I am glad to see people interested in breeding Bresse chickens. You mentioned selecting for the faster maturing birds, and that is a good trait, but I would remind you that one of the reasons the Bresse is considered the best tasting chicken in the world is because of the slower growth rate that aids in the Bresse's unique ability to create marbling in the meat. The marbling is what creates the more tender, juicier, tastier meat, the same way a well marbled steak is juicier, tenderer, and more tasty. I am concerned that if American breeders like yourself, select and breed to your own standards instead of the centuries old French standards for the breed, and then you start reselling Bresse bred to your own standards then what you are selling will not really be Bresse chickens at all. It is the main reason France will not allow any Bresse chickens not raised in France where they can assure their high standards for the breed are met and maintained, to be labeled as French Bresse. And I agree 100% with France, because when I buy Bresse chickens to raise for meat, I want to know they are truly French Bresse chickens. I can understand if you want to start with the Bresse and create a new breed with the characteristics that you find desirable, and you resell them as a "new" breed. But my fear is that there are going to be lots of American homesteaders and backyard enthusiast jumping on the Bresse breeding bandwagon, selling "the world's tastiest meat bird" but they are not going to uphold the actual French Bresse standards. And what is going to end up being bought and sold in America will be a cheap imitation of the famed French Bresse, which took over 25 years to create, and has been maintained for centuries by Frances strict code of standards, but it will be destroyed in just a few short years. And suddenly you will have Americans buying and eating a (supposed to be) Bresse chicken, saying " I don't think it's so much more tasty than any other chicken". And that's because....it no longer will be, and because, it is no longer really a French Bresse chicken at all. I say all of this not to condemn you. I am all for personal freedom in growing our own food and raising our own livestock. If you want to breed Bresse chickens for your own choice of characteristics, that is fine. I just don't believe it is ethical to the original breeder who spent many years breeding and creating this unique breed, or to those looking to buy, raise, or eat, the famed Bresse chicken, to resell those chickens as Bresse. Even if you call them "American Bresse" there is the assumption that it is the same as the original French Bresse, but it has just been raised in America, so it can't be labeled as a French Bresse. But the moment you do not uphold the French Bresse standards, then I believe it is totally unethical to call that chicken a Bresse. The ethical thing to do would be to give it a new breed name and say "it was bred from the famed Bresse chicken".
Good luck with the breeding program. Breeding chickens is a different set of problems as compared to mammals, with their unique genetics. I would learn as much as I could both from modern genetic research and also traditional ways of breeding chickens. In my opinion the best place to find solid traditional methods is the game cock breeding methods. I would personally pick the 1 or2 most important traits and work on those until you are satisfied. Temperament is often a tradeoff of egg production, size and vigor and ability to forage seem to be at odds sometimes too. In other words concentrating on one trait is often a trade off of another. One thing that is a solid fact is you can never keep enough records lol!
Good luck with your program. Sounds like a good plan to me. I've seen those American Bresse chickens around and I thinks they look pretty nice. Hope you allergies clear up soon, its been a really long and intense allergy season down here in Texas so I "feel your pain".
