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

[drumstick diva]

Scott what happened?? You used to write "loves ya muchly Diva." NOW I get "Likes ya muchly! Is there someone one else? Did your wife find out?? I never saw it coming - maybe cause I'm always napping.

This may alter the way I feel about you but, I doubt it.

 

[Teila]

Scott what happened?? You used to write "loves ya muchly Diva." NOW I get "Likes ya muchly! Is there someone one else? Did your wife find out?? I never saw it coming - maybe cause I'm always napping.

This may alter the way I feel about you but, I doubt it.

 

[drumstick diva]

I'm really pathetic

 

[Bunnylady]

I'm really pathetic

But very much loved.

 

[drumstick diva]

Thanks Bunny, I need a blushing smilie.

 

[drumstick diva]

Tara, I just finished watching an Australian series on Netflix called "Glitch." Low and behold there was a beautiful blue heeler in two or three episodes. Of course I pictured Emmest in the role.

 

[drumstick diva]

Teila, I bet they show "Glitch," on tv or something .

 

[CanuckBock]

Tara have the girls forgiven you for getting them those costumes ?

Absolutely forgiven. Put costumes on only long enough to capture glowing witch hat fur Emmest and well Lacy, she could care less her hat had blonde tressels of hair...she loves the outfit. Emmy, obviously conveyed her disfavour.

"I am DOG and DOG is good as is."

I have packed them away...jest in case. Twenty bucks got both...how could I ever resist. Now they have emergency costumes...should the need ever arise.

Quote:

Yes, DD is one loved up person. WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tara, I just finished watching an Australian series on Netflix called "Glitch." Low and behold there was a beautiful blue heeler in two or three episodes. Of course I pictured Emmest in the role.

Emmy is alot more suspicious of strangers than Lacy (ACD breed characteristic...right outta the breed standard!). Em might be the right colour, may be not right temperament to be a movie star...Lacy would lap up all that attention and they would have the Director yelling "CUT" alot when she lost it getting huggies and kissies with every and anyone...

Teila, I bet they show "Glitch," on tv or something .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glitch_(TV_series):

Yup...on the telly, the TV

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Two pallets of bricks, 150 in each.

42 to go round the tub​

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Let this all settle out over winter...but you gotta know we needed to SEE the effect they would have on the view, eh.

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Rick drained the big dog water bowl and my tub in the greenhouse...time to do that before we see it freeze solid in one big cube.

Drug more hoses back to get them warmed up, dewatered, then rolled and stowed away ​

Snows seem to stay now, if in the shaded areas.

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Trips to the city in the winter bus. After we had ice cream, well we had to, jest had to go further...into the city to...

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Stop and visit the BIG CHOOK

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Girls getting treaties by Rick - do the girls like wingies...wing a dings? Well do they?

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Bought extras so we could have easy dinner the next night...wings and veg...home potatoes too.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

So I threatened to do this some time ago...tell my story (oh NO...not a story about chickens...have MERCY!) about the Higgins White Dove Bantam Chantecler Chicken project...anyhoo...here goes.

Started on this project in 2005.

INTRODUCTION

I had read about how the bantam white Chantecler had been attributed to Donald Dearing of Ontario. So I called him up. Chatted with him for quite some time. He told me he made the White Bantam Chanteclers by copying Brother Wilfrid's Chantecler breed "recipe" but he used bantam chickens instead of standards (large fowl).

Creation of the White Chantecler as per the breed accepted by APA in 1921 ​

What Mr. Dearing did not know was that the last influx of breeds that the Monk added to the Oka Whites was White Rhode Islands. How much Donald would care, not sure as the original recipe is what APA and ABA accepted as what created the breed recognized as Chanteclers. Oka Chants, therefore are NOT what the sanctioned poultry associations have accepted as representations of the breed. They have had another breed added and Brother Wilfrid has been quoted as saying his birds would not be "show" birds in the sense he wanted production above all else. Canadian breed for putting eggs and meat on the plates of the common folk of Canada.

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Arthur Schillings 1923 retouched photographs of a pair of Chanteclers - still used right up until 1998 in the APA SOP to represent the White variety of the breed of Chantecler chicken.

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So what I wanted was a real blooded bantam version of the standard Chantecler. How I was going to get there was to cross my bantam Wyandotte males on my standard Chantecler females. Would take years to accomplish, hundreds and hundreds of birds to see any success...but doable.

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We had Silver Laced Bantam Wyandottes.

