Bissonnette Acres

Bissonnette Acres Small homestead dedicated to improving our birds each generation & sharing our passion with others!
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Let’s talk about the history of the Indio Gigante - and the role this remarkable breed has played in food production an...
09/03/2026

Let’s talk about the history of the Indio Gigante - and the role this remarkable breed has played in food production and security in Brazil.

There is a common misunderstanding that the Brazilian government created the Indio Gigante specifically as a way to provide protein for the Brazilian people.

After going back through older sources and looking at some of the Brazilian information that is now more readily available, I can see where that conclusion (and confusion) came from.

For years, much of the information available to breeders outside Brazil came through secondary sources, translations, breeder websites, and Brazilian agricultural publications.

When those sources describe government agricultural programs working with the Indio Gigante to improve meat and egg production, family farming, and food security - it is easy to see how those pieces of information could have formed into the statement that the government developed the breed as a protein source for the people.

Some of the earliest credible information available to us came directly from Brazilian agricultural institutions, including EMBRAPA, EMPAER, and EMATER. Their work placed the Indio Gigante as a focal point within the broader effort to improve rural poultry production and support family farmers.

The breed offered family farmers a way to produce larger birds in a much shorter period of time, while also improving the meat and egg potential of traditional caipira flocks.
Brazilian agricultural publications specifically describe the Indio Gigante as contributing to subsistence farming and local economies, with its use in meat and egg production being directly connected to food security.

So while the Indio Gigante was not a government created protein project, the breed was absolutely utilized within agricultural programs that contributed to food production, family farming, and food stability in Brazil.

At the same time, there is evidence that private Brazilian breeders were already actively developing and selecting these exceptionally large chickens for improved meat and egg production before the documented government agricultural programs became involved.

The Brazilian government may not have been the sole creator or founder of the breed, but there is clear historical and documented evidence that Brazilian agricultural institutions became heavily involved in researching, improving, multiplying, and promoting the Indio Gigante - and thar work was directly connected to family farming, poultry production, and food stability within Brazil.

I don’t believe the information that has circulated over the years, including information shared by myself, was randomly fabricated.

I think it was an interpretation of several legitimate pieces of information, combined with the difficulty of accessing, translating, and piecing together Brazilian sources from outside the country that contributed to this misunderstanding.

And unfortunately, somewhere along the way, a half truth or incomplete understanding developed into a much simpler version of the full story.

The good news is, as more Brazilian sources become accessible to breeders outside of Brazil, we have an opportunity to refine our understanding of where this breed came from and how it developed.

And that is exactly why I believe it is so important to keep researching our breeds - especially new, foreign, and exotic breeds whose histories may not yet be widely documented or well understood.

We should always press ourselves to learn as much as we can, and never stop asking questions or revisiting old conversations that still have room for growth.

Visual creation credit to Lune Noire Creative

09/02/2026

There’s nothing better than a fresh hatch!
Madeline pretty much sums it up with her sweet little giggles 🥰

Shout out to Silkie Acres DNA Lab for this beautiful hatch of buffs and whites!

Grrrrr… BIG stretch for Monday! 🤣When you’re not quite ready to face the week, just remember - sometimes all you need is...
08/31/2026

Grrrrr… BIG stretch for Monday! 🤣

When you’re not quite ready to face the week, just remember - sometimes all you need is a good stretch, a little pep-talk, and a tiny sidekick to make it through!

Apollo and Cheezit are wishing everyone a happy Monday - may your coffee be strong, your week be productive, and your stretches be extra dramatic.
😂💅❤️

Ok.. now show me your Shamo!!
08/31/2026

Ok.. now show me your Shamo!!

There’s an old saying that many serious and dedicated breeders live by:“Build the barn before you paint it.”The meaning ...
08/31/2026

There’s an old saying that many serious and dedicated breeders live by:

“Build the barn before you paint it.”

The meaning is simple - establish and perfect the structure and conformation before becoming overly focused on color.

I’ve always found value in this philosophy, particularly when working with breeds that are still relatively “new” or undergoing significant refinement. But I also think there is a fine line in taking the phrase too literally.

