears off...so got several not quite gold and not quite silver chains. I have one brilliant gold one and now, found this lovely and not that common copper coloured one.

Copper er gold?



Gold er copper?
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Another important point...the thicker the link, the kinder the collar. The finer the chain, the more the chain can BITE. So I do see the copper one is bigger linked and therefore, kinder to the dog neck. Why use a fine collar when a thick one is gentle to a complying dog.

Look out Lacy...here comes LEAPING Emmest!

Quote:
Originally Posted by drumstick diva

I got a kick out of Emmy's frosted whiskers - can't see them on Lacey. But your girls sure enjoy the cold and snow.

How about a snow nose AND whiskers?

Great thing about snow...

Any time you want to cool off and rehydrate, it sits thar waiting...
reach down and enjoy!

Not to be outdone by Lacy...snow nose on Emmy too

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[perchie.girl]

Copper for certain.

deb

 

[drumstick diva]

copper definitely

 

[Teila]

Copper

 

[scottcaddy]

Late as normal, I also vote for Copper.
Scott

 

[perchie.girl]

Oh I have to share. This is from an austrailian sheep farm that raises and trains Kelpies..
Percy is sixteen weeks old

""At Kangaroo Mountain, we predominantly train and work kelpies. But that's not to say we aren't open-minded about other breeds, and Percy the Pekinese proved today that you should never judge a dog by their fluff... ""

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

This will be my 1,000 post to BYC...LOL...I recall being nagged for like two or three years to join this place...then one day I guess I was having a weak moment and I did...I never posted for some months after that but now, with my own thread, I guess you get roped into it, bit by bit, eh?

So some past business, yes, copper was my choice and ever so glad to see it is unanimously endorsed! Thank you for replying peoples...reassurance over the top that COPPER is Lacy's colour when it comes to metallic!

Gone to three conformation drop in classes...Lacy is such a GOOD gal...she's got the stand for exam down pat...if'n I stuff bait in her chompers that is. Any reason a dog screws up...it is always it seems, HANDLER error...hee hee..that be moi!

So Lace-a-lot is better on the standing for exam by the judge (pretend one) at the classes (kisses and waggest tail...very UN-ACDish of her!) and Emmest is better on the gaiting around the ring (the run silly with your canine partner...both are excellent at running on a loose lead but Emmy paces much nicer than Lacy). Hope that explanation makes some sense. Only my second java cuppa this morn so far!

Had made arrangements with best son (the one and the ONLY BOY...apple of our eyes, eh!) to attend last Sunday conformation class...what a bomb that was! I had asked the owner of the conformation place if they needed my name and telephone number on the Tuesday before the Sunday and got told in no uncertain circumstances NO. They and I quote, "never cancel" even if only one person shows up, a class is still held..."Okey Dokey for me and Rick being neurotic and planning for the worst case scenario...it takes me days and unheard of preparations to show up for an hour and a half class...from keeping dogs clean to baking liver for bait and doing up my chores to a "T" but OK...fur being cautious.

Well we did as we always do, arrived half hour early for classes on last Sunday and Rick says to me before I even get outta the Winter Dog Bus..."Go see, there's a note on the window of the building!" Yeh, March 20 drop-in conformation class - CANCELLED" Yeh...whatever! You know when you get old enough that you can be the deer in the headlights and still not able to avoid the car obliterating yer body...yeh that kinda sinking feeling. Found out on Tuesday drop in class evening that our three hour round trip to class to find no persons thar for running it was beat out in disappointment AND expenses by a person with Great Danes that travelled from Estevan Saskatchewan (a thousand kilometers TO the event = a ten and a half hour drive non-stop!--good gracious!). There was no reason given for the cancellation. It was cancelled...OK.

Pretty precious- these THREE!

So on the Sunday, I had Rick quickly call the Boy when we realized what was up (no reason for him to traverse a country road now was there)...Rick told him to salvage the day, we would turn round and head back to the nearest town, meet in a small park and we'd buy the lunch and exercise the dogs where other families were with their dogs and babies. Pleasant springish day...and salvaged it quite well. The girls had their very first EVER ice cream (with Rick querying me about the bad sugar content in ice cream--I think he felt chided because HE did not think of this nasty nasty first...Girls were a bit quizzing me about the cup with a plastic spoon fulla coldish stuff but after two trying lickas, met with seal of approva;--"ARF ARF WE LUV THIS!! This thing you bring called vanilla ice cream!!!").

