Old and Rare Breeds

[troyer]

I guess people just stopped talking, lost interest. Sometimes it is hard to find rare breeds and it can be frustrating. I don't know. I am interested in rare breeds and their history but personally wasn't very successful with the rare breed of my choice. I didn't have the resources to large scale breed, struggled to find good birds, and thus now have more common breeds. What breeds are you interested in?

It's not that I'm so much looking for a specific breed, I just enjoyed the discussions on the breeds.
I breed and raise Cubalaya in large fowl and bantam.

 

[Talithahorse]

I have an insane amount of predators up here. .. so all of my runs have covers.

I don't envy you with all those predators. Your coop must be built like Fort Knox. Out of curiosity what breeds do you favor in the North"

 

[Talithahorse]

I have a nankin and had Dorkings for awhile. I have dabbled in some Black Copper Marans but overall the Rocks seem to meet my needs best. I would love to find an ancient breed which is a decent dual purpose breed. I don't need to be rolling in eggs but enough that they can self perpetuate in a small flock of around 20 chickens.

 

[Talithahorse]

It's not that I'm so much looking for a specific breed, I just enjoyed the discussions on the breeds.
I breed and raise Cubalaya in large fowl and bantam.

I just looked those up, they are beautiful.

 

[Alaskan]

I don't envy you with all those predators. Your coop must be built like Fort Knox. Out of curiosity what breeds do you favor in the North"

I have to have breeds with clean feet, tiny combs, and small to no wattles.

After trying a number of breeds I currently have:
Dominiques. Pretty excellent, and from a historical standpoint the best historical USA breed.

Leghorns. Can't beat their egg laying. I have them in Rose Comb, but the males still have huge wattles, girls are OK

Appenzeller Spitzhauben. No idea on how historical they are. But they are my favorite in the standards. They also lay well, and have small wattles.

Ameraucana. Still have some... they are good in the weather, but they just don't thrill me in the personality or egg laying.

In bantam I have a single Wyandotte that I like, and a breeding set of Wheaten Ameraucana. I like the bantam Ams. a great deal. the bantam d'anvers are good, and I like my single bantam leghorn.... but I am trying to REDUCE breeds.

 

[Talithahorse]

See I live in the deep south so I have the opposite. My large combed with looser feather (like the orphingtons, rocks, etc) well. I am more worried in the summer than in the winter.

 

[Alaskan]

yep, climate is a huge factor in picking breeds.

 

[Talithahorse]

I wonder how much weather had an effect on the breeds or whether there was "too much" human manipulation. I know with horses, weather and environment can have a huge effect on the breeds.

 

[Alaskan]

I wonder how much weather had an effect on the breeds or whether there was "too much" human manipulation. I know with horses, weather and environment can have a huge effect on the breeds.

I think people bred what they liked... and of course what grew well where they were located..... taking into account their management choices.

Like I think in lots of the Nordic areas the birds were kept inside, in a barn, or even in the kitchen all winter long.

Just sayin' that is the only explanation for why so many of those breeds have such big combs.

 

[Talithahorse]

I agree. I suspect bantams were fairly common up north since they would be more easily kept inside. However, I did see somewhere up in the far north where they were raising chicks using big cement blocks and a heat lamp. I suspect something like that might be used, especially since it was sunk into the ground to hold in the heat.