Salmon Faverolles

With our eye always toward sustainability, we have tried a large variety of heritage and dual purpose chicken breeds in a search for a hen that could reliably put eggs on the table and hatch out and brood their own chicks to raise the next generation of layers and put meat on the table for us, but found that either the broodiness was so bred out that they didn't make good broody's or they didn't lay well. We've also tried subflocks of one breed to hatch out another and Muscovy ducks to hatch out chicks and in the end, we decided that given the inconveniences of those other 'almost' arrangements, to go ahead and give Salmon Faverolles a try before settling for a second best alternative to the perfect bird.We have been thrilled to find that these Salmon Faverolles lay an average of 5 eggs a week and our particular lines happily go broody at least once a year and make excellent mothers once they've hatched out the eggs they so diligently brood. The unexpected bonus is early gender determination because the males and females feather out in different colors and being a rare breed of poultry, any excess offspring sell easily. Their gentle temperaments go well with our children, who act as "egg collectors", and they clearly thrive free ranging our property with the other poultry we keep around for fun and pest management.