Serious about Chanteclers...

[Ted Brown]

Hows the broody mama doing?
Have you candled eggs?

I had to reach out to my sister about broody chick timing, she says the 21st day is the coming Monday. I will candle tonight (1st solo effort) and "lock down" (limit ingress/egress) for the next 4-5 days.

Also need to finish pen build with the "tiny doors" between all pens; will open Chantecler access to main coop this weekend (5 weeks old).

 

[Eelantha]

How goes your Chanteclers and other chicks you've hatched this summer? Is Runtecler sill alive, or did you have to cull it? Are your Chanteclers thriving in the Woods style coop you've built for them?

(Did your breeder from Granby ever reply answer your e-mail for why only one third of your Chantecler eggs hatched?)

 

[Ted Brown]

@Eelantha thank you for asking.

At the moment I am sorting out a probable mite infestation with the flock but I have a whole other thread on that; one comment on that this site is amazing, friendly expert advice on whatever situation is going on!

I am very pleased with my Chantecler experience, at the moment I have 10 but that will reduce to 6 shortly as I have 5 males and will probabaly only keep one. They are a lovely breed, very tranquil, easy to manage, beautiful (brilliant white with red face and yellow legs/beak offsets), BIG although I have variants in that given three family heritages. They tend to keep closer to the coop than my others but that may be a function of their age; not certain however as my other group of five month old Black Copper Maran mixes roam much further on the property. It amuses me that I have three groups that stay together - my originals, the five BCM mixes and the Chanties. Runtacler did not make it past about four weeks, not surprising as she struggled all the time; if I had segregation pens I would have put her on her own but that is perhaps being a softie?

I gifted a pair of the original 15 to my mechanic and his kids and two males to others in the area who have existing Chantecler flocks to enhance their bloodline options.

They are just on 5 months old, none laying as yet but I expect that to start over the next month. The males appear to be getting along, flares of course but they then back off and carry on (I am expecting that to change in the next weeks...). Winter is just starting here and the strength of the breed will show even more than it already has.

I did not hear back from the breeder but he is well known to heritage livestock folks that I know and has an excellent reputation. He is francophone and his English is a second language, I have considered this as a possible

I will add to my flock come Spring through hatching from the small flock that I have. I am trying to figure out how to keep multiple males to enhance my breeding options.

I have also connected through my Heritage Canada friends to a woman who has three bloodlines of Hungarian Yellows. These are an extremely rare breed with an interesting Canadian back story that has caused the Heritage Canada group to include them under their auspices and promotion to folks in Canada. I have arranged to get fertilized eggs from her early spring next year and will begin a separate sub flock that I will try to keep and develop.

To support that and my existing flocks I will be expanding my coop and run space to two separate areas and will also build six smaller pen enclosures to be used for breeding, segregation and brooding purposes. I have started but am stalled on the second coop (another smaller 8' by 12' Woods KD, they are brilliant by the way!) that will be mounted on a trailer. I will expand my run space (by a bit more than 12' by 12') starting this coming Wednesday, hope to finish within the following week as we have a weather break that will have temperatures in the 10-15C range. I will have to scramble even though I have the four corner posts in place and cut to height I have yet to do the roof and then install HC. The second coop and pen enclosures will be winter and very early spring projects.

And finally the same woman from who I will get the Hungarian Yellows has European Black bees that her family brought over in two barrels 100 years ago. These bees are resistant to the two mite types that are decimating NA hives. I am discussing with her and researching what is involved with bee keeping.

All part of the plan to live and work past 100.

 

[Eelantha]

@Ted Brown - 100% agree with you that BYC is an amazing place with lots of friendly and resourceful people who help us with good advice and have threads on everything concerning chickens. Their reviews, inputs and comments are what made me discover the Chantecler - I had no idea my own province had created a patrimonial chicken, what with the local farms all using commercial hens and broilers for egg and meat production. When I saw one for the time (after literally touring Quebec and knocking on people's doors asking what kind of poultry they kept in their backyards, as I was having no luck finding any on the web) I was smitten though.

