Luikse Vechter aka Liege Fighter Thread

[Florida Bullfrog]

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!

I've free ranged Liege with all sorts of other, smaller chickens. I did not find the Liege to be particularly bullisome.

 

[calvinontario]

I've free ranged Liege with all sorts of other, smaller chickens. I did not find the Liege to be particularly bullisome.

Thanks so much!! This is great to hear. We free range as well on 5 acres so I’m sure that helps with bullying.

I guess follow up question would be have you also let a rooster free range with small hens? We had a big Brahma roo that would mount our hens and it was fine but some people expressed concern that it could hurt them. I’m hoping if there are enough LF hens the roo won’t bother with the silkies really.

Thanks again for sharing your experience.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I've never worried about having a larger rooster with smaller hens. I don't keep pure Liege cocks here but my brother does and he regularly pens his large Liege roosters with smaller game bantams of my line to no ill effect. The game bantam hens are no more than 1.5-2lbs.

 

[Dnorton]

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!

I hatched a bunch of LF and Mille fleur bantams at the same time. They were ok for a while, but the LF began to out compete them on food and water to the point I lost 2 and moved the rest. The MF seem more clever and assertive then my RIR or salmon favorelle but not enough to be in with a bunch of sub adult LF. On the other hand, I think I have about 15 LF, and you are talking about 2. That might be ok for a while if they grow up together. If you take 2 new LF adults and throw them in with anything, there will be a revision to the pecking order. My LF hen, in particular, was downright nasty.

 

[5 Points Wingfeather]

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.

Is there a LF seller in America that doesn’t have the inbred GF line?

 

[calvinontario]

I hatched a bunch of LF and Mille fleur bantams at the same time. They were ok for a while, but the LF began to out compete them on food and water to the point I lost 2 and moved the rest. The MF seem more clever and assertive then my RIR or salmon favorelle but not enough to be in with a bunch of sub adult LF. On the other hand, I think I have about 15 LF, and you are talking about 2. That might be ok for a while if they grow up together. If you take 2 new LF adults and throw them in with anything, there will be a revision to the pecking order. My LF hen, in particular, was downright nasty.

Thanks for sharing this. We actually have a Mille fleur duccle who is the darling of our coop and I could never let anyone bully her lol

I would be raising the LF from chicks and then introducing them to our flock quite young. We’ve done this a few times and everyone gets along so far but like I mentioned the free range space helps a lot since they can all go wherever they want away from each other if they need to lol

 

[calvinontario]

Is there a LF seller in America that doesn’t have the inbred GF line?

I’ve been discussing with importing chicks from Carolina Pines Poultry. She has a beautiful website and has actually shown her LF in shoes and won. Her stock looks stunning.

Just so far I will have to drive 12 hours there and 12 back and hopefully have no trouble at the border. My research says all they need is a vet certificate stating the chicks are from a disease free flock and she said her vet could get me that. Obviously if I find someone in Ontario or even Canada it would make everything a lot easier lol

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Is there a LF seller in America that doesn’t have the inbred GF line?

To my knowledge, no. Generally all Liege in the US have come from Greenfire stock, and then the European stock is also highly inbred as it is. Whether someone individually imported some in, I cannot say.

I don't think Greenfire has caused Liege to be inbred. History itself has done that. Greenfire's problem more stems from mixing Liege to Bruges early in their breeding program which causes the birds to intermittently throw traits of either.

 

[AGeese]

I’ve been discussing with importing chicks from Carolina Pines Poultry. She has a beautiful website and has actually shown her LF in shoes and won. Her stock looks stunning.

Just so far I will have to drive 12 hours there and 12 back and hopefully have no trouble at the border. My research says all they need is a vet certificate stating the chicks are from a disease free flock and she said her vet could get me that. Obviously if I find someone in Ontario or even Canada it would make everything a lot easier lol

"There is only one known importer of this wonderful breed in the states - meaning that the availability and diversity of these birds is very limited. Because of this...."
https://carolinapinespoultry.com/liege-fighter

 

[Tori1133]

I’ve been discussing with importing chicks from Carolina Pines Poultry. She has a beautiful website and has actually shown her LF in shoes and won. Her stock looks stunning.

Just so far I will have to drive 12 hours there and 12 back and hopefully have no trouble at the border. My research says all they need is a vet certificate stating the chicks are from a disease free flock and she said her vet could get me that. Obviously if I find someone in Ontario or even Canada it would make everything a lot easier lol

Hey, not sure if this is all that helpful cause I’m not sure of the quality of their birds, but I have 5 Liege’s that I raised from eggs that I bought from DC heritage poultry in Quebec. I’ve read some very mixed reviews on them but they are the only place I’ve found in Canada to get a lot of more unique breeds from. And so far the health of all my lieges has been good personally But I am a rather rookie chicken keeper and can’t say I really know if they are good quality/conforming well to the breeds standards, however I think mine are quite beautiful haha.