Several years ago we moved away from the urban grind sort of lifestyle and took up "Homesteading" on a little spot of ground that we call "Arcadian Orchard"... building our own little version of Eden where we garden, raise poultry and pigs and cook up big piles of food. The more food we can grow for ourselves, the better.
We prefer to use the older methods and to be as organic as we can be. Our property had been abandoned for some time before we came by it, allowing for a resurgence of native plants and wildlife, especially bugs and amphibians, that we hope to preserve and help. The moment we begin to use herbicides or pesticides as a matter of routine, is when we start to lose diversity and gain deterioration of the habitat. We had to remove a lot of invasive plants, from Honeysuckle to Winter Creeper to Virginia creeper... they were choking out the natives.
As for the birds, we went completely dual purpose. I breed, hatch, grow, sort/select, cull and repeat in an effort to keep the flock progressing forward in their quality and reliability. There is more to it than I ever gave credit for before... with a lot of variables to consider and a greater complexity behind breeding than just hatching eggs. As it turns out... there's way more to it than just hatching fertile eggs. Hatching is the easiest part!
There was a lot to learn about expressed and recessive traits, how traits breed forward, compensation mating, the merits of pair breeding, learning when/why to line breed or line cross... lot's of variables within all of the methods, as it turns out. To some extent, you have to let the birds tell you what they need, in order to be better than the generations before them.
The most valuable commodity in poultry is space. Space for them to stretch their wings and grow to their full potential. Space for you to work with them. Space to store their things/feed in and space to grow their offspring.
It took a long time for me to have the space, prior I kept small flocks of layers and hatched eggs that had been shipped to me. Nothing major, fun hobby stuff and trying out ALL the breeds and varieties. From Spitzhaben to Hamburgs, Polish to Red Sexlinks... you already know how many chicken options there are and all of the colors within those options. I was into Bantams there for a spell too.
What stopped me in my tracks was the American Bresse. I hadn't met a chicken like them before. Meat by 16-18 weeks, eggs by 20 weeks on average, quirky personalities, savvy for foraging... they do everything a chicken can do in one breed, that breeds true without hybridizing. Which means we can raise them in house and aim at having a genetically sustainable flock... without ever having to buy more. Unless there's a flock loss event... which knock on wood... won't happen.
It did take some breeding work over the years to shape the flock towards their breed standard and towards our goals. That's to be expected when ever you get started into a new variety.
Our main poultry building, a work in progress from 1908, taking it from neglected to operational has been a process...
Brooder Shed, with 6 wall mounted brooders for littles and the floor for juveniles or teenagers...
Hatch room inside the barn, which doubles as winter plant storage for sensitive plants like the Lemon tree. There are 2 brooders for fresh chicks that are less than 2 weeks old. The chicks move to brooder shed before they get too dusty after the 2 week mark...
The pens inside the barn, 3 are for growing without outdoor runs, the other 7 pens each have outdoor runs.
But this is why we do this all with the amount of effort and time we put into it...
I've learned a lot about body structure and what to select for, such as body width, fleshing and growth rate. Without neglecting the laying! The balancing act can be tricky and I do like to maintain a flock of 40-50 adults in order to have a lot of "breeding ingredients" to pick from.
These birds are showing off width and substance of body. Tight feathering shows their shape well.
This pullet is showing "refinement" to breed standard, with a correctly dipped comb and strong leg color. She could use whiter earlobes though.
It's not uncommon for my males to have lighter than desired leg color, by grouping them with females who have darker legs keeps the trait from getting lost. I need to watch for oversized combs, double folded combs, tail spread, lack of white on the earlobes and all those little details. Without focusing SO hard on SOP that the function of the variety gets lost.
This function here, those table traits! When the cull birds from a breeding program can fill a shrink bag like this, it's truly a wonderful thing.
While also having nice looking birds to retain for the following season, who will lay 5-6 eggs a week when in active lay...
This male grew quickly and reached 9lbs before 8 months old. His fleshing is spot on, going all the way down his keel bone. He doesn't have the white earlobes, his comb is oversized and his tail is rather unimpressive. But that can all be influenced by the females he gets and we can hope for improved sons the following season, while keeping that growth rate going for the cull birds to benefit from. He grew past standard weight, but he's leading my table pen of birds where SOP isn't the specific focus.
Every season we get a little closer to what I've been aiming for in them, such as this 18 week old pullet. She could be better, as all birds could be, but she's not too terrible at all.
The next step is working a pen or 3 towards tighter SOP results and ultimately getting them shown in APA events, which is their only hope of ever becoming an APA recognized variety. That process is long and tedious, by design, in order to sort out who's serious about them and who isn't. But the worse thing that could happen for the variety is losing those all important traits for their function. We don't eat combs or pretty feathers. We eat meat and eggs!