Most breeders in my area keep 2-3 roosters, the top best for breeding and the 2nd and 3rd as back-up (in case the 1rst dies or proves infertile). Some use their second and third roosters in breeding pens with hens from different races to make crossbred offsprings (like Easter Eggers). Sometimes the lines are crossed in an attempt to get chicks that are both productive and show-quality (which ones are yours?). It's the same thing with hens - the best ones are kept for breeding, the culled ones (provided they are not sick or contain a grave physical flaw) are kept for crossbred chicks & eggs rather than cooked. I understand, though, that not everyone has the space required for such decisions, so those who spare their chickens are few and far between.

Runtacler would have been lonely if alone in a segregation pen. Chickens are social animals, so if you isolate one make sure they have at least 1 other bird to interact with - provided, of course, that they are not sick or aggressive. A cage or small pen inside the main coop where the healthy flock and wounded bird can see each other and interact through the fence is usually sufficient to keep the loneliness at bay.

(Another option is to bring your isolated bird inside your house, and be that one person the chicken interacts with. Be careful though - you might get incredibly attached to it, and your chicken can get incredibly attached to you in return. Kind of like him. Or that guy. )

Your Chanteclers sound like their foraging abilities are not as strong as your BCM mixes, that can be refined with time and experience as they grow older. If you want foraging birds, breed those that venture out onto pasture instead of hanging around the feeders. Also, if you ever need help translating english into french or vice-versa, tell me. I can speak both french and english, so I should not have too much trouble with communications, unless you send me words I have never seen before

My own research on the internet on various sites has yielded that pullet-hatched chicks will not be as strong or performant as hen-hatched chicks. Chickens under 2 years old who are used as breeding parents lend their offsprings an immature immune system, as they are still immature themselves. This leaves their chicks weaker and more vulnerable to problems, and gets them culled faster than hen-hatched chicks. Also, people have noted a smaller hatching rate with pullet eggs than with hen eggs, as pullet eggshells are thicker than hen eggshells, making it harder for the chick to break out. I do not know how many pullet and hens eggs you had in your 62 Chantecler eggs back in spring, but one of the potential causes behind your low hatching rate might be thick pullet eggshells. Do you still have your notes about which were which?

I'm very happy to see you starting a breeding program with Chanteclers in a wood-style coop. I've been wondering about Chanteclers in woods-style coops for a solid year now, surprisingly there is little record to be found of people who have tried it in Quebec. You doing it in Ontario is a blessing; thank you for taking the plunge and recording your experiences on BYC!

The more pens the better, especially if you want to keep multiple breeding roosters. Personally I refer to this breeding coop whenever I find someone who wants to keep several breeding pairs and trios. If your wood-style coop is a success with your Chanteclers, you could also build a large wood-style coop that is split in six mini-coops, to house your breeding pairs/trios like in the link above, instead of making several coops to house each breeding pair/trio. Much less materials used that way, though the choice is up to you.

The Hungarian Yellows are beautiful birds... Unfortunately they would get frostbite here, so I can't order them up here. The only birds immune to this problem are the Chanteclers, Russian Orloffs, Buckeyes, Ameraucanas and Hedemoras, at least those with pea combs if people have them. (Note: all the birds I mentioned are endangered, some critical, except for the Ameraucana which is quite popular.)

I don't know how much you've researched chicken breeding, but I believe this link will help you narrow down the selection of your birds ^^

I wish you good luck with bee keeping, hopefully they will not sting you as you go around collecting their honey

 

[Folly's place]

I like to have two roosters for each breed here too, generally an adult rooster and a cockerel. Last spring I had so many losses, things hare shifted a bit. This fall I've kept two Chantie cockerels for the flock instead. And the Belgian d'Uccles are having problems, probably due to a weird recessive because they are so inbred, I've got three males in that group, but may not raise any more of them anyway, sadly.
Plenty of time to sort things out before spring...
Mary

 

[Eelantha]

I like to have two roosters for each breed here too, generally an adult rooster and a cockerel. Last spring I had so many losses, things hare shifted a bit. This fall I've kept two Chantie cockerels for the flock instead. And the Belgian d'Uccles are having problems, probably due to a weird recessive because they are so inbred, I've got three males in that group, but may not raise any more of them anyway, sadly.
Plenty of time to sort things out before spring...
Mary

Do you use the rolling mating technique for your breeding pens? So sorry to hear you're having problems with your Belgian d'Uccles, inbreeding is a difficult step to overcome once it sets in.

