A sustainable flock?

[jcmoore4]

Thanks Bee. So you have had good experience with the white rocks, and the black australorps? What about Sussex or Barred rocks?

If I am maintaining a 15 hen flock do you think I will need to bring in another breed for broody, or do I have a good chance with those breeds, with that many hens?

 

[lazy gardener]

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Initially I was thinking to use Silver Laced Wyandotte. As far as the number goes, I am thinking of maintaining a 15 hen flock. Now of course that will fluctuate with hatches and what not.

I currently have a white rock and a black australorpe that are good broody hens, and great mothers. Broody hens are key as far as I am concerned. Chicks can be a major pain to raise, and chicks hatched and raised by hens make much better chickens.

To get some good opinions on breeds I will give some of my criteria

Broody behavior
Good at free ranging
Large size
Good layer
Handle the cold (I live in Western NC)

Its sounding like I should be thinking about another breed just for broody purposes.

Firstly, NC isn't cold for chickens. It's in their sweet spot. I would worry more about heat.
IMO and in order of size that excel at free ranging, can go broody and are good layers.
Javas
Jersey Giants - (largest bird and good layers, not as able to escape predators but a good forager)
Dorkings
Buckeyes
Hollands
Catalanas
Penedesencas - (setters, good laying, excellent forage, daytime predator proof, black variety is an excellent meat bird)
Andalusians
Minorcas - (not a setter and not real meaty but a very large framed bird and excellent layer of huge eggs)

The thing is that great foragers are rarely the biggest meat birds.
Better egg laying usually goes hand in hand with better predator evasion.

 

[donrae]

I agree with Canoe--be more concerned about heat than cold. If you were in Michigan, you'd worry about the cold. Carolinas, not so much.

I haven't had tons of Sussex, but the speckleds I've had have underwhelmed me with their laying. Smallish eggs, and not so many of them.
They're pretty birds, but I won't be getting more of them.

I'd go with barred Rocks, especially if you can get some heritage birds. Should be fairly easy in your area. Check out the threads on the Breeds, Genetic and Showing section, esp the thread titled Good Shepherd Rocks......if nothing else, they're some serious eye candy!

 

[Beekissed]

Thanks Bee. So you have had good experience with the white rocks, and the black australorps? What about Sussex or Barred rocks?

If I am maintaining a 15 hen flock do you think I will need to bring in another breed for broody, or do I have a good chance with those breeds, with that many hens?

Yep and they are my two favorite breeds for a sustainable flock, which is what I've been building for and using for many a long year now. In fact, that's my primary focus in a flock so those two breeds fit into that criteria very well. I wouldn't go with just all of one breed...I'd pick your base breed that you want to develop and improve and then I'd also have a few spare hens of other varieties with some of the criteria you want that can fill the gaps until you get your flock developed into the flock you want. Like say, White Rocks as your main breeder but keep some BAs or RIR for a good laying yield while you cull for excellent laying in your WRs. Also keep a few broody breeds to do the grunt work.

If you only want 15 birds it will be a tight game you play but I think it's still doable. Say 8 of your focus breed and a rooster, four dedicated layers and 3 dedicated broody breeds that will eventually need replacing down the road but you can even breed your WR cock over them and produce mixed birds to take over those duties and just keep on trucking. By the time you wear them out you should be seeing some good layer pullets out of your focus group and can phase out your mixed layer birds and then all you will need to eventually replace is your 3 broody breeds.

In the end, if you developed your focus breed for all of these traits you will work yourself into a single breed flock with all the traits you are needing for a sustainable flock.

The reason I love the WRs for this is that I've found they are extremely good on feed thrift, foraging, survival on free range, excellent layers even into the winter months, they lay well for years, they have fast molt recovery, natural hardiness, very little~if any~laying issues, occasional broody tendencies, excellent feather quality and have the biggest meat density of any breed that I've had. To me they are the all round perfect breed.

The BA is a close second but doesn't have the carcass weights of the WR, nor the quick molt recovery and feather quality. But, they are the longest lived, hardiest breed I've ever kept and will lay for up to 6 yrs and beyond with a good rate.

 

[crazyhen]

Beekissed,
Who would you suggest for WR eggs or chicks?

 

[Beekissed]

Beekissed,
Who would you suggest for WR eggs or chicks?

Both? They are an excellent, long term layers and some will go broody and are great mamas. And they are truly the heaviest breed I've ever had, bar none. They look the same size as some other DP hens but under those feathers they have much, much more meat density...and they get that way without eating too much.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

People say Dominique's taste REALLY good.

I've liked what I've seen of the Buckeyes VERY much. Huge birds, small combs. Not sure about brooding or foraging. The former you could select for within your flock, not sure about the latter.

I'm starting this same thing by helping with restoring the Delaware breed. They are big dual purpose birds that supposedly lay well in winter. It's early in the project and they aren't maturing fast enough to be thrifty, but I'm expecting that to improve in future generations.

That said, I'm sure you can't go wrong following BK's advise ... and especially if you could copy her forage management techniques. She has fat, healthy, thrifty birds.

Anything you breed multiple generations of in your location will become more and more suited to it ... so says the standard wisdom.

 

[crazyhen]

OPPS! I meant to say who can I get eggs or chicks from?

 

[Beekissed]

OPPS! I meant to say who can I get eggs or chicks from?

You'll want to go to the Large Heritage Fowl thread and make an inquiry. There's a couple of folks there that have some of Bob Blosl's lines of WR and there won't be much finer than that.