The Bantam Wyandottes​

I bred the bantam White Wyandottes, exhibition quality from Reg Hughes that originated from Art Lundgren (a friend of Reg's) to our Silver Laced lines. My thoughts were to investigate what made the Whites and all colour combinations I could expect to POP out during my work to make bantams. I have no issues with crossing varieties, though I must state that I rarely cross chicken breeds. I like to play with colour patterns, but not shapes and traits unique to breeds. Only do that for a good reason and I guess I found one. Making a large fowl breed a bantam.

Super White, eh!​

I soon discovered the colour genetics I would likely be working with would be;

e-series - eb Brown in the Partridge / eWh Wheaten in the Self-Buffs / not sure what series from the White Wyandottes but likely eb Brown simply because any colour patterned like Golden Laced were very nicely detailed and eb seems to do this nicely.

Some of the colour patterns that POPPED out​

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s- series - gold, Silver

Male Bantam Wyandottes
Single dose of barring/cuckoo on left
Double dose of barring/cuckoo on right​

Various others: Autosomal red, blue dilution, barring/cuckoo, lacing, Columbian, Mahogany, Dominant White (from the Chanteclers), Recessive White (from the Wyandottes)...

Oka Chanteclers​

This is where I am at, twelve years later...what I figure is a nice clean, white as the new fallen snows...self-White bantam version of the standard Chantecler...good production of decent eggs, longevity, disease resistance, love their temperaments (tough and tenacious like us Canadians; what's not to love thar), fertility and vigour are good, just happy, happy / joyous joy!

F4 - Higgins White Dove real blooded Bantam Chantecler - October 20 2016​

Eggs, one per day and bully to her on good production!

Oct 18, 2016 - the above female's production - winter is upon us, so she has gone to moulting mode now and putting on a suit of winter feathers ​

I adore bantam chickens. I find them more productive egg wise than standards--they convert feed to eggs much more efficiently and you can have MORE chooks in the same space with them are bantams, eh. Three bantam eggs make up two standard sized eggs from chooks much smaller. Easier to keep, more intelligent (brain size is bigger compared to body), less mess, less resources to make those eggs...meat wise, sure, the large fowl are going to be harvested for a larger carcass, but hey, Cornish Games are delicious...so one bantam carcass per each person is a huge meal guaranteed to have leftovers, eh.

I guess I am a sucker for the attitudes I see in BANTAM chickens. Feisty lil' birds that make great mothers, great males that keep the peace in the flock, great producers of meat and eggs...jest all round GREAT form of the chicken. I love bantam chickens!

Bantam Wyandotte male chicken at top
Standard (large fowl) Chantecler male chicken at bottom​

HISTORY

So now that I have vision of 20/20 in that I can look back on how we got here...here goes on the beginnings to today, eh.

Bred bantam White Wyandottes to the Silver Laced (for the F1s to go forward with) for five years discovering what was UNDER the no pigment plumage...under the white.

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Then in 2008, we added the standard Chantecler (only large fowl we have) to our roster here and messed with those for a coupla years to see if'n I even liked the breed.

Real chooks...dust bathing, squishing mud between their toes...
napping in the shade, sunbathing in the sunshine...
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We managed to keep the traits we love in the large fowl in the project birds...all the things we love about Chanteclers continued in the progeny. Sure made the project fun.

Real birds that l00ked you in the EYE with confidence
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Real birds that raised naturally hatched babes in Canadian winters...



20 week old Cockerel, real tasty MEAT for the common Canuck folk's plate

Real chickens that produced real tasty eggs, good winter eggs, of great shape and contents...plentiful eggs in winter
Two JUMBO winter eggs in that mess of cackle berries from one day
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The original Chants were REAL chickens and so were the project birds...real to my very soul and not some factory farmed monstrosity...they had REAL chickeny qualities, I wanted more of.

Red Chantecler male​

In 2009, I made the Red Chanteclers which are merely Buff x Partridge...will never have that variety breed true because they are a F1 cross to express the RED variety pattern and colourations. After the first cross, the colour pattern gets messed up. Like a terminal or maternal cross...F1's are the point. Crossing hybrid to hybrid results in huge variation of expression without predictability in as far as colour pattern goes.

Hatched in 2009, Red Chantecler female - Medusa has won Cushion Comb contest here on BYC...alive and well and still going strong. ​

In 2010, began breeding for the Higgins White Doves...the bantamizing of the standard Chantecler in a self-white variety...

P1 females - Chanteclers in standard size ​

P1 males - Wyandottes in bantam size ​

Alot hinged on whether or not my big girls would accept the little men. My cuckoo boys...five of them had to woo the girls and woo woo them they did!

Resulting in lots and lots of F1's...