 

[Folly's place]

Last spring many of my birds died in a predator attack (our own dog!) and so I ordered more chicks from Cackle, sadly no more Belgin d'Uccles. Then no more were available, thanks to Covid 19.
I've kept two cockerels and six pullets from that April 2020 order, and a few of the surviving hens. We'll see how things go this coming spring! Right now I'm planning to have the Chantie females with one of the males, and the other with my mixed flock, and see how things go. Then I'll probably try the other male with them, so raise two batches of chicks.
I may also order some more Chantie chicks, we'll see.
Mary

 

[Eelantha]

@Folly's place - Tell me about it. I went and fetched my hatching eggs literally hours before the authorities put the whole country in confinement this spring. I had no idea a lockdown was coming up, as I do not watch the news that often. To say I was surprised was an understatement.

Your picture has me curious - is this one of your Chantecler roosters? He has a very beautiful tail, and a proud stature unique to his race. He's a gorgeous boy

 

[Ted Brown]

@Eelantha I am just started down the chicken path and am in the "don't know what I don't know" stage of breeding knowledge so some of your questions I did not ask of the person I bought eggs from.

He has six families that I understand go back to Brother Wilfred's flocks in Oka. He breeds to the standard and shared with me several tips that he uses to select his best birds; the others he moves on to several keepers in his local area (Granby) as sub-standard.

His breeding pens contained around a half dozen birds each with one male in each pen, he keeps a separate area inside one of his barn area where he has incubators, two brooders and perhaps a dozen+ smaller cages one one wall where he keep other birds. I did not think to ask on what basis he separates into these cages.

I would guesstimate he has at least 100 birds perhaps more as I did not seen all of his barns. He breeds primarily in the Spring and then moves all his birds to two large temporary fenced areas in a large non forested field beside his barns. Males are separated from females.

To my knowledge he is not focused on showing but another breeder that I know of in southern Ontario that has the current Chantecler champion tells me that Rejean's birds are larger than his so they must have crossed paths.

My own birds come from three of his groups, my cockerels vary in size with some quite large. I do not know the age of the females that my eggs came from but he knew that I wanted to start breeding and guess that he would have selected from females that would give a good result. I began speaking with him hoping to get eggs in the March time frame but COVID got in the way and it was late May before I picked up. I did ask about his hatch rate and he said around 60%. I had incubator problems and was delayed in getting mine started for several days; this may have had an impact on my low rate. I do have his notes regarding male/female source but lost track of which of my birds were which.

Happy to answer any other questions I can, if you want Rejean's contacts let me know and I will PM.

 

[Folly's place]

My avatar was my original rooster, who died last spring. Wonderful bird! The surviving young rooster wasn't as large, and moved to a new home this summer. Haven't weighed this year's two 'keepers' this fall, so we'll see.
I don't show, and am starting with Cackle birds, so time will tell. I want nice birds, good temperaments, up to the breed standard, and have been pleased so far.
Hatch rates? Not good here either last year, at a friend's incubator. They have a really good unit, lots of experience, and excellent hatches with other breeds. Hope this spring goes better!
Also, the 2020 cockerels now have some feather yellowing, not seen here before. Not best!
None of our previous males showed that trait, but here we are.
Friends have some chicks from a show breeder this year, and the cockerels also have yellowed topline feathers. Some of their chicks had the smoky heads, and some not, but they don't know which matured with this trait.
Mary