Rick's idea to switch from the enclosed dog crates to wire ones resulted in another excellent decision (he's so good at those). I have one already but required a second one. So on that Sunday, after a few days before where I had looked at crates comparing sizes (hilarious the variations in dimensions in a MEDIUM labelled wire dog crate, whatever!) and prices...we lept the leap and made the decision to choose one for Emmy. Not as tall as Lacy's wire crate by an inch or so but works well.

We walked thru the pet store (antoher FIRST for the girls--first saunter thru a pet store) and the gals quite liked it...bit hesitant with all those smells and the tall, tall shelves fulla stuff and the dog washing area at the back where some miserable but relieved looking pooch was having its beauty treatment. I caught Lacy giving the dog the "Oh my good gosh! You poor BEAST!" look...that look of knowing...what we dawgs hafta endure for living in the human cave, eh!

New crate on the left to the old crate on the right​

So with this being my monumental 1,000 post...I have made the grave error to read some of the "Chantecler" threads that pop up here from time to time...good

I have had some notion but never had the real proof in the pudding on how very bad the misinformation and ignorance runs rampant on the Internet...oh well...people are entitled to their opinions but when it comes to history...it is what it is. I suggest that people take persons on the Net at face value, that their words are only as good as their hands on experience and years of doing what they do with the topics they choose to write reports on.

Runs along sorta like the notion that if one keeps turkeys, heaven forbid that it rains...because, well the Internet SAYS that turkeys that are rained upon, turn their heads up skyward and DROWN...yeh, getting right on that...good gracious!


I see no persons that are spreading all this ignorance quoting their sources...no scientific methods of which I love to use OR when they don't have that at the very least, speaking of their own personal experiences with the topic they have...

I uses the scientific method most often because, well its logical and it is not often discredited and at its worst...spreading untruths and rumours. Scientific method is a way where you don't pull crap outta yer butt but you site your sources and personal experiences with the topic you are posting information about...Scientific method has people like moi, quoting segments of integral authorities experiences to PROVE what I am saying can be backed up with more than just my MOUTH spewing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method:

The scientific method is an ongoing process, which usually begins with observations about the natural world. Human beings are naturally inquisitive, so they often come up with questions about things they see or hear and often develop ideas (hypotheses) about why things are the way they are. The best hypotheses lead to predictions that can be tested in various ways, including making further observations about nature. In general, the strongest tests of hypotheses come from carefully controlled and replicated experiments that gather empirical data. Depending on how well the tests match the predictions, the original hypothesis may require refinement, alteration, expansion or even rejection. If a particular hypothesis becomes very well supported a general theory may be developed.[1]

So, without further adieu, it is by scientific method that I live my life and therefore have personally come to know the TRUE HISTORY of my namesake here on BYC...

CANUCKBOCK is my handle on BYC and for good reason. In this golden anal retentive mind of mine...I store details, my curious outlook in life are complied of thoughts developed upon facts not fiction, theory not conjecture...so here is my take on the Chantecler and maybe, jest maybe someone on BYC that has been mislead and taken so off course and down the garden path will read it and find the truth in it. I have my feathers in a ruffle on this topic because all these untruths are harming my beloved chicken breed...the sing brightly Chantecler flocks that I am blessed to live in the company of are harmed by misinformation about them.

So since all scientific method begins with a question, here I begin with one...

What are the characteristics of the true Chantecler Chicken backed by historical records and real life situations living with them since 2008?​

Evil Medusa...my first Red Chantecler that I bred in 2009

Best Cushion Comb winner here on BYC in 2015​

So, in the first place to go with the which came first the chicken or the egg, "Why Chants?"

I had a fellow I know raise Chants...he loved them but to me upon first viewing, they looked like snakes...snake head with the cushion comb. They were Standards that he kept and well, I never really warmed up to them. But he continued to flog them my way and while I never did like his TYPE in the breed...I did go on to get my own strains and work off them and now, the Chantecler is the ONLY Standard sized chicken we want to keep. No other temptations period. I find interest in other large landfowl but never hit by the urge to acquire any. So isn't it endearing I should become such an advocate when my first impression hit me as off.



