Moving Day for 3-Week Old Bresse Chicks
After a very successful hatch, our chicks were ready to be moved from the large brooder to the hooped coop. They will stay here for a couple of months until they are large enough to integrate with the rest of our flock. They love the new coop and are very happy to with all the space!
These chicks were our second attempt at a test run of our best Bresse rooster. The first attempt was all Bresse and resulted in zero chicks — likely because the rooster and/or hens were too young. This time, I did a mix of Bresse hens, Black Sex Links and Red Sex Links.
So, it will be obvious who’s who. The Bresse will be all white with blue feet. We’ll cull the Bresse-Sex Links mix when the time comes. (Culling on a small farm such as ours means we will process them for meat.)
UPDATE April 25, 2021:
Two of the main characteristics of the Bresse are their white plumage and blue feet. These chicks started out light blonde. We figured that we would eventually see the black and red start to show for the chicks with the Sex Links mothers. After 8 weeks, all of the chicks are still white!
Another surprise is the majority of their feet are blue. After learning about dominant and recessive genes, we discovered the white feathers of the Bresse are dominant. As far as the blue feet, when a cock with blue feet breeds with a hen with blue feet, both pullets and stags will have blue feet. When a cock with blue feet breeds with a hen with yellow (or white) feet, the pullets will have blue feet and the stags will have white feet.
Therefore, this experiment with breeding my Bresse rooster with a mix of Bresse and Sex Link hens has resulted in me having no way of knowing who’s who. Except we’ll know the stags with the white feet are 100% Bresse.
These birds will now be part of our separate layers and/or meat bird flock. We’ll be raising these birds with our pigs in our companion farming program.
Contact us if you’re interested in buying Bresse hatching eggs.