Reviews by Sylvester017

Experienced our Blue Breda 4 m/o pullet who shipped to us w/ her best friend a Blue Ameraucana pullet 2 weeks ago - they were hatchmates and always pal'd around together. The vet's fecal lab tests showed they came w/ round worms so we treated them both for that. Secondly the Breda must have stressed from the shipping, plopped in a new environment, w/ new people so she exhibited CRD symptoms so we had to treat her for that. Now they are both back to good health again. Thirdly we are now experiencing the Breda picking at her toe feathers to the point that her companion started to pick at the blood - so we immediately began dipping the Breda's legs in Grannick's Bitter Apple a couple times a day to keep both birds from pecking the toes. I was prepared for these issues in getting a Breda but just didn't think all of it would happen the moment she arrived. We experienced having a Silkie with delicate health so maintenance on gentle breeds is routine for us.

Health issues aside we are thrilled with the Breda personality - calm, curious, unafraid of coming up to receive a treat from the hand, easily picked up, one of the easiest breeds I've ever had that tamed so quickly. Hope she continues this attribute at full maturity. JC Poultry said Breda tend to be easily bullied and bottom of pecking order so we have nothing but gentle breeds in the flock - APA Ameraucanas, Silkies, and her. I'm not fond of the health issues like susceptibility to CRD, Bumblefoot, broken toe feathers - but we are aware watching for these things thanks to previous input from other owners/ breeders. I have a Silkie w/ similar issues and we know when a hen is "off" to schedule a vet visit. Taking a chicken is no more tedious than taking a cat or dog to the vet except that the chickens get a lot more attention in the vet office! A tall rare Breda w/ no comb and cavernous nostrils is worth a capture on the vet's camera phone!

There are hardier, more prolific, meatier breeds in the chicken world but I have yet to come across other breeds so uniquely rare and regal in appearance as the Breda along w/ a gentle nature. The non-combative Breda personality is so perfect for our gentles flock who are non-combative breeds. Breda is so worth keeping around just for her personality alone - the beauty and eggs yet to come will just be an added bonus!

There's a reason these little guys are so popular. They are pretty, sweet, comical, hardy in just about any climate, they love to jump in the mud and dig for worms in the rain like large fowl, when mature they are just as wary to sound the barnyard alert as any other breed, and if provided a lot of shelters like evergreen, rose, or berry bushes, benches, doghouses, low planks on cinderblocks or popup canopies in a free-range they are very predator savvy to hide from aerial predators. Some say their crests impair their vision but ours are fully crested and see just fine - in an open range they somehow manage to wear down their beard and crests so they have a good vision. When not broody or moulting the hens lay from 5-6 eggs/week and our 3-1/2 year-old hen lays 4-5 eggs/week. The eggs are a good size and not peewee like most other bantams. Both our hens lay an average 1.25 to 1.5 oz eggs. Occasionally their butts need their tush baby shampoo'd and blow dried but our Silkies like the hair dryer blowing in their feathers. One Silkie will tap on the floor fan for us to turn it on so she can sit in front of it. The 5th toe tends to curl when growing so will need clipping occasionally. For lice/mite prevention we use organic Poultry Protector sprayed on their skin per label directions and they have been lice/mite free. The roos are sweeter than the hens but we aren't allowed roos and had to re-home our sweet boy. The girls have been a joy and we let them have their broody time on an empty nest and don't try to break them. They are so prolific while laying eggs that I allow them the full 3-week broody time on an empty nest to give their body a rest from laying so many big eggs but I make sure they get out of the nest to eat/drink/dust-bathe every day. My downy-feathered Ameraucana tush feathers are more chore to maintain than my 2 fluffy Silkies. My Amer gets dirtier butts from laying eggs than either of my 2 Silkies. Because we free-range our Silkies I have a Partridge and a Black so the yard dirt doesn't show stains on their darker fluff. We had a white hen but the feathers get dingy, stained, and yellowy so we stick with darker Silkies. As long as there isn't freezing temperatures Silkies do fine mucking through rain water with fluffy feet. Freezing temperatures I wouldn't allow any breed to muck through water. Silkies like most crested/bearded/muffed/tufted/feather-footed breeds are gentle temperament and non-combative so wouldn't mix them with assertive or dual-purpose LF over 5-lbs. Crested/bearded/feather-footed gentle breeds are best to mix with Silkies - Polish, Ameraucana, Araucana, Easter Egger, Breda, Sultan, Houdan, Faverolles, Cochin, Brahma, Crevies, and most other bantam breeds. Layer breeds (like Mediterranean class) or large-sized dual-purpose breeds are too assertive as adults and tend to pick on gentler crested/bearded breeds. A 2-lb Silkie doesn't have an equal pecking order chance against a heavy 7-lb dual purpose like a Marans or RIR, NHR, BR, Wyan, Orp, Lorp, etc.