Thank you for your video. As a full time resident in the gateless guard-less prison of despair called the Gulag of Poverty, ... I was given an egg incubator! I went to a friends who's wife rescues chickens from everywhere and got some fertilized eggs and so began my five years of a barnyard mix breeding program. I've been wiped out four times already because I like to free range my birds but those days are over and now they face a life of lockdown for their own protection. I can't compete against the Foxes, Weasels, Minks, Racoons, Rats, and don't forget the Hawks. They are killer eh? I'm thinking a chicken tractor with chicken wire on the floor of the thing so nothing can weasel it's way under. I decided not to incubate this year and bought five young egg pullets and the Mink made short work of them. Now I have 32 eggs in the incubator. I wanted some fresh blood eh? The broody Hen I bought last fall refuses to go broody in lockdown so the incubator it is. After eight days of abnormal cold and wet weather for the month of June, I lost four meat chicks to a collapsed brooder and managed to "save" 16. Now I'm going to see about ordering 20 more if I can. I was going to harvest the meat birds for a processed weight of six to eight pounds for this small family unit but with all that's going on in the world, I will now grow them out to ten to twelve pounds. Make chicken while the chicken making is good eh? Reminds me of the story about the little old Lady going through the freezer bin full of frozen chickens and not finding what she wanted, she turned and asked the stock boy if they got any bigger and the stock boy said, "No Ma'am, they're dead". Turns out there's been so many people deciding to grow their own meat birds here that the supplier is having a hard time keeping us supplied and there may not be a second order. Here being east coast Canaduh. I'm down to my last three hens from the original barnyard mix and my broody Buff Orphington, .. How ever you speel that. The rooster is from original stock too. Let's hope a whack of the broody birds chicks hatch eh? Get some fresh blood into the mix. They are good birds managing to lay pretty well all year round except winter production goes way down of course. They need that extra energy to stay warm here in the Great White North. One Hen seemed to slow down but she's now laying me HUGE double yolkers. They won't hatch so there's no worry about her genes making it unless she managed to sneak a regular egg into the mix. I just collect them and turn them a couple of times a day until I have enough to incubate. I have 32 potential Hens and Roosters in the incubator right now. Last batch I had five pullets and TEN freaking roosters. These birds are not roasting birds, ... or frying birds, or freezing birds. Matter of fact, the only way to make these birds tender enough to eat is to can them. It just so happens, one rooster properly done fills a Quart jar every time. I de-bone my chickens except the drumsticks that I just chop the knobs off to make more room and to expose the marrow to the canning process. Yum, yum. I turn the bones into chicken broth after about three days of simmering in a rather large pot with onions, carrots and celery and get that stuff canned up too. You could eat one of these birds I have if you made a boiled dinner with it making sure to boil the bird all day before adding the veggies to the pot and finish cooking. I do love one pot meals. Speaking of meals, I must figure out what I'm cooking for supper, ... That's when the canned meat can come in handy eh? OK, enough of my drivel, keep up the great work and good luck.
Thank you for this video! We have 5 American Bresse that we want to use to start our breeding stock with. They are about 25 weeks old and we will be getting an American Bresse Roo soon from the same breeder. How do I integrate him in with the rest? He will be a lot younger and smaller do I just put him in there with them or will he get picked on? Do I need to keep all of the American breeze separated from the rest or are they all fine together (as long as I can tell which eggs were from the American Bresse hens)?
Hi Shelby , cool channel. Hey I hope it's ok I'm a fellow TH-camr and have a suggestion. Your content is great but perhaps a wireless mike could hugely improve your sound quality. Keep up the awesome work!!
Great presentation! 2 things. 1. You didn't mention how much quicker (16 weeks) the American Bresse mature compared to other duel purpose breeds! This is for both mature harvest size and when they start laying. 2. Having said that, they should be laying by the end of July/early August, you could always do a Fall hatching to get more started quicker, rather than waiting for next Spring. That is my plan currently.
Thank you so much for watching. Yes, the Bresse can start laying earlier, a trait I really like. Im not starting a fall hatch for 2 reasons. Firstly we have extremely cold winters here, and secondly it's best to let the birds lay for a few months so their eggs reach full size before starting to hatch.
Good morning, a big fan watching from South Africa. I would love to be a customer of yours and talk about possibly exporting some of these lovely birds somewhere down the line.
