The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Introduce yourself => Topic started by: Malsabreur on May 22, 2023, 08:44:25 pm
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Hi everyone. It's been a while since I've been on the forum. Since I last visited we have moved house to be nearer family so they can help should we need assistance. All our birds are now down at our lads smallholding near Belper where we are now preparing to welcome a fresh influx of French chickens.
We currently have LaFleche, Black and Cuckoo Crevecouers and expecting Barbezieux hatching eggs from two different strains sometime this week. If I could only keep one breed it would be these stunning creatures. I had some of them but lost them about 3 years ago to a fox and have been hunting them down ever since. I'm over the moon that I have managed to find more. I just hope we manage to hatch them alright!
We are also looking to have Gauloise Grise and a few other French breeds.
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Hi [member=215392]Malsabreur[/member] - went to check out Barbezieux - I don't trust image searches (no matter what search engine), but they seem to be quite varied in conformation. What ya reckon?
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All breeds vary. It depends on whether they are decent examples or not. They are Europe's tallest breed and should have quite a statuesque bearing. They are tight feathered and so don't look as beefy as they actually are. They have large, beautiful eyes, large wattles and long white earlobes. These photis show the stance and conformation I expect to see in the breed as this is more or less of the ones I had. Cocks reach a minimum of 4.5kgs.
Forgot to say, we had a cock and a hen hatch this morning from the first batch of 8 eggs. Not great I know but they had a rough trip over. They are beautiful, chunky chicks so I'm chuffed to little mint balls! I have Barbezieux again at long last! YAY!!!
The second batch, actually from Barbezieux are due in 8- 10 days and the third I'm STILL waiting for. A cautionary tale as to whto trust and who not to! I'll post pics of the fluffy dudes as soon as pur lad sends some to me. Not had the chance to get to the farm today.
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They look similar to Minorcas with the white lobes, but different proportions with smaller lobes and a larger comb, so a Black Leghorn x Minorca?
I know Belper quite well. Have friends who live there, bought Silkolene oil and worked at LB Plastics in Heage for a while. Used to be Crich motorcycle breakers near there once as well.
Brahmas seem to be the most popular breed here, but I did call into a big breeders in the North once on the way back down from the Uk and they had one twin-combed La Fleche- "Ferme de Beaumont' is was. Not as big an enterprise as I expected, but did buy their only bottle of egg sanitiser.
What I would like here are some more TNN's, but there is a lot of confusion developed here and they try to pass off Cou-Nu as the same, which they certainly are not. I'm thinking they are going to be better for heat resistance in the increasingly hot Summers.
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They are similar, but these are far bigger. The White Faced Spanish are related too. These grow up to70cms tall and a minimum weight of 4.5kgs for a male. They also have a fantastic meat to bone ratio.