I don't want to bash our Cuckoo Marans but she was a pill to say it kindly. She did not play nice with her flockmates and did a full-on clawing vicious attack on a Silkie pullet and she challenged the alpha hen - but was promptly put in her place. She was sneaky nipping and pulling at other hens' crests or combs as they walked by. Her eggs were about 2-3/week and never dark. However they made an interesting egg carton since no two of her eggs looked alike - sometimes light brown, sometimes half light/half brown, sometimes large speckles, sometimes tiny speckles, sometimes half speckled and half plain - but never got anything dark or "chocolate" like advertised. And her eggs were not the usual egg-shape. The eggs looked like smooth golf balls. We might have kept her if she wasn't so nasty. She was 7-lb of aggression and not fair to the 2-lb Silkies. The assertive Leghorn was the only one to keep her in her place when she got aggressive. We finally re-homed her into a friend's egg-layer flock where she is very sneaky still nipping at gentler younger breeds in the flock. She is kept for her egg-laying and then probably will be stew later. She layed a half-dozen fertilized eggs which she didn't brood so we gave them to a friend to incubate. Her eggs produced 3 nice Cuckoo cockerels with feathered legs and 2 plain legged pullets but none will be used for breeding since her strain seems to be nasty-tempered. Since Marans are considered dual purpose she didn't lay that many eggs and her large size gave her an enormous appetite which we couldn't afford for how few eggs she gave in return. She tolerated humans but was not particularly friendly - more calm and aloof. Even our Leghorn was more personable and friendly than she was. I suppose that's why there are dedicated breeders for perfecting Marans because of the bad rap they have for producing sub-par eggs with some being very aloof if not downright aggressive.

I had posted this under a Dom comment but had to add this as a review:

I contacted the American Dominique Club fellow listed on its website about the nature of Dominiques. There are many beautiful breeds to choose from and the Dom wasn't my first choice because of the mundane feathering. However I was interested in the Dom because it is a lighter weight LF about 4.5+ lbs average w/ gentle temperament and decent productivity (about 4 eggs/wk) which is what I was looking for to mix w/ a gentle flock of under 5-lb birds. Plus it has a nice camouflage for free-ranging. Huge eggs, color of eggs, or table meat was not as important as temperament w/ somewhat decent productivity. The Dom is a lightweight LF so realistically I would not want her to lay XL eggs to exhaust herself like the lightweight utility Leghorns. I was also told the Doms dress out nicely but at this point I'm only interested in temperament and some eggs. Not sure we could ever eat our birds - we never even ate the mean ones but re-homed them to egg sellers - LOL.

I thought it neat to be able to get a three-hundred-year-old Colonial heritage breed. Dom was the foundation bird used to create the later utility Barred Rocks infused w/ Malay and/or other breeds to make the BRs bigger. I've had BRs before but they were too large for my under 5-lb bird flock and the larger BRs are not always nice to smaller flockmates from our experience. I also wanted a breed with a smaller comb. I didn't like dealing with single or floppy combs in winter. We've recommended the Doms and Buckeyes to snow country folks who wanted smart free-ranging small-combed birds and one family has been very happy w/ their Dom pullets and roo, and their two Buckeye pullets - especially during this year's harsh winter storms. They've adapted to cold quite readily.

The American Dominique Club breeder said that Dom chicks are an outgoing, curious, friendly, soft-chirping talkative baby and those traits continue into adulthood. They will fit the need as a pet as well as utility bird. Plus the broodiness has not been bred out of them if we wanted to raise our own flock. I took his confirmation to heart and purchased a Dom chick who was not just friendly and outgoing but downright curious about everything on our clothes, our glasses, our hair, our fingers, our computer, the mouse, etc. She was incredibly softer than other chicks to touch. She was a constant forager and made our big hens look lazy. She even made other chicks look lazy! Most chicks will come running to look for treats but bore easily and run off but not the Dom pullet chick. After checking everything out, she'd nestle in our clothes, or hand, or arm, or lap or wherever close to us. She imprinted w/ us always chirping to us to make sure we were closeby as she went exploring. Unfortunately she suffered a traumatic seizure at 19 days old right before our eyes and was gone instantly. It happens w/ chicks in all breeds as well as juveniles - we had lost an Ameraucana pullet just 2 weeks before yet her sister was fine. You never know what happened w/ one chick when all the others are fine. But we definitely will get more than one Dom again next Spring thanks to the few weeks we had w/ her! I miss how v-e-r-y soft and how personable she was compared to the other chick breeds we had.