Please reply.
what breeds do you have?
- Thread starter CherishedFowlGuardian
- Start date
chrismahon
Well-known member
Starting with what we have had (large fowl unless stated otherwise):-
Orpingtons- Jubilee, black and buff. These are big birds laying surprisingly small eggs and not that many. A very docile breed and easily bullied. The cocks can be huge and prone to hip joint problems rendering them unable to walk. This is thanks to the show breeders! The original strain is smaller and lays well.
Wyandottes- Blue laced. Lots of possible colours but the interesting thing about the blue laced (and why they are so expensive) is that they don't breed 'true' to colour. You will get in a hatch only 50% blue, the others will be sub-standard gold laced and silver. Given that half (55% normally) will be cockerels, you don't have much to sell from a hatch. Medium size eggs and moderate layers.
Leghorn bantams- brown. Delightful confident characters and very flighty. Not prone to going broody either. Lay eggs the same size as the Orpingtons and lots of them. There is a story around that, but a bit long to post now. The cockerels have huge combs and can suffer frostbite in winter- once again thanks to show breeding.
Crested Cream Legbars- These lay true blue eggs having the shell blue as well, not just a surface coat as hybrid blue eggs layers produce. Medium eggs and very flighty birds. I used to fetch them out of the trees where they wanted to roost, which wasn't easy. Lots of bad breeders selling birds producing white eggs -they should be sky blue.
Transylvanian Naked Necks- black. Quite a small breed anyway, characterised by the lack of feathering on their necks and crop area caused by a natural feather suppression hormone. Big white eggs and lots of them. They consume a huge amount of feed in Winter, basically to keep themselves warm. Beware of cross breeding which results in feathering halfway down the neck. Breed from them and you could get anything? National breed of Romania, which isn't where Transylvania is, so the origin of the name is a mystery. I think they are very pretty but some find them extremely ugly. The bantam chicks look amazing.
So we exported all these to France (legally), but nearly 14 years on they have sadly all left us.
What we have now:-
Marans- black. Lay a lot of brown eggs in varying degrees of shade, but should be milk chocolate in colour. The English version doesn't have feathered feet, but our French ones do. The singular for a bird is a 'Marans' as it is the region in France they come from. We were given these as the couple who first time bred them ended up with too many.
Cou-Nu. Brown. These are the French meat breed which our local farm produces. They free range and are slaughtered at 14-16 weeks before the cockerels start fighting (5 weeks in a shed in the UK). They lay very large eggs but consume huge amounts of feed and don't live long. They just aren't bred to, getting so big (over 5Kg) that they struggle to walk and even breathe. The mis-informed think these are TNN's, but in fact that is just one of the breeds they originate from. €5 each wasn't good value, although we have given them a nice life.
Light Sussex- These were sold as egg laying white hybrids in the garden shop, but they are not. My word do they lay well and in their second year and over Winter still non-stop. Well over 300 eggs each year from them. Bargain at €16 each and it was good to get them all out of that little cage.
Little Ruby and Florence- brown and black hybrids. Never seen chickens with such big eyes. Can't see very well at all but that might be damage due to candling with an LED (far too bright). Tiny birds laying just as well as the Sussex. How such a large egg is produced in such a small body is a mystery. These French hybrids are not live virus immunised as the UK practice and as a result they are far healthier and not contagious to others. The only vaccinations necessary here are for showing -Newcastle Disease, a dead virus injected every year.
Orpingtons- Jubilee, black and buff. These are big birds laying surprisingly small eggs and not that many. A very docile breed and easily bullied. The cocks can be huge and prone to hip joint problems rendering them unable to walk. This is thanks to the show breeders! The original strain is smaller and lays well.
Wyandottes- Blue laced. Lots of possible colours but the interesting thing about the blue laced (and why they are so expensive) is that they don't breed 'true' to colour. You will get in a hatch only 50% blue, the others will be sub-standard gold laced and silver. Given that half (55% normally) will be cockerels, you don't have much to sell from a hatch. Medium size eggs and moderate layers.
Leghorn bantams- brown. Delightful confident characters and very flighty. Not prone to going broody either. Lay eggs the same size as the Orpingtons and lots of them. There is a story around that, but a bit long to post now. The cockerels have huge combs and can suffer frostbite in winter- once again thanks to show breeding.
Crested Cream Legbars- These lay true blue eggs having the shell blue as well, not just a surface coat as hybrid blue eggs layers produce. Medium eggs and very flighty birds. I used to fetch them out of the trees where they wanted to roost, which wasn't easy. Lots of bad breeders selling birds producing white eggs -they should be sky blue.
Transylvanian Naked Necks- black. Quite a small breed anyway, characterised by the lack of feathering on their necks and crop area caused by a natural feather suppression hormone. Big white eggs and lots of them. They consume a huge amount of feed in Winter, basically to keep themselves warm. Beware of cross breeding which results in feathering halfway down the neck. Breed from them and you could get anything? National breed of Romania, which isn't where Transylvania is, so the origin of the name is a mystery. I think they are very pretty but some find them extremely ugly. The bantam chicks look amazing.
So we exported all these to France (legally), but nearly 14 years on they have sadly all left us.
What we have now:-
Marans- black. Lay a lot of brown eggs in varying degrees of shade, but should be milk chocolate in colour. The English version doesn't have feathered feet, but our French ones do. The singular for a bird is a 'Marans' as it is the region in France they come from. We were given these as the couple who first time bred them ended up with too many.
Cou-Nu. Brown. These are the French meat breed which our local farm produces. They free range and are slaughtered at 14-16 weeks before the cockerels start fighting (5 weeks in a shed in the UK). They lay very large eggs but consume huge amounts of feed and don't live long. They just aren't bred to, getting so big (over 5Kg) that they struggle to walk and even breathe. The mis-informed think these are TNN's, but in fact that is just one of the breeds they originate from. €5 each wasn't good value, although we have given them a nice life.
Light Sussex- These were sold as egg laying white hybrids in the garden shop, but they are not. My word do they lay well and in their second year and over Winter still non-stop. Well over 300 eggs each year from them. Bargain at €16 each and it was good to get them all out of that little cage.
Little Ruby and Florence- brown and black hybrids. Never seen chickens with such big eyes. Can't see very well at all but that might be damage due to candling with an LED (far too bright). Tiny birds laying just as well as the Sussex. How such a large egg is produced in such a small body is a mystery. These French hybrids are not live virus immunised as the UK practice and as a result they are far healthier and not contagious to others. The only vaccinations necessary here are for showing -Newcastle Disease, a dead virus injected every year.