I am glad to see people interested in breeding Bresse chickens. You mentioned selecting for the faster maturing birds, and that is a good trait, but I would remind you that one of the reasons the Bresse is considered the best tasting chicken in the world is because of the slower growth rate that aids in the Bresse's unique ability to create marbling in the meat. The marbling is what creates the more tender, juicier, tastier meat, the same way a well marbled steak is juicier, tenderer, and more tasty. I am concerned that if American breeders like yourself, select and breed to your own standards instead of the centuries old French standards for the breed, and then you start reselling Bresse bred to your own standards then what you are selling will not really be Bresse chickens at all. It is the main reason France will not allow any Bresse chickens not raised in France where they can assure their high standards for the breed are met and maintained, to be labeled as French Bresse. And I agree 100% with France, because when I buy Bresse chickens to raise for meat, I want to know they are truly French Bresse chickens. I can understand if you want to start with the Bresse and create a new breed with the characteristics that you find desirable, and you resell them as a "new" breed. But my fear is that there are going to be lots of American homesteaders and backyard enthusiast jumping on the Bresse breeding bandwagon, selling "the world's tastiest meat bird" but they are not going to uphold the actual French Bresse standards. And what is going to end up being bought and sold in America will be a cheap imitation of the famed French Bresse, which took over 25 years to create, and has been maintained for centuries by Frances strict code of standards, but it will be destroyed in just a few short years. And suddenly you will have Americans buying and eating a (supposed to be) Bresse chicken, saying " I don't think it's so much more tasty than any other chicken". And that's because....it no longer will be, and because, it is no longer really a French Bresse chicken at all. I say all of this not to condemn you. I am all for personal freedom in growing our own food and raising our own livestock. If you want to breed Bresse chickens for your own choice of characteristics, that is fine. I just don't believe it is ethical to the original breeder who spent many years breeding and creating this unique breed, or to those looking to buy, raise, or eat, the famed Bresse chicken, to resell those chickens as Bresse. Even if you call them "American Bresse" there is the assumption that it is the same as the original French Bresse, but it has just been raised in America, so it can't be labeled as a French Bresse. But the moment you do not uphold the French Bresse standards, then I believe it is totally unethical to call that chicken a Bresse. The ethical thing to do would be to give it a new breed name and say "it was bred from the famed Bresse chicken".
Good luck with the breeding program. Breeding chickens is a different set of problems as compared to mammals, with their unique genetics. I would learn as much as I could both from modern genetic research and also traditional ways of breeding chickens. In my opinion the best place to find solid traditional methods is the game cock breeding methods. I would personally pick the 1 or2 most important traits and work on those until you are satisfied. Temperament is often a tradeoff of egg production, size and vigor and ability to forage seem to be at odds sometimes too. In other words concentrating on one trait is often a trade off of another. One thing that is a solid fact is you can never keep enough records lol!
Good luck with your program. Sounds like a good plan to me. I've seen those American Bresse chickens around and I thinks they look pretty nice. Hope you allergies clear up soon, its been a really long and intense allergy season down here in Texas so I "feel your pain".
Thanks so much for watching and I wish you the best with your allergies clearing up as well. It was been a bad year for it, pollen is just everywhere.
They look like longhorns to me maybe its called bresse over there good for laying eggs
Thank you for your video.
As a full time resident in the gateless guard-less prison of despair called the Gulag of Poverty, ... I was given an egg incubator!
I went to a friends who's wife rescues chickens from everywhere and got some fertilized eggs and so began my five years of a barnyard mix breeding program.
I've been wiped out four times already because I like to free range my birds but those days are over and now they face a life of lockdown for their own protection.
I can't compete against the Foxes, Weasels, Minks, Racoons, Rats, and don't forget the Hawks. They are killer eh?
I'm thinking a chicken tractor with chicken wire on the floor of the thing so nothing can weasel it's way under.
I decided not to incubate this year and bought five young egg pullets and the Mink made short work of them. Now I have 32 eggs in the incubator. I wanted some fresh blood eh?
The broody Hen I bought last fall refuses to go broody in lockdown so the incubator it is.
After eight days of abnormal cold and wet weather for the month of June, I lost four meat chicks to a collapsed brooder and managed to "save" 16. Now I'm going to see about ordering 20 more if I can.