Next thing we oft see is "What characteristics can we label on a breed of poultry?" Knowing full well that individuals do not always fall into the same slim characteristics listed for the entire breed but in general, what could we expect to see if we got the Chantecler BREED from a good source. GOOD SOURCE is a key point I want to make. Anyone getting poultry from a hatchery deserves to be cuffed up the side of the head for being point blank stupid on a stick. DUH...a hatchery is a business that produces bazillions of make shift sorta like birds that only vaguely suit the Standard of Perfection's description of the breed and the variety. It would be like going to the dollar store to buy a diamond. You'll get hosed, you'll come how with what you figure is a cheap price for a diamond and an expensive price for the zircon you bought. Pretty simple.

Higgins RAT Ranch Conservation Farm - Dark Brahma Bantam females
Are you able to SEE the pencillings that have taken DECADES of attention to maintain?
DO YOU???

Pictorial case in point...here's three visuals on what a hatchery produces and a breeder's stocks that have had 65 years invested in the TYPE for breed and variety. Buyer beware is the scare!

Dark Brahma Bantams
LEFT - four Hatchery 4 day olds
RIGHT - three Higgins 1 day olds​

Ever hear that saying, "you get what you pay for?" Common sense not taken, eh...

Dark Brahma Bantams
LEFT - Hatchery 4 day old
RIGHT - Higgins 1 day old​

BREEDER with a vested interest in their breed and variety...not a HATCHERY interested in shipping out chicks that arrive alive and they make money on that...

Dark Brahma Bantams
LEFT - Higgins 1 day old
RIGHT - Hatchery 4 day old ​

So the devil is in the details...some misconceptions from persons that are obviously NOT KEENERS...

This IS the proper shape of the breed...I don't care if you colour or pattern them as purple with pink zig zags...for any breed may be any variety. The shape of the Chant is likened to a brick, like the Rhode Island breeds...a brick with rounded corners as described by the oldtimer master chook person Fred Jeffrey's when he describes the bantam Chantecler.

Horrors of horror...lookit this monstrosity that is pictured as a Chant and has been used for far too many years...you see this shaped like a brick (I'd like to play at toss the brick at whomever decided this fray tailed, broken feathered, wing hanging, and dirty V shaped thing--where is the BACK on this bird?? the place to hang meat off of and make eggs from within space--was suppose to represent a Chantecler...because it simply DON'T). The poor thing does not even have the back of the head cut away portion that is a KEY ingredient to Chantecler breed SHAPE... Blah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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BRICK shape...block, the female more so than the male...a BRICK...so got that...not a V-shaped thing I keep seeing labelled a Chant...that is NOT a Chant and will never EVER be. Look it up in the 2010 APA SOP...page 21 and 22...study those figures in black and white...see the difference between vigor and productiveness...I mean the pens of Buff Leghorns resembled blocks even...back in the good old days when chickens were produced by persons in the thousands...where they went to the coop, the day of showing and plucked a few good lookers off the roosts and whisked them away to the shows and won against REAL competition of huge entries...consistently for FIVE years in a row at the GREAT shows that use to happen. The good old days, eh.

Unrecognized varieties of standard chants in males
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No matter the colour...you want SHAPE in it for the BREED to be correct! And for productive fowl, broad backs are wanted! Blocks, building blocks to build upon!!

Some hackle clicks on some of my Chant birds here...note below the two kinds of Partridge...the red for exhibit female partridge breeder hen and the black hackle for the exhibit male partridge breeder hen...double mating at is finest! Royalty of the show ring from four kinds in two breeding pens. Hackle black is a whispered about phenomenon and if you don't have the extra black, yer partridge hens will lack in their colour pattern...jest sayin'.

FEMALES - Red, Buff, 2 Partridge



MALES - Buff, Red, Partridge​

There are two recognized varieties in the APA and ABA standard for Chants...the White and the Partridge. People are working on the self-Buff getting recognized too...Mr. Franklin made the Buff variety in the Buff Chants.

Red Chants...it would be ludicrous to think that could be a recognized variety...you cross Partridge with Buff to get Reds...the very colour recipe is a heterozygous impure mix of two varieties, and you get the grey slate underdown form the mix of the e-series base of Wheaten (eWh) and Brown (eb).


If I hear one more time that the Partridge variety of the Chantecler is the ALBERTAN...I am gonna puke, quite literally...puke!