Breeding is rarely that black and white.

A breeding program isn’t a construction project where we spend five generations building the barn and then suddenly pick up a paintbrush. Every generation is an exercise in balancing multiple traits at once. Every bird we select brings strengths and weaknesses to the table, and every breeding decision involves some degree of tradeoff.

Sometimes improving one area means accepting a setback in another.

That doesn’t mean the saying has lost its value. To me, it means we need to understand what the barn represents.

The barn is more than structure alone. It is the foundation of the bird - type, balance, proportion, soundness, health, and vigor. These are the qualities that allow a breed to remain functional, sustainable, and capable of carrying its foundation and future forward.

The paint is the finishing touches, which can refer to color and other desired expressions or traits.

And just as a beautifully painted barn isn’t much good if the foundation is failing, a bird with an exceptional color trait isn’t necessarily a bird we should build a breeding program around if we have to overlook serious weaknesses and structural faults to keep it.

This is something I believe is particularly relevant when looking at breeds such as the Índio Gigante and Ayam Cemani here in the United States.

The Índio Gigante is still a relatively young breed in the grand scheme of breed development. While the 1980s may feel like a lifetime ago, compare that to foundational breeds such as the Malay and Shamo (which have been bred, selected, and refined for centuries) who have had generations upon generations to establish consistency, improve structure, and breed away from undesirable traits while locking in the positive.

It should therefore come as no surprise that we still see a wide variety of expressions, proportions, type, and structural interpretations within the Índio Gigante. There is still a great deal of work to be done in establishing structural consistency.

The Ayam Cemani presents a different version of the same challenge.

With the Cemani, the pursuit of exceptional fibro expression (particularly the coveted black tongue) can sometimes become so strong that breeders overlook type, structural faults, disqualifying traits, or even shortcomings in health and vigor.

And this is where I believe the “barn” matters most.

Health and vigor are not optional finishing touches. They are part of the crucial foundation. A breed cannot prosper if we continually make exceptions to foundational health and stability in exchange for an exceptional expression of one desired trait.

A black tongue is valuable - but a black tongue cannot compensate for a weak foundation.

At the same time, I don’t believe the answer is to simply ignore color or fibro while we work on structure.

Every generation matters.

If we completely disregard color for several generations, we may create our own problems when we eventually try to bring those traits back into alignment. Likewise, if we chase color at the expense of structure, conformation, health, and vigor, we may find ourselves with beautiful paint on a barn that was never built to last.

That is the grey area - finding the balance between the two.

There is more than one way to cook a goose, and breeding is as much an art as it is a science. There isn’t one perfect path, and there will inevitably be setbacks. Sometimes we may accept a little less perfection in one area because a particular bird brings something valuable to another. The important part is understanding the tradeoff we’re making and having a clear direction of where we want to go.

For me, the principle behind “build the barn before you paint it” isn’t that we should stop selecting for color - it is that we should never allow the pursuit of color to make us forget what holds the entire bird together.

Mama is finally taking her babies out and about!I could sit and watch her with those chicks all day long. There is nothi...
08/30/2026

Mama is finally taking her babies out and about!

I could sit and watch her with those chicks all day long. There is nothing more peaceful and heartwarming than watching a mother hen raise her chicks 🥰

Shout out to the farm cats.. without you, we’d all be mouse breeders 🙈🤪🤣🐈🐁
08/30/2026

Shout out to the farm cats.. without you, we’d all be mouse breeders 🙈🤪🤣🐈🐁

The Importance of Looking Outside Your BreedSo often we find ourselves stuck in tunnel vision - focused solely on the br...
08/29/2026

The Importance of Looking Outside Your Breed

So often we find ourselves stuck in tunnel vision - focused solely on the breeds in our pens, fixating over the Standard of Perfection, scouring social media breed pages and groups, and immersing ourselves in only our current breeds.

And while it is good to be hyper focused on your specialized breed, it is still extremely valuable to research and gain a basic understanding and knowledge of the breeds that are adjacent to yours.

Whether they are foundational breeds, related breeds, or breeds within the same class, there are things to be learned.

Take the Barred Plymouth Rock, for example.

