Winlock American Bresse

>>> The Queen of Chickens and the Chicken of Kings! <<<

They are also patriotic birds. Red, white, & blue!

We now offer Bresse Chicks for sale in Washington State! Click here.

Facts:

Not yet recognized by APA

Country of origin: France

Colors: White, blue, black, grey (silver penciled), and splash

Class: Rare Breed
Type: Large Fowl
Size: Large (females, 5.5 -6.5lbs-Males, 7.5 -8.5lbs lbs)

Rarity: Rare but gaining in popularity. Can be hard to find.

Purpose: Dual (meat & eggs)

Fast Maturing: Can begin laying at 16 weeks.

Cold Hardiness: Yes
Heat Tolerance: My tolerate summer temps just fine.
Bears Confinement: No. Mine prefer to free range.

Free range: Preferred. Active forager.
Temperament: Good. Not shy. Roosters not aggressive.
Setter/Broody: Mine tend to go broody.

Eggs:

Egg Laying: Over 260 per year
Egg Color: Cream
Egg Size: Medium to Large

Seasonal layers: Feb. to Nov.

Features:

Comb Type: Single Comb
Crested: No

Skin color: White

Leg color: Steel blue
Feathered Legs: No
Number of Toes: 4

Feathers: Bright white

Health: No specific health issues.

Meat: The best tasting chicken meat available with larger breasts. Succulent meat with intense flavor.

Eggs: This breed is known to lay eggs earlier than other breeds. They are fast maturing.

The Bresse breed is 400 years old and originated in the Bourg-en-Bresse area of Eastern France. It is first mentioned in 1591. It almost became extinct in the early 1900's but was brought back and has been protected under French law since December 22, 1936. Bresse have the best tasting meat of all the chicken breeds. They have more tasty fat so are never dry but always succulent. Their bones take up very little of their carcass and their skin is thin and white. Their muscle fibers are shorter which makes for very firm but tender meat. They are slaughtered later than most "meat birds" which makes their meat more flavorful. Adding to this flavor is the way they are traditionally finished, with corn and milk.

About Our Bresse Flock

We have been raising American Bresse Chickens on and off, since 2018. We made a brief foray into raising Naked Necks, because with 50% less feathers they are MUCH easier to pluck but we quickly realized we preferred the flavor and texture of the meat from our Bresse. We toyed with the idea of trying to create a Bresse/Naked neck hybrid, but it's been reported that when you cross a Bresse with any breed other than Bresse you lose all of those wonderful qualities of the Bresse meat. So, we made the decision in Feb. 2023 to focus strictly on breeding American Bresse. Our current parent stock comes from Spring Creek Heritage Farms, in Bellingham, WA, and also from Fat Chicken Farm, in Rocky Point, NC. We can highly recommend both of those breeders. We also have 2 hens from North Star Farms.

There is now an American Bresse Breed Club and they are working on a standard of perfection for the Bresse breed. We will be focusing on breeding to that SOP. We look forward to helping improve this breed. We think it truly is THE BEST dual-purpose breed available.