The Barred Rock is a composite bird. It isn't a species. Thus, in the hands of incredibly talented, committed breeders, the "line" or strain may well need "freshening" every decade or so. My use of the word "pure" was not a good choice. The idea isn't "pure" as in mammals, but bred to the Standard. That objective standard that describes the breed. A breed isn't a species but a composition of several foundational birds were carefully blended in the creation of the Barred Rock breed in the latter half of the 19th century, following the Civil War.
The modern breeder, who strives to maintain the breed to its excellence may choose to bring in "blood" from a distant line of the breed kept by someone else. There is likely a very good reason to do this. This can add jump and vigor but might also bring a strength of certain features that a talented breeder knows needs improvement if the strain/line is to continue on to be an excellent expression for the Standard of the breed.
When one "blends" into an establish line/strain a bit of blood from another line/strain or even variety, that breeder has many generations of work ahead of him/her to stabilize the results and he/she always keeps the old strain going on the side in case a back track is required; a do over, if you will.
There are a couple of competing and slightly variant definitions of "Heritage Birds". The APA is still studying how to develop a protocol for labeling flocks "Heritage". What one can be confident in is that at the center of everyone's definition is this common element. Bred to the breed's APA Standard. That's the key thing for me. The other aspects are fun to discuss though.
OK, that's enough as I've gone on far too long.
The modern breeder, who strives to maintain the breed to its excellence may choose to bring in "blood" from a distant line of the breed kept by someone else. There is likely a very good reason to do this. This can add jump and vigor but might also bring a strength of certain features that a talented breeder knows needs improvement if the strain/line is to continue on to be an excellent expression for the Standard of the breed.
When one "blends" into an establish line/strain a bit of blood from another line/strain or even variety, that breeder has many generations of work ahead of him/her to stabilize the results and he/she always keeps the old strain going on the side in case a back track is required; a do over, if you will.
There are a couple of competing and slightly variant definitions of "Heritage Birds". The APA is still studying how to develop a protocol for labeling flocks "Heritage". What one can be confident in is that at the center of everyone's definition is this common element. Bred to the breed's APA Standard. That's the key thing for me. The other aspects are fun to discuss though.
OK, that's enough as I've gone on far too long.