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For all the research I have done...the years of investigation...the ALBERTAN is extinct...there could be some in jolly old England from some that were shipped over thar but the Albertan was abandoned by its creator, Dr. Wilkinson in Ontario...where Andrè Auclair picked up a flock of duck footed, low vigoured birds and crossed his white Oka Chants into them to save them. From this crossing Auclair began his black Chanteclers and keep in mind that line, any breed may be any variety!

The Albertan is dead...it is a cross of Oka Whites and the Albertan Partridges that survived to this day and it is now gone...


So I got me lots of colour varieties...rainbows of colours to dazzle yer senses...

Bantam Project Chant...l00k past the golden laced...see the SHAPE of the Chant



Red Pyles in both genders​

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Blue tailed Buff male​

I raise PARTRIDGE CHANTECLERS as per the SOP Standard for THAT breed....

Day olds with cushion combs...



Cushion comb...a comb so welcoming other chooks MUST sit upon it




Some have NO wattles which is not correct for the breed
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A Chantecler must have some wattles...not none which tho it is more cold tolerant, is not BREED correct.

female - small wattles and a good cushion comb fur a girl



male - great comb with some wattles
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male - good cushion comb...square on head and good shape​

Read the Standard words and go for the for the most correct BREED type shape...

My avatar on BYC shows the Chantecler Shape ​

Colour pattern means nada if the bird has NO BREED SHAPE!​

Red Chants in both genders...see the Chant SHAPE???


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huge and wide for production of both meat and eggs of the happy sorts

Some birds I chose shape over correct colour...she is too light in the background from a proper Parti girl
but she's a BIG gal

Dark wide girlies - big dark mommas, eh

Some I choose correct pattern for...correct saddle & hackle in this male Partridge is NICE

His son... repeats the same...make more of the same

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So back to my Parti comments...I am done, period, over this silly Albertan revival that keeps rising its silly head...good gosh already! I raise PARTRIDGE CHANTECLERS...I also have other varieties of Chanteclers in the works that are blue laced, blue laced buffs, blue partridge, golden laced, blacks, buffs, red pyle, blue tailed buffs, etc. But throughout all these varieties, the SHAPE is what makes the BREED as per the Standard of Perfection for them...that and purpose and characteristics like foraging, predator avoidance, free ranging, ability to raise up their own young, fertility, productivity, disease resistance, longevity, production of meat and eggs in plenty....etc....

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This is an Albertan above with its own Standard (which I dislike and do not mimic in my Partridge Chants)...below, this is what Chants of any variety of the many (be it white, buff or partridge or my blue laced buffs or my blue partridge or golden laced, blue tailed buffs, Red pyle, etc.) are suppose to look like.

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As far as the Chant being or ever likely to be extinct...learn from past mistakes. Dr. Crawford screwed up royally and he has admitted that to me...he said the Chantecler was extinct and he got a backlash he is still reeling from!

The people in the province of Quebec...where Oka is...where Bro W made the breed to begin with...have always and will always have the Chantecler...it is no big deal to the farm upon farm that has them as their chicken. The PQ farm bird is the White Chantecler. Never any worry the breed will be extinct. The article "labour of .love" states that a small group of them have applied to the province to get special status for the breed. So please, quit flogging a dead horse already. I have a friend in Quebec that has raised White Chants in a pedigreed line of over 90 years. You read that right...ninety years... No biggie or concern the Chant in any of its varieties will go poof any time soon.

Extinct...threatened...depends I guess on your definition of in trouble I suppose...I own an original copy of the 1998 Chantecler Breeders Directory that is compiled of eleven pages with about 15 persons per page...let's see, eleven times fifteen equates 165 Chant persons...for that one directory alone.



Bro W created the Chantecler for Canada...for the common folk of this land...and our temperature EXTREMES...we have here in Alberta alone, temperatures that range from -60C/-76F to +43C/+110F. Here at Pear-A-Dice, I have personally experienced temperatures from -53C/-63C to +40C/104F. I get EVER so tired of these queries about how Chanteclers are good for cold temperatures but not hot. Good golly Miss Molly already! Bro W exported his beloved Chants to South America/...to South Africa...to FRANCE...for Petesake...already...UNCLE I cry...Chanteclers that are bred right and raised here in CANADA are good for temperature EXTREMES...both cold and hot...humid and dry...for Canada is a variable country of many types of climates...from prickly pear cactus in Drumheller to igloo living at the North Pole...UNCLE already!

Word it correctly..."Chanteclers THRIVE in temperature EXTREMES" Not just long cold winters but long hot summers pending where in Canada you reside...the Chants thrive!