Rainbows in colour and pattern...of promise that the gold lay (eggs?) at the end of the bow ​

Yikes...near enough every colour, every pattern...endless opportunities to choose from​

And I knew, a rainbow of colours and patterns would ensue. Those faint of heart or confused by the mixture of colourations and patterns may well have quit then and thar...too afraid to delve in head long and nickers in a knot.

F1s and F2s...​

And the breeding continued...with each new generation, I saw more and more promise. Retention rates for breeding prospects here are normally 3% but in this project, I knew I had to hatch out 100's and select hard for the ideals I wanted. Keeping in my mind...whole host of other traits worth having over just phenotype, what the birds l00ked like was not as important as retaining all those great things that drew us to the Chantecler in the first place. No throwing babes out with bathwater. Some figure any old bird with a cushion comb and minimal wattles will do yah...HA on that. A child could pick that out once they know what a cushion comb.

F2s - yet more rainbows...magical melody of variations​

F2's being growed out...

Partridge promise, buff promise, white promise... ​

The arrival of the Silver Columbian male...that was my trigger to show me, Bro W was talking to me if'n I would only listen...he had mentioned the arrival of a Silver Columbian male and to me, to be walking down that same pathway the Bro had...WOOT...I was on the right track...a path he had already travelled and succeeded by.

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And always in the back of my mind, my selections stayed true to my objectives...to see beyond the rainbows and see the visions...the Self-Buff, the Partridge, and the Self-White.

F2 females...Partridge base, self-Buff base and the Higgins White Dove base, the self-White​

I knew the first variety I would be able to manage to get right would be the self-white...the buff and partridge would elude me further but for now, embrace the self-white...knowing that was the easiest to attain. All the white genetics IN the mixes, needed only to be lined up...focus and selected for. Exhibition white...it was there, not it had to be reclaimed.

F2 female - the colour is a messed up golden laced...the beginnings of Partridge
but the form, shape and temperament of this female...oh my, that be Chantecler breed type indeedy!​

So long as the characteristics in the two breeds; the longevity, the production, fertility, disease resistance, the vigour remained...I could continue onwards and upwards...to achieve merely the varieties and size wanted.

Yes, that sure Is a project bantam pullet taking on the biggest standard hen of my Chants
These are no ordinary chickens but then again...
these are not any ordinary breed that is in this WIP
The only recognized CANADIAN breed...they sure are way too much like Canucks eh ​

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Keep in mind, I wanted REAL chickens...I wanted my Chants...my "Fighting Leghorns" as the president of the Italian poultry association coined them when seeing them for the first time, in the flesh in Spain at the International Poultry Congress meeting in 1925. He loved this elegant new breed so much, he wrote to Bro W to get them included in their poultry standards in Italy.

Day one and already communicating to Momma​

The F3s...these two below are a pair, male and female...natural hatched out and that is how I like doing this. Having the F1 and F2 females hatch out the next generation of bantam project Chanteclers...and in winter...testing their tenacity, testing their tolerances, do they have what it takes to don the Canadian title...the national pride of being STRONG and yet, resilient in the face of adversity.

F3 day olds - male at top, female at bottom​

I am not coddling these birds. I do not want weaklings...I want what we already see in the Standards...able to resist & thrive in Canadian temperature extremes; hot summers, long cold winters.

the F2 project hen not only hatched out project birds, she also hatched out other chicks in the breeds we keep here
This is NOVEMBER in Canada...



F1 Pewter - and her natural hatched out brood...making herself useful to the cause here
hatching out a variety of breeds and varieties in winter​

Natural hatched F3 pair as day olds - see from day one the female was not going to be as self-white as the male was going to be​

This pair of F3's growed up and feathered out..

F3s - female on right, male on left​

Not quite yet the whiter than new fallen snows...but hey, Rome was not built in a day, eh.

F3 female in the Higgins White Dove Bantam Chantecler project​

F3 male in the Higgins White Dove Bantam Chantecler project
Even as a day old, you could SEE he was going to be WHITER than the female​

The Chantecler IS a productive bird...the requirement to be structurally suited for producing meat and eggs...in my mind is WIDTH...width to hang meat off of, width to make eggs within...not those ugly V shaped thin bodies we so often see flogged off as productive birds...blah! The ABA standard for the breed compares the bantam Chantecler to the Rhode Island that is described as a brick with rounded corners. We want BLOCKS in shape...solid conformation and yes, we are talking about chickens here. Blocks of productiveness...

Never any doubt about width of structure in the project birds...
Backs you could throw a saddle upon, length and width of BACK = PRODUCTION ​

Not just the self-whites in the F3 generation had me happy and doing the silly chicken dance.

