Every homestead needs chickens!
Over the years, we have kept laying hens for eggs and have raised “meat chickens” for meat. A variety of layer breeds have come and gone with many of them becoming favorites. For meat, we've primarily raised the large, fast-growing Cornish Cross meat chickens. We've always kept separate flocks for meat and for eggs. Recently, we've made a big change in this area of our homestead.
After the shortage of chicks from hatcheries a couple years ago, we decided we didn't want to rely on the hatcheries for our meat chickens. We wanted to find a breed of chickens that would be Dual Purpose for our family. We would keep them for eggs, but also incubate and hatch some of the eggs to raise up as our meat chickens. After much research, we decided on the American Bresse chickens.
The American Bresse chicken has not been a popular or familiar breed of chicken in the United States until just a short time ago. This breed is actually a French breed that has been imported into the U.S. from the original French Bresse genetic lines. At one time in history, the French Bresse chickens were considered the best tasting chicken in the world.
We decided on the American Bresse chickens for several reasons. They are a nice-sized, large chicken that grow quickly to processing size in about 16 weeks versus 24+ weeks for most other large dual purpose chickens. They also begin laying eggs at around 16 weeks which is about 2 months sooner that other chicken breeds.
On occasion, we will be offering day-old American Bresse chicks and hatching eggs for sale. Keep a look out on our SHOP page and our Facebook page for when they will be available.
I have been watching you all for years! I’m down here in northern Arkansas an hour and 30 minutes away. I’m on the list for Bresse chickens. I have some now and they are not superior quality. I want to improve my flock or start over. We are the same as you, not wanting to rely on hatcheries. A note for others interested Bresse chickens live to forage so if able to your food costs drop. That is yet one more bonus of this breed.
Will you be able to ship the chickens? You're appreciated!
Bless you for sharing your journey with us! It's a treat for me to watch your updates! I wish we had more America Bresse breeders on the west coast. I have been looking to add the Bresse to my flock, but have a hard time locating anyone near me that have them. I am hoping someday, that other Bresse enthusiast will be able to come to me and enjoy the satisfaction of having an amazing dual-purpose bird! Love your enthusiasm and your homestead is inspiring.
I am also looking to purchase American Bresee chicks or eggs to add to my flock or hatching eggs would also work great. I’m not too far from you Guys about an hour and a half.
We here at the Lazy J are also Interested in some chicks to add more genetic variation to my flock.... David Jackson