I was going to harvest the meat birds for a processed weight of six to eight pounds for this small family unit but with all that's going on in the world, I will now grow them out to ten to twelve pounds. Make chicken while the chicken making is good eh?
Reminds me of the story about the little old Lady going through the freezer bin full of frozen chickens and not finding what she wanted, she turned and asked the stock boy if they got any bigger and the stock boy said, "No Ma'am, they're dead".
Turns out there's been so many people deciding to grow their own meat birds here that the supplier is having a hard time keeping us supplied and there may not be a second order.
Here being east coast Canaduh.
I'm down to my last three hens from the original barnyard mix and my broody Buff Orphington, .. How ever you speel that.
The rooster is from original stock too. Let's hope a whack of the broody birds chicks hatch eh? Get some fresh blood into the mix.
They are good birds managing to lay pretty well all year round except winter production goes way down of course. They need that extra energy to stay warm here in the Great White North.
One Hen seemed to slow down but she's now laying me HUGE double yolkers. They won't hatch so there's no worry about her genes making it unless she managed to sneak a regular egg into the mix. I just collect them and turn them a couple of times a day until I have enough to incubate.
I have 32 potential Hens and Roosters in the incubator right now.
Last batch I had five pullets and TEN freaking roosters.
These birds are not roasting birds, ... or frying birds, or freezing birds.
Matter of fact, the only way to make these birds tender enough to eat is to can them. It just so happens, one rooster properly done fills a Quart jar every time. I de-bone my chickens except the drumsticks that I just chop the knobs off to make more room and to expose the marrow to the canning process. Yum, yum.
I turn the bones into chicken broth after about three days of simmering in a rather large pot with onions, carrots and celery and get that stuff canned up too.
You could eat one of these birds I have if you made a boiled dinner with it making sure to boil the bird all day before adding the veggies to the pot and finish cooking. I do love one pot meals.
Speaking of meals, I must figure out what I'm cooking for supper, ... That's when the canned meat can come in handy eh?
OK, enough of my drivel, keep up the great work and good luck.
Sounds like you have a lot of predators. I am glad you don't let your losses stop you! I wish you the best of luck with everything.
@@TheCountryLivingHomestead Thank you.
LOL
I like your breeding plan, and it will be fun and interesting to follow along. Thanks for sharing. 🐓
So nice of you!
It doesn’t sound like you have any plan for a second generation, how will you prevent inbreeding down the line?
Thank you for this video! We have 5 American Bresse that we want to use to start our breeding stock with. They are about 25 weeks old and we will be getting an American Bresse Roo soon from the same breeder. How do I integrate him in with the rest? He will be a lot younger and smaller do I just put him in there with them or will he get picked on? Do I need to keep all of the American breeze separated from the rest or are they all fine together (as long as I can tell which eggs were from the American Bresse hens)?
Sounds like a good foundation building program.
Hi Shelby , cool channel. Hey I hope it's ok I'm a fellow TH-camr and have a suggestion. Your content is great but perhaps a wireless mike could hugely improve your sound quality.
Keep up the awesome work!!
Thanks for the tip!
Great presentation! 2 things. 1. You didn't mention how much quicker (16 weeks) the American Bresse mature compared to other duel purpose breeds! This is for both mature harvest size and when they start laying. 2. Having said that, they should be laying by the end of July/early August, you could always do a Fall hatching to get more started quicker, rather than waiting for next Spring. That is my plan currently.
Thank you so much for watching. Yes, the Bresse can start laying earlier, a trait I really like. Im not starting a fall hatch for 2 reasons. Firstly we have extremely cold winters here, and secondly it's best to let the birds lay for a few months so their eggs reach full size before starting to hatch.
Good morning, a big fan watching from South Africa. I would love to be a customer of yours and talk about possibly exporting some of these lovely birds somewhere down the line.
Hopefully, you include quietness in your program. We live closer together than before and the noise would be a problem.
I haven’t found the bresse to be overly noisy