We prefer to use the older methods and to be as organic as we can be. Our property had been abandoned for some time before we came by it, allowing for a resurgence of native plants and wildlife, especially bugs and amphibians, that we hope to preserve and help. The moment we begin to use herbicides or pesticides as a matter of routine, is when we start to lose diversity and gain deterioration of the habitat. We had to remove a lot of invasive plants, from Honeysuckle to Winter Creeper to Virginia creeper... they were choking out the natives.
As for the birds, we went completely dual purpose. I breed, hatch, grow, sort/select, cull and repeat in an effort to keep the flock progressing forward in their quality and reliability. There is more to it than I ever gave credit for before... with a lot of variables to consider and a greater complexity behind breeding than just hatching eggs. As it turns out... there's way more to it than just hatching fertile eggs. Hatching is the easiest part!
There was a lot to learn about expressed and recessive traits, how traits breed forward, compensation mating, the merits of pair breeding, learning when/why to line breed or line cross... lot's of variables within all of the methods, as it turns out. To some extent, you have to let the birds tell you what they need, in order to be better than the generations before them.
The most valuable commodity in poultry is space. Space for them to stretch their wings and grow to their full potential. Space for you to work with them. Space to store their things/feed in and space to grow their offspring.
It took a long time for me to have the space, prior I kept small flocks of layers and hatched eggs that had been shipped to me. Nothing major, fun hobby stuff and trying out ALL the breeds and varieties. From Spitzhaben to Hamburgs, Polish to Red Sexlinks... you already know how many chicken options there are and all of the colors within those options. I was into Bantams there for a spell too.
What stopped me in my tracks was the American Bresse. I hadn't met a chicken like them before. Meat by 16-18 weeks, eggs by 20 weeks on average, quirky personalities, savvy for foraging... they do everything a chicken can do in one breed, that breeds true without hybridizing. Which means we can raise them in house and aim at having a genetically sustainable flock... without ever having to buy more. Unless there's a flock loss event... which knock on wood... won't happen.
It did take some breeding work over the years to shape the flock towards their breed standard and towards our goals. That's to be expected when ever you get started into a new variety.
Our main poultry building, a work in progress from 1908, taking it from neglected to operational has been a process...
Brooder Shed, with 6 wall mounted brooders for littles and the floor for juveniles or teenagers...
Hatch room inside the barn, which doubles as winter plant storage for sensitive plants like the Lemon tree. There are 2 brooders for fresh chicks that are less than 2 weeks old. The chicks move to brooder shed before they get too dusty after the 2 week mark...
The pens inside the barn, 3 are for growing without outdoor runs, the other 7 pens each have outdoor runs.
But this is why we do this all with the amount of effort and time we put into it...
I've learned a lot about body structure and what to select for, such as body width, fleshing and growth rate. Without neglecting the laying! The balancing act can be tricky and I do like to maintain a flock of 40-50 adults in order to have a lot of "breeding ingredients" to pick from.
These birds are showing off width and substance of body. Tight feathering shows their shape well.
This pullet is showing "refinement" to breed standard, with a correctly dipped comb and strong leg color. She could use whiter earlobes though.
It's not uncommon for my males to have lighter than desired leg color, by grouping them with females who have darker legs keeps the trait from getting lost. I need to watch for oversized combs, double folded combs, tail spread, lack of white on the earlobes and all those little details. Without focusing SO hard on SOP that the function of the variety gets lost.
This function here, those table traits! When the cull birds from a breeding program can fill a shrink bag like this, it's truly a wonderful thing.
While also having nice looking birds to retain for the following season, who will lay 5-6 eggs a week when in active lay...
This male grew quickly and reached 9lbs before 8 months old. His fleshing is spot on, going all the way down his keel bone. He doesn't have the white earlobes, his comb is oversized and his tail is rather unimpressive. But that can all be influenced by the females he gets and we can hope for improved sons the following season, while keeping that growth rate going for the cull birds to benefit from. He grew past standard weight, but he's leading my table pen of birds where SOP isn't the specific focus.
Every season we get a little closer to what I've been aiming for in them, such as this 18 week old pullet. She could be better, as all birds could be, but she's not too terrible at all.
The next step is working a pen or 3 towards tighter SOP results and ultimately getting them shown in APA events, which is their only hope of ever becoming an APA recognized variety. That process is long and tedious, by design, in order to sort out who's serious about them and who isn't. But the worse thing that could happen for the variety is losing those all important traits for their function. We don't eat combs or pretty feathers. We eat meat and eggs!