Read it and weep and keep it correct, eh.

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White Chantecler: Female (Dark Cornish Male X White Leghorn Female) x Male (Rhode Island Red Male X White Wyandotte Female) resulting Female pullets x White Plymouth Rock Male.

M. Wilfrid Chatelain (Monk at the Cistercian Trappist Monastery) of Oka, Quebec began developing the White Chantecler in 1908, presented them as a breed in 1918, and the Whites were recognized in the American Poultry Association American Standard of Perfection in 1921.

In 2010, I did not know that Wilfrid went on AFTER he submitted the White Chantecler to APA for recognition...that in 1923 (info from his obituary that one of my PQ friends sent to me...how wonderful eh!) he would add more breedings to his mix. He added in 1925, the Rhode Island White...which therefore makes the true Oka Chants, no longer the same birds that APA accepted.

July 27, 1927 - Chant stuffed on top,
real live birds in cages...keep in mind
these are OLD TIME correct for 1927 birds
Modern breeds do not mimic what was in 1927 ​

How important a detail...mega important to persons that are breeding and have been breeding pedigreed Chanteclers for eons. I have a fellow that can produce records that are over 90 years of his breeding methods...so like purebred registered canines...he has a true line of Oka Chants that stems from generations thru from Oka originals...heritage and bred bird by bird down thru the ages of decades. HIS birds are Oka Chants, and because Brother Wilfrid added more breeds than are listed in 1921 and has a different standard than the ones in APA and ABA...(differences like the males are like ten pounds if my noggin remembers properly)...the Oka Chantecler would not adhere to the SOP description we find today in the Standards.

1944 - Bro W with his Chants...no longer the Chants in the APA SOP
But his Oka strain​

Here's another nib in the smooth complexions of Chants...for the very purist (of which Dr. Crawford who edited the Poultry Bible concurs) form of heritage purebred (no pedigree police in poultry but many do choose to breed only pure lines and keep records for such), unless a line or strain of birds can be traced back and link itself to the true place it started from (with no additions of outside stocks), it is not truly THAT breed or variety...to the very purist of which, there are a surprising number of persons that do such things. There was a group started for Bro W that was an association that would have meets where you brought the Chants you created that year for judging and were judged and identified or culled as not meeting certain standards...you had to be a member of the association and there were strict enforcements of who you were allowed to have possess your stocks. Very confining in my opinion but that be that, back in the day.

Standard Chants in Canuck summer​

Early Canuck spring -


The girls RUSH the doors...let us out...we want outside no matter the conditions! ​

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When Donald Dearing created the bantam Chantecler, he took the breeds he thought Bro W used and used the bantam forms of the standard (large fowl) breeds. What Mr. Dearing did not realize that in 1923 AFTER the breed was recognized by APA...Bro W continued to tweak the Oka stocks. He went on to add another breed...the White Rhode Island and Mr. Dearing never added this in the bantam form to his creation. In fact Donald never added a drop of REAL Chantecler blood to the bantams. To me, that screams it needed to be done. So I have done that and created my own line of bantam Chanteclers...the Higgins White Dove project...years now in the works.


Rainbows of colour...crossed bantam Wyandotte males with standard Chanteclers....

F1 Chantecler Bantam chicks


F1 and F2's ​

F2 females...already seeing a partridge, a buff and a white...so early too




Both genders showing mismarkings in a self white of some phaeomelanin...the red peaking



Females in this case, leaked more RED ​

Ah but success...you keep at it for years and voila...

Self white day old Higgins White Dove
Bantam project Chantecler

Keep in mind, self white covers over almost everything...from left to right is F3, F2 and F1...



Yee haw...a white chook and we kept the production all along the way, eh

Other improvements...the buff has some soft feather issues. Self-Buff Chanteclers, tho unrecognized should not be too soft feathered like an Orpington may be!

My first (and still going strong) Buff hen Chantelle...too poofy softy



Voila...harder feather in the self buff...BUT
Note miscolour in tail feathers...and so it goes
Never quite done now are we but ever so hopeful every new season
Brutes for punishment...perhaps? ​

Broodiness - oh for Petesake again...do you think a person like Bro W would keep Chanteclers when he was on the cutting edge of technology back in the day like artificial insemination (he even wrote a paper on the topic!). He was all into trap nesting and record keeping and he used incubators, so wanting good egg production he would not be keeping chickens that went broody to be able to keep egg records of the amounts he reported. Any hen that went broody DOES NOT LAY EGGS when she is in that state.

