Salmon Faverolles

[EweSheep]

Marie

I have raised Faverolles in the past four years, both in standards and bantam sizes and last year I bought a trio and their offsprings in BLACK Faverolles and since then, Pasochicken has lost many of them due to the heat this year. I only have one Blue Salmon Fav banty girl that I hatched out from Catalupa Farms. I live in the city and rarely I do I offer eggs, usually in Dec or Jan when everyone is inside their houses and cant hear my rooster crowing. LOL. Then once the weather warmed up, I had to send the roo and some girls over to Pasochicken's farm for breeding.

Catalupa Farms and Christie (mothergoose) would have some available. If the demand is greater, then I usually purchase more hatching eggs from Catalupa Farms for different colors. Right now I am incubating some Welsummer eggs.....

 

[hcammack]

my one week old salmon favorells are the shyest of my chickens to they run when I put my hand in like I am tryuing to cut their heads of or somthing. they are also much smaller then the other 6 chicks.

 

[Windy Ridge]

Faverolles are one of my two favorite breeds (so far

).

My girls are all quite shy, and do tend to be lower on the totem pole, but once they learn to trust you, I've found them to be extremely snuggly. The roosters are particularly sweet. I mentioned yesterday in another post that I think the hens are quite attentive to their roosters. When the roosters call around here, it's the Faverolles hens that come running first. When the roosters issue the least little tentative growl at the sky, the Faverolles hens all duck for cover into the coop.

I think they're just submissive by nature. They're not flighty and skittish like Mediterranean breeds... they listen and take visual and verbal cues from you (and from their roosters). Once they know what those cues mean, and if you act consistently, they're some of the friendliest little birds you'll ever meet. You do have to be patient with them, though, because you probably won't win their hearts in a day. It's totally worth it, though. There's nothing like having one of those winsome, fuzzy little faces gazing up adoringly at you.

 

[Standard Hen]

I had two SF(male & female) and they were shy, timid and very sweet. I say had because unfortunately I lost them to my severe hawk problem last winter. This year they are all staying in the pens until I get home from work and once we turn the clocks they will only get turned out on weekends when I am home. I lost to many last year and those Salmon Favorelles were some of my favorites, I was so sad when I lost them. I would love to get a few more and most likely will at some point.

 

[jackiedon]

I have some salmon and blue faverolles bantams in the bator. I hope they hatch the are so pretty. The local chicken farmer has some standard but he's not selling any so I bought some eggs off of eggbid.

jackie

 

[2mnypets]

I have 4 Salmon Fav's and they are the whiniest birds I have. They won't let you come near them, they lag behind everyone else and are stubborn as heck when trying to break them from roosting in the nest boxes. All mine do is whine, walk around, squawk and then whine some more. If they see you they will almost jump out of their skin and feathers to get away. Darndest thing I ever saw. All the other chickens are like "Oh wow mom's coming....TREATS!!!!!" I about get tackled from everyone else. Wish I knew what I was doing or not doing.

 

[karmical]

I can't believe it's been 10 weeks since my original post here! My girls are 16 weeks now.

Hang in there 2mnypets. My experience was similar to yours up with my Faverolles until about 3 weeks ago. I couldn't even LOOK at Laverne without her jumping out of her skin and running for cover. When they finally all started roosting at about 10 weeks I started going down there at night and just petting them while they were on their roost (and couldn't see me coming!). There was a lot of whining and complaining from the SFs (I don't know about you, but my SFs sort of make a barking sound), but after a while they didn't seem to mind anymore. Then I noticed that out in the coop and run in the daytime, if I crouched down and just waited a bit, they'd come up to me to check me out. I tried to have some sort of treat hidden so I could be selective about giving it. I'd pet them as I gave the treat.

I had to really baby them and work for it, but now I can pet both of my SFs MOST of the time (with or without treats) and yesterday, for the first time EVER one of them jumped into my lap to be petted. She only stuck around a couple of minutes, but I felt like all my hard work was paying off at last

 

[Windy Ridge]

Well, just like any other breed, it could be the particular line you have, or just the particular two hens you have. It doesn't have to be something you're doing or not doing.

I ordered a few RIRs from a hatchery, and was worried that they would be too bossy for the Faverolles, but they're quite sweet and very friendly. Nice birds. A little bantam cochin I had was as mean as a rattlesnake--not what you'd expect from the breed.

It could be, too, that the birds you have the Faverolles in with worry them. Wyandottes seem to pick on them a lot. A fiend of mine (who loves Wyandottes, BTW) just told me last might that some of his SLW Wyandotte pullets go to extraordinary lengths to get into another pen to beat up on his Faverolles COCKERELS, who are several weeks older. The Wyandotte I had also seemed to be particularly bossy toward the Favs.

In other words, it doesn't have to be anything you're doing... it could be the personalities of the birds you have. That's a shame, too, because they are (generally) sweet little birdies. However, it's also a matter of taste. Some people like, for example, OEGB better than Barred Rocks, not because Barred Rocks are bad or mean, but just because the person has a preference for the cocky independence of the OEGB personality more. Favs are definitely shy and can be bullied.

I don't know if yours would benefit from being picked up and held for a few minutes? I had one that was just painfully shy until I picked her up for three days in a row and she realized I was actually quite nice. (I handled her a great deal as a chick, but she seemed to have forgotten that.) Now she comes for strokes on the wing.

 

[hcammack]

Mine have actualy become my favriot. But I was woundering if a few black or darck brown feather means that its a boy because mine have a few.

Henry

 

[Windy Ridge]

Not necessarily. Especially if they come from a hatchery, some will have off colors. You shouldn't

have that problem from a breeder, however. It should be obvious with Salmon Faverolles within a few weeks whether you have boys or girls, though.