Hello from France

[Salomon]

This website is brilliant, so thanks for doing it.
We are seriously thinking about taking the plunge and getting some chickens. We live in SW France ( south of Dordogneshire ..) and our house has a chicken coop/run/ house / nest boxes etc which we could renovate quite easily.
Keeping chickens round here is normal practice for most people but of course the French have very different ideas sometimes I want to try to get it right so I have been avidly reading stuff. I am concerned about ventilation and the summer heat we have.

We primarily want raise them for meat . Our 2 dogs have a staple diet of chicken so we will do so for them, ourselves and our neighbours...who will help out when we are not around. We will start small ( walk before we run)... We can source young birds of 4 to 5 weeks old quite easily ( they are sold at the local market )...i have no idea what breed they are but are specific for meat rather than laying.

Et voila. Looking forward to our new adventure. And I am sure to have silly questions along the way.

Thanks

 

[chrismahon]

Hi Salomon and welcome to the forum. It's even hotter here in Gascony and we have to put the wooden chicken coops under trees. Everyones situation is different, but we have issues with ventilation- not enough in Summer and too much in Winter winds. The local coops are stone built, which creates problems with red mite -they must just leave them empty for the required 36 weeks? We have to resort to wetting the ground and using cooling fans on occasions in Summer.

Your meat birds at 4 or 5 weeks will only be kept to 12 weeks, which is the usual slaughter point in France. They might be Cou-Nu cockerels? In which case you won't want them around too long anyway as they can get nasty. You will find the French poultry books are pretty good and there is a lot of knowledge in local breeders. Some feeds are better than others- avoid La Fermette because the protein is fish based I think and the resulting stench from the chicken poo is dreadful. We use Sanders feed and they are based near you so you will have no trouble getting it.

 

[Salomon]

Thanks bery much. We too are in Gascony, further south of Dordogne ( sorry, it was unclear).

Our chicken house is stone. The guys who we get our chicken from have inspected and pronounced it suitable we have friends and neighbours who keep various birds so we are not short of advice...I just know with the dogs that sometimes they are not the most " modern" of methods.
Great to know about the feed. Extra stinky poop is not a requirement. I will find out the breed next week, they are a light brown colour ...but did not seem to have a cou nu.

My husband is quite keen on having some " ropey old poules " as he calls them for poule au pot, coq au vin etc. at what age would they become tough do you you think ? This is for planning purposes as if we need to keep a few until much older then they will most likely be separate. Merci !

 

[chrismahon]

Over 6 months they get tough and the cockerels will start fighting anyway Salomon. We try to restrict their movement to avoid toughening the leg meat, so the enclosure is kept small. We start to despatch at 20 weeks, the first to go being the trouble makers. If you are getting a meat breed that's fine. Worth being aware that the local pedigree is the Black Gasconne, a breed that I don't rate highly. The cockerels don't eat well at all, being simply a Leghorn derivative and the eggs don't taste of much either -at €20 each they are money badly spent, especially as one local breeder is selling birds carrying Mycoplasma. You are right about "modern" methods, but they seem to do OK and are very resistant to change. Our keeping methods seem a million miles away from theirs, but things are changing and the local TV station did a report on someone IN TOWN keeping chickens in their garden. Local stores have some very nasty little Chinese coops for sale, so be sure to avoid them.

I would advise smooth rendering the inside of the coop and then applying lime wash annually to kill any red mite. They are carried by wild birds here and breed at an alarming rate in these temperatures. First sign of them is when the chickens won't roost inside, by which time treatment is expensive.

 

[Salomon]

Other half is already twittering about lime wash etc. he is in charge of housing

We are just discussing how many we should start with. We know how many we want per year when we are experienced enough but as a first foray we are unsure, i say 5, he says 10. Any opinions ?

 

[chrismahon]

I'd start with two as you have no experience at all at the moment and there is a lot to learn. You've got to get them reared up but the very hard part is to come- despatching them. Then they have to be dressed. We despatch with an air pistol which, at UK legal limit, delivers 8 Joules. The French legal maximum without a full firearms certificate (Permis de Chasse) is 10 Joules. They are shot in the head just behind the eyes. No idea what the French do and I don't want to know. We comply with the UK Humane Slaughter Guidelines which says they should be effectively stunned then killed and bled. This happens at the same time with a shot to the head in the correct place, a wait for them to stop flapping (up to 2 minutes) and then hung with their wings tied up otherwise the blood collects there. They need to be despatched first thing in the morning before they eat or drink, in a quiet dark place and they are best wrapped in a towel. You will need to understand the plucking and dressing process and need a very sharp knife -I use a surgical scalpel.

Sorry if this post offends anyone.

 

[Salomon]

In theory the dispatching wont be an issue. Have shot ducks many times and disptched those that needed it. Have helped friends with duck and chicken farms too. We have firearms that would do the job but tbh I assumed we would do it the French way. This is exactky why I have joined this forum as I now have a different view which is preferable. So thanks for that.

 

[chrismahon]

If you are feeling confident you may wish to consider the economics. If you buy 10 can you get the price down? Each breed has it's own characteristics and some eat considerably more to get to target weight. Effectively you want to get the feed to final weight ratio as low as possible, but you will also wish to consider the effect of the type of feed on the taste. Pellets (granules here) are the simplest to use but the most expensive. Premixed grain is cheaper but sometimes they only eat the nice bits then starve. Wet mash made from finely ground grain is another option but goes 'off' in hours so has to be mixed fresh. Dry powder can result in health problems with the dust. Fresh veg adds another dimension by way of treats. Bored birds equals stress and squabbling so they will not put the weight on I think.

As they grow the area they are in needs to increase correspondingly. Keep it as small as you can and increase often is our approach. We don't breed for meat -our cockerels are a by-product of breeding to maintain our flocks. However we do have one dual purpose utility breed which gives us good egg layers and great tasting (but slower growing) cockerels. Perhaps something to consider for the future? But it does get considerably more complicated unfortunately. When you consider the alternative is just to buy eggs and prepared chicken and spend your time doing something else, that may be a better way, unless keeping chickens becomes your hobby.