The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: in the hills on April 21, 2020, 03:00:33 pm
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Has anyone got any experience of keeping Minorcas, Black Leghorn or Old English Pheasant Fowl?
Good layers? Flighty? Hardy ......for the Welsh hills?
My daughter loves trying different breeds and has her eye on one of the above. If we can get hatching eggs that is?????????
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No doubt some one here will have kept at least one of the breeds, but have you tried contacting breed clubs yet ? I'm sure they would be only too happy to assess for your circumstances.
[I'd tell you what 'they' say in my various books on chicken breeds, but they're all packed away in boxes - who knows which box ?! ]
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i've got white legorns
they're a bit crazy and very untame but they lay really well
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I have Derbyshire redcap (bantam but its bigger than most other bantam breeds) which is very similar to the pheasant fowl except for different type of comb. Not really flighty. Not aggressive.
Minircas are very similar to leghorn which is the best egg layer I have ever had.
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Leghorns in our UK experience are great layers, can fly well so need high fences and don't go broody if you take them off the nest quickly. But here they have what they call Black Gasconnes, which are actually French Black Leghorns and they do go broody to the extent of being suicidal. They are also very friendly and want cuddles. They are not hardy due to their combs which lose heat and need vaseline in Winter, but they stand high temperatures well- they originate from Italy.
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I have a couple of Barbezieux, which are sometimes described as basically tall Minorcas. Got them as hatching eggs from Hay on Wye last September, and the pullet started laying in Feb, so hardy enough to grow through last Welsh winter with no issues. Not flighty. Eggs have settled down now to a regular medium sized; she started with a lot of double yolkers, 90+ grams, also with no issues. The cockerel is enormous, but very well behaved, so far!
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I have a couple of Barbezieux, which are sometimes described as basically tall Minorcas. Got them as hatching eggs from Hay on Wye last September, and the pullet started laying in Feb, so hardy enough to grow through last Welsh winter with no issues. Not flighty. Eggs have settled down now to a regular medium sized; she started with a lot of double yolkers, 90+ grams, also with no issues. The cockerel is enormous, but very well behaved, so far!
How are they doing now? They started laying quite soon right?
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yes - 5 months or thereabouts. That contrasts with 7-11 I've had to wait for my other breeds!
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I used to keep minorcars good layers not to jumpy and ther eggs sold very well on ebay
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Thanks all.
My daughter has decided to go for Minorcas and the secretary of the breed club is sending her some eggs.
Should arrive early next week.
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That's great - especially with eggs on the way in the post. Is there a special label for couriers/postie that says "Eggs - you really do need to handle with extreme care" ?
(I was personally hoping your daughter might have chosen the OE Pheasant. While I've never actually kept a chicken in my life, I'm a bit of a sucker for the 'wilder' types due to the various "game" breeds strutting about all over the place where I was brought up. Hopefully a few more years in me yet so maybe "one day"! )
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That's great - especially with eggs on the way in the post. Is there a special label for couriers/postie that says "Eggs - you really do need to handle with extreme care" ?
I'm not sure you want to write eggs on a parcel - we just write fragile. But no eggs in case someone shakes them for the sake of it. They will throw the parcels around anyway. Most of them are delivered with no problems.
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Part of the reason we've gone for the Minorcas is that folks have said that they aren't too flighty. So not too wild we hope.
We used to keep Friesian Fowl and although we liked them they were a bit troublesome at times.......roosting in the oak trees, laying 6ft up in the conifer hedge and then sitting the eggs if we didn't find them, flying over the hedges into the lane .....
So arobwk .... the Friesian Fowl maybe for you!
It's just next day postage as far as I know and postage delayed until Monday to avoid any delay caused by the weekend.
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Maybe !
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I let the chickens out at 7am yesterday. At 9am was brewing my espresso, looked outside the kitchen window - fox. Stupid chickens instead of running away and making noise were actually staring. My sons Derbyshire Redcap cockerel was coming towards the fox!!! Luckily I saw the scene and quickly scared him away and locked the chickens. Unfortunately I can only let them out of their run when I'm doing work in the garden or when theres lots of people at the allotment over the fence...
This is the reason why I liked leghorn- they are flighty! And fast.
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Yes, we thought the same about the Friesian except it didn't quite work out that way. They were the only chickens that we lost to predators since moving here due to the fact that they would lay out, go broody and sit on the eggs and then get eaten overnight by predators. Impossible to find them but the pile of feathers in the morning would be evident!
Also had a habit of roosting high in the trees. Would spend ages looking for them and then ages trying to get them down with brooms, ladders etc. If you left them roosting there they would come down too early in the mornings and again be vulnerable to predators. Too much hassle!
They were brilliant flyers though and amazing to watch. Miss them in a strange way.
We don't get many foxes here, probably due to the gamekeepers and farmers, but did once see one in the adjoining field. Alerted to its presence by our hens gathering in a flock and walking towards the field and staring straight at the fox!!! Found it a bit odd but guess they were trying to intimidate it into moving on?????
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We have chickens similar to Delaware, very calm and friendly. They have their own housing with basic things: watering and feeding. The main problem that they were hungry ALL THE TIME! We tried different kinds of food, time-feeding: to feed them every two-three hours. Then we found info about chicken feeder (https://www.backyardstyle.com/best-chicken-feeder/) and bought small steal feeder. And you know what? These hungry creatures started to tipped it over because it's very light. IT'S A DISASTER! :gloomy:
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I kept LF Minorca for a while. Nice big birds, like to roost in trees. Some of the best layers of pure-breds I've kept (bar leghorns). However, despite paying quite a lot for two well bred cocks, neither treaded a thing-ever. Have since been told this is an issue.