F3 partridge pullet expressing minimal cushion comb​

F3 Self-Buff pullet - again, minimal head gear...how very Chanty of her, eh!

I like the ongoing shape and knew, one more generation on the F3's and, and....

F4's - white, partridge, two buff prospectives and another partridge​

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Eureka...the project was starting to produce day olds I could see the variety they were striving to be. Not just a mess of rainbow colours and patterns, but REAL varieties were on the go.

F4 in a trio of Self-Whites - young stock
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F4 pullet


One of my fav photos of her...1st egg from this F4 pullet​

Same pullet...F4 girly, does she have what it takes to be worth going forward on...
Can't tell in her first year...she's a pullet, she's not a hen...
Breeding from pullets is too risky...live long enough to become a HEN...she's
validated longevity, production, fertility, disease resistance...
Judged worthy...​

Her first egg...very promising...will she continue to be productive?
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I know those of you that read my thread already know she made the cut...

Oct 18 2016 - Standard Chantecler male compared to Bantam Chantecler female​

Size of a Bantam compared to Standard?​

Did I get where we wanted to go...self-white and bantamizing the standard Chantecler? Well have I?

"I'm the BOSS Lady!"
"Yes Madam!"​

I retained the feisty attitude I adore in the female Chants...she nipped a few feathers outta this boy's hide during the photo shoot...

Stop that you monster...that feist is the same feisty attitude that allows her to raise and protect her babes, eh.

Lookit his face..."Don't pull any more feathers please Lady!"
Some lady...she's a brat but he's a total gentleman...​

I will post these two photos again...because now we can see as time went by, she never failed to please.

Higgins White Dove real blooded Bantam Chantecler F4 hen - October 20 2016​

She kept on laying good quality eggs to embellish our world
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My making the Chantecler widdle, that project continues...I have six partridge prospect hens and one partridge prospect cock for next season. The self-Buffs continue...lots of work still to go on these two varieties and knew that going into this. Self-White just HAD to be my first completion...had to be the easiest to see completed.

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Self Buff trio - F4's


F4 self-buff female​

And all the while, the Higgins White Dove project was one hurdle I knew we would get to first...and then all the widdle other projects are ongoing...my white feathered and dark skinned Booted Bantam project is now resolved...have more than enough white feathered dark skinned Booteds in both genders...success there too.

First Buff Standard Chantecler Chantelle
Way too soft feathered...this gal, still alive and well here...​

Putting harder feathers (these are NOT Orpingtons!) in the self-Buff standards is still ongoing.

Firmer feather, but miscolours in the tail...
Still a work in progress in this area​

Hind sight is 20/20...the progression to get there...again, not for the faint of heart, not for those that give up...

F4, F3 and F1 females - Higgins White Dove in baby step progression...​

As I said, 12 years to get Self-White worth breeding from...but man oh man...how that time flies when you are having fun and then...to see the success, eh.

Now all I gotta do is make more...and more and more...

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Girls weigh 21 and 20 kg...wanna guess at which one is heavier?

Got their good for three years rabies shot, regular yearly vacs and kennel cough nose drops. Now vet tells me that Emmy is in perfect condition with Lacy just a tad on the chubbin's side. Was reverse last year...oh well. So girls are all vetted up...dewormed them the next day and will deworm them again about a week after the dog show. Foamers got dewormed too. Our 1/2 hour vet visit lasted, wait for it...hour and a half...we had just too much chatting and carrying on to do--throngs of people in the waiting room when we finally got done. We usually (thankfully too...vet visits are a blessing and a curse if it is an unscheduled one, something BAD happened, eh) only meet once a year. Got some advice on my sheep, some meds for them to top up my supplies and to be roaring and ready to go for lambing this spring. So was a great day on Friday to get our vet stuff completed.

Today, I picked up a bag of sheep mineral...paid $7 too much but my order for a dozen bags has to be made up at the feed mill so best I get one bag to tide us over. Four tons of poultry rations is ready and to be picked up in the city. Bagged rations for turkeys, ducks/geese, landfowl like chickens, starters and grits. Always a rush to get things ready for the WHOLE year it seems every fall.

Found a meat grinder at the local Co-op for $25...regular $136...so nice deal. Getting ready for harvesting lambs and I do enjoy a good lamburger, eh.

Wrote this some time ago but good history on the Chant in three of the varieties:
So I have some mineral loose salt to divvy out into buckets for the sheep barns...man alive the weather is like living on the WEsT Coast...black ice, fog, overcast, high humidity. I thought we managed to leave Coastal winter weather back AT the Coast...oh well. Just be EVER so glad this is unusual weather for here!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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