Luikse Vechter aka Liege Fighter Thread

[5 Points Wingfeather]

Green fire farms, I’ll give warning to anyone getting into the liege fighters. This breed seems to have severe leg issues, 3 of my 5 roosters have trouble standing up . I’ve tried vitamin supplements, swapping feed, just about anything you can think of and it’s just getting worse. I don’t think mareks is the case here but can’t be certain. I’ve found multiple threads about people buying these from green fire and having leg issues. So just putting the information out there for whoever is interested.

Oh man. That doesn’t sound good. Thanks for letting me know. I really want to get this breed at some point. I have heard that there’s been a good bit of in breeding. They need to bring over more from Belgium

 

[AGeese]

Dogs have killed my entire flock of liege, Bruges, and call ducks. Very devastating day for me. I’ve been working on these birds for a couple of years now and don’t think I have the gumption to start over.

They were my own dogs that broke out of a pen. Very unfortunate. Hope everyone has success with these great birds! I sure enjoyed them. May pop in again sometime in the future.

Very sorry to here this, that's quite a loss so I can only imagine.

 

[troyer]

Green fire farms, I’ll give warning to anyone getting into the liege fighters. This breed seems to have severe leg issues, 3 of my 5 roosters have trouble standing up . I’ve tried vitamin supplements, swapping feed, just about anything you can think of and it’s just getting worse. I don’t think mareks is the case here but can’t be certain. I’ve found multiple threads about people buying these from green fire and having leg issues. So just putting the information out there for whoever is interested.

It's possible that the % of protein is too high and the % of calcium too low. Large breeds need a pretty specific diet so that they won't be pressured to grow too fast. 16 - 18% protein should be plenty and ideally several hours of free range on a daily basis. I have never had this breed, but I have had Ganoi and they tended to have leg issues when fed a high protein diet.

 

[AGeese]

Did anyone know LF are available through Cackle Hatchery?

 

[Hideous Hermit]

Did anyone know LF are available through Cackle Hatchery?

Did not know this, I’ll look into it thanks

 

[AGeese]

Just a dozen hatching eggs, not sure where they got them or how much they want.

 

[Hideous Hermit]

Shady lol

 

[Dnorton]

I have some surplus juveniles hatched in august. Will need to move some of them on, I only have pens for 3 roosters.

I have not noticed any leg issues, but my adults were allegedly 11 months when I got them in may or June, and the rest hatched in august, so maybe I haven’t had them long enough. They have mostly been on flock raiser, with some occasional game bird foot or meat bird food. Mixing in a little layena now because my hen hasn’t been laying and I noticed with my egg layers that they lay less on flock raiser. Not enough calcium I’m thinking.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

One of my brother's Liege brood cocks got lame and died after his 18 month molt. We think it was due to not having enough calcium coming through the molt and the bird needing more calcium than normal due to its immense bone structure.

More generally, we both have the opinion that the imported Liege from Greenfire suffer from health issues due to the inbreeding inherent in the breed due to the genetic bottleneck that happened during WWII.

 

[calvinontario]

Hey everyone! I am located in Ontario Canada and very interested in starting a breeding flock of LF here. I have 2 questions.

1 of course if anyone here knows a legitimate breeder in Ontario or even Canada I would love to get in contact and discuss getting some chicks in the spring

2 we have smaller bantam breeds like silkies and I am wondering if anyone has kept LF with smaller breeds successfully or if they are too rough with them

Thanks everyone for your time!