What is the best dual purpose free range chicken breed?

[ChurchGirl]

Dual-purpose and free-ranging are both very wide spectrums

My Rhode Island Reds are fat, lazy, and spend most of the day sitting around my house. They produce a ton of eggs and meat, mostly by magically changing Tractor Supply feed and scraps into human food

On the other hand I have Cubalaya, Egyptian Fayoumi and American Gamefowl that spend most of the day foraging in the wilderness and still produce a decent amount of food for my family. I know if the supply chain collapsed tomorrow that they would be fine, whereas the Reds would need to be eaten before they starved to death

The question is what degree of self-sufficiency do you desire from your chickens? Heavy output requires heavy supplementing

We would like the chicken to be pretty self sufficient. We don't want to have to feed our chickens very much because of the cost of chicken feed nowadays (it is insane how much they are charging for a bag of decent chicken feed) So, we need to chicken breed to be pretty self sufficient. We would also like them to be hardy, smart, and friendly (I have a 6 year old brother and would not like him to get hurt.) We also have 3 dogs that sometimes like to play with the chickens and sometimes they hurt or kill the chickens, but we have noticed that americanas can handle being hurt by our dogs better. So, a chicken breed more like that would be better. We also have Delawares, Dorkings, Red Stars, Americanas, an Easter Egger rooster and some Easter Egger hens, a Bardrock rooster, and some mixed breeds. We don't know if any of those breeds are already good or if we should invest in some other chickens.

 

[Amer]

We would like the chicken to be pretty self sufficient. We don't want to have to feed our chickens very much because of the cost of chicken feed nowadays (it is insane how much they are charging for a bag of decent chicken feed) So, we need to chicken breed to be pretty self sufficient. We would also like them to be hardy, smart, and friendly (I have a 6 year old brother and would not like him to get hurt.) We also have 3 dogs that sometimes like to play with the chickens and sometimes they hurt or kill the chickens, but we have noticed that americanas can handle being hurt by our dogs better. So, a chicken breed more like that would be better. We also have Delawares, Dorkings, Red Stars, Americanas, an Easter Egger rooster and some Easter Egger hens, a Bardrock rooster, and some mixed breeds. We don't know if any of those breeds are already good or if we should invest in some other chickens.

Ok, well, dual purpose breeds, meat breeds, and egg breeds are all out unless you want to dish out the dollars for high protein feed.
There are many dual purpose breeds and egg layers that are very good rangers but all of them need a lot of protein to grow. Once they are fully grown it can be reduced to a layer supplemented by free ranging but they will never be productive unless they are raised with a lot of feed. Otherwise they will never grow to their full potential. I have had birds that were raised like that and it was sad. (Delawares I raised on unlimited All Flock instead of unlimited meat bird feed half the size of some other Delawares at the fair, a group of d’Anvers where the owners fed kitchen scraps who didn’t lay. One of them is still existent and still very thin and much tinier than the average d’Anvers.)

Both Phoenix and Gamefowl are self sufficient and ornamental. They lay eggs and produce meat, just not much. That’s why they can survive that way. However, I don’t know if there are cold hardy strains.
Fun fact, peasants used self sufficient birds that they just gave some mixed grain. They didn’t produce much, were probably similar to our gamefowl. Probably hardier, but it’s important to note the rural peasants brought them in their warm houses at winter. The city birds stayed outside in coops, where they didn’t lay many eggs because of the cold and lack of light.

 

[Amer]

Dual purpose bantams probably will give you the best bang for your buck. Most bantams can be raised on regular chick feed without suffering for it and produce meat and eggs for less feed. Buckeye bantams are a very hardy and active breed that produce a meaty carcass. Their combs don’t freeze off either. However, they are more of a target for predators.
Buckeye large fowl do the same thing but better except they require high protein feed to raise.
I know someone who uses his New Hampshire bantams for eggs, can’t confirm hardiness, though.

 

[GirlsHuntToo]

Buff orpingtons

 

[Red Mangrove]

We would like the chicken to be pretty self sufficient. We don't want to have to feed our chickens very much because of the cost of chicken feed nowadays (it is insane how much they are charging for a bag of decent chicken feed) So, we need to chicken breed to be pretty self sufficient. We would also like them to be hardy, smart, and friendly (I have a 6 year old brother and would not like him to get hurt.) We also have 3 dogs that sometimes like to play with the chickens and sometimes they hurt or kill the chickens, but we have noticed that americanas can handle being hurt by our dogs better. So, a chicken breed more like that would be better. We also have Delawares, Dorkings, Red Stars, Americanas, an Easter Egger rooster and some Easter Egger hens, a Bardrock rooster, and some mixed breeds. We don't know if any of those breeds are already good or if we should invest in some other chickens.

American Gamefowl or Cubalaya would be your best bet I think. They're both human considerate and should be able to avoid the dogs and/or teach them respect

The Cubans are more friendly and the Americans are tougher

You could probably just have a rooster of either of these breeds produce mutts for several generations with your current chickens that get progressively more wild. My own Easter Eggers do decent at free-ranging

 

[ChurchGirl]

Thank you guys so much!

 

[cubalaya]

cubalayas

 

[The Yakima Kid]

cubalayas

and Dominiques.

 

[NatJ]

We would like the chicken to be pretty self sufficient. We don't want to have to feed our chickens very much because of the cost of chicken feed nowadays (it is insane how much they are charging for a bag of decent chicken feed) So, we need to chicken breed to be pretty self sufficient. We would also like them to be hardy, smart, and friendly (I have a 6 year old brother and would not like him to get hurt.) We also have 3 dogs that sometimes like to play with the chickens and sometimes they hurt or kill the chickens, but we have noticed that americanas can handle being hurt by our dogs better. So, a chicken breed more like that would be better. We also have Delawares, Dorkings, Red Stars, Americanas, an Easter Egger rooster and some Easter Egger hens, a Bardrock rooster, and some mixed breeds. We don't know if any of those breeds are already good or if we should invest in some other chickens.

It sounds like you already have a reasonable selection of dual-purpose chickens, so I would suggest you start with them. Pay attention to which ones do best in your conditions, then hatch eggs from them. Each time you hatch chicks, pay attention to which ones do best in your conditions, and butcher the ones that do less well.

I don't think you are going to find any other breed that is very much better than some of the ones you already have.