The Barred Rock we know today was not developed in isolation. Its history involves several breeds and populations, including Dominique, Black Java, Cochin and Brahma influence. Looking at those breeds gives us a different perspective on the characteristics that ultimately became apart of the Plymouth Rock.

When we study the breeds that contributed to our own, we begin to understand why certain traits exist and how generations of selection shaped them into the breed we recognize and work with today.

We begin to develop an eye for balance, proportion, structure and correct traits - not because we have memorized a Standard, but because we better understand what we are actually looking at.

That knowledge can also help us recognize what doesn’t belong.

Sometimes a trait in our breeding program may be leaning more heavily toward a foundational breed than toward the breed we are currently trying to consistently produce. Understanding those neighboring breeds can help us recognize those influences and make more intentional selections away from them.

This becomes especially valuable when working with newer or recently established breeds.

A breed does not automatically become genetically consistent because a Standard has been created. Foundational genetics can continue to reveal themselves through generations, and selecting against genetic throwbacks and variations are apart of the process in establishing consistency. We cannot select against an improper trait, if we don’t fully understand what they are or where they are coming from.

The more we understand the breeds behind our birds, the better equipped we are to recognize those influences and make thoughtful and informed breeding decisions.

We don’t study other breeds to turn our birds into them - we study other breeds, so that we can better understand our own.

So often, when scrolling through Facebook groups and breed discussions, I see negative comments regarding the state of a...
08/27/2026

So often, when scrolling through Facebook groups and breed discussions, I see negative comments regarding the state of a breed:

“The breed is all watered down.”
“The breed is ruined.”
“Everyone is breeding for whatever they want.”
“This breed doesn’t even look like it’s supposed to.”

Maybe some of those statements are true.

But what are we actually doing about it?

Because at some point, the negativity starts to overshadow the people who genuinely want to learn, improve, and preserve these breeds.

Recently, I shared an article exploring the Malay’s historical and genetic influence in the foundation of the Índio Gigante, and how researching the breeds around us can help us better understand our own - whether it’s studying cohesive structure or simply developing an eye for balance, proportion, and type, there is value in learning the history and ancestry of our specialized breeds.

One of the responses I received was essentially:

“Why even bother? Most of these birds aren’t even pure Índio Gigante. They won’t benefit from this.”

Yes. They absolutely will.

In fact, those are the very people who may benefit from education the most.

Sometimes, all it takes is one article, one conversation, one photograph, one experienced breeder willing to patiently explain what they’re seeing and why it matters.

That one piece of information might be the first step toward someone changing how they breed.
And that is how breeds improve.

There will always be birds that fall short of the standard.

There will always be beginners who don’t fully understand what they have.

There will always be breeders who are still learning.

Those things won’t change - but our mindset can.

Instead of looking at every subpar bird as another reason to complain, what if we started looking at those birds as opportunities to teach?

Don’t just complain about the problem -

BE APART OF THE SOLUTION.

Don’t just tell people to “breed better” -

TEACH THEM HOW TO BREED BETTER.

Invite breeders and enthusiasts of every experience level to have a seat at the table and collaborate. Show the community what you’re working toward. Explain WHY you make the breeding decisions and selections you do.

Inspire others to join you instead of making them afraid to participate.

Breeds aren’t strengthened by knowledge being guarded or by a few voices speaking above the rest. They’re strengthened when knowledgeable breeders are willing to teach.

When beginners are willing to learn.

When experienced breeders are willing to mentor.

And when an entire community starts working TOGETHER toward a common goal - that’s when real change happens.

So I invite all of you to consider sharing YOUR story, in YOUR breed community.

Let’s move our collective mindset in a more positive and fruitful direction by offering a little grace, a little encouragement, and a little guidance to those who may need it.

We can choose to be apart of the solution.

Visual credit to Lune Noire Creative

Who’s getting eggs in this ridiculous weather?? At this rate, I’m fixing to go into the fertilizer business🙈🤣😭🐓💩
08/27/2026

Who’s getting eggs in this ridiculous weather??
At this rate, I’m fixing to go into the fertilizer business
🙈🤣😭🐓💩

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