Bantam project Chant that hatched and raised a variety of chicks...
Ten of them in the dead of a real Canuck winter...what a hen!
Real bantam Chant in foreground on right by starter ​

This broodiness is a trait we select for or against. If you personally don't want Chants that are broody, you pursue people that keep egg laying records and make selections against the motherly trait for maximum egg production from their females. Me, I prefer birds that do go broody. In our severe winters, in a mere few minutes a winter laid egg freezes and splits. If I have a few Chants that are broody, those girls are worth their weights in GOLD. A good broody will allow other hens to lay eggs and she keeps those laid eggs from freezing by sitting on them to keep them from splitting. Once again, people making assumptions based upon NOT living in the Canadian conditions where WINTER EGGS = split frozen eggs. Duh...if you don't have the birds laying in heated facilities, the eggs split. I just shake my head in awe of the misinformation that is out there from persons without a clue on the reality here.

Besides, it meets with Rick and my thoughts that THE best birds are still naturally hatched and brooded by the BEST being for the job. A motherly hen. She clucks to her eggs, she teaches the chicks how to be a good chook (how to avoid being eaten by predators, how to forage, when to go roost for the night...chicken mannerisms and all that jazz)...she turns and coats her eggs with her own preen gland oils (find an incubator capable of that)...she does a better job at hatching and raising her brood than I can even with all the technology I can muster. Chickens raise chickens the best...we humans pale in comparison.


Egg size and numbers of eggs...Yeh...Bro W comes right out and states he is not after the best egg numbers (the Australorp, a black Buff Orpington of Australian descent holds the worlds record for egg production of an egg a day for an entire year) because he wanted a dual purpose bird...for winter eggs and meat for the plates of the common man...in Canada. Any real chook person knows, you have to have one breed for just eggs or one breed for just meat...look to the commercial factory farmed foods in that category...duh! A dual will not lay more eggs than the leghorn...or the Cornish rock cross will out produce the meat aspect...duh.

Real bird, real life, real enjoyment in dust bathing!
I want a REAL CHICKEN...not some demoralized dead beat thing that is so bred to be like the walking dead
That pumps out meat or eggs and has NO LIFE left in itself!

20 week old roo a doo Chant

MEAT - happy meat...tasty firm meat that lived a real life and chased bugs and sunned in the sunshine and lived!



Capons in 1919 with Bro W and his students
for Bro W was also PROFESSOR Wilfrid...​

Dual purpose...meat and eggs...

Eggs -- glorious EGGS


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Show me the eggers...the cackle berries...


Not one egg a week, or three...but an egg a day and what eggs indeed from the Chantecler sing brightly hen flock

JUMBO - not small, medium, large or even Extra large...
JUMBO​

You select in the production YOU want in your flocks...you make more of the same...and keep at it.

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Even in the Bantam Chant project...eggs of great quality and big size and numbers!

NEVER EVER set a bad egg...you choose the correct kind of eggs you want...you make the decision where you flock goes...never set BAD EGGS!

Unwashed eggs...chooks on top, turkey and duck on the bottom...
don't like poopy eggs, don't set more of the same!​

Select your birds for WIDTH
width of back for hanging meat off of and for making eggs within
YOU choose what you want more of the same or better of! ​

Want a line of show partridge...you choose the male to match the show females. You keep two pens, a female one and a male one...you double mate them...duh!

Female male (pullet breeder) on left the RED one
Male male (cockerel breeder) on the right the BLACK one
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You can only get what you want by selection for the traits you want in the offspring.

Day old Standard Chants in buff, partridge and white ​

Produce in numbers so you don't limit your choices because you don't have the numbers required to select from!
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We keep back the top three percent...for every 100 chicks hatched...that equals one trio...otherwise you will stagnate and not have numbers to choose from.

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During hatching season (when the wild birds hatch babies...beginning in May and June when conditions allow chicks to thrive), I set eggs from Monday to Friday...daily so I hatch during the week daily. All kinds of birds in Buster the Bator at once.

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Day old Chanteclers on the grass being REAL chickens



Birds being birds and having a real life


Too cute...so tired asleep in the starter!​

So for my 1,000 post...that be alot of clicks and personal views...oh well, that be me...moi!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada