Best recession/depression chicken breed(s)?

[Jonathanq1]

I've had several different breeds and crosses. I would still have to say the Game Fowl is the most economic chicken whether it's American Game or Old English Bantams or Modern Game. They are an easy keep.

 

[lotzahenz]

Of all the chickens I have had over the years, I find the Dark Cornish do the best at free-ranging, without getting eaten by predators. They are a good sized bird for eating and ours laid as many eggs as any other hen on the farm. The eggs are rather large and brown. The meat is very good, the bird is compact and tight feathered, grows a little slow if just foraging but makes a great sunday dinner. Not a pretty bird, but a good flock to have. They look a bit primitive, but I think they would far well in scarce times.

HenZ

 

[becky3086]

Quote:
That does sound like a really good choice to me as well. OEG would fare well but I don't think they would give you near as much meat and eggs.

 

[Arielle]

Hope you don't mind if I bring this "thread" (correct term?) back to life. Since the last post many months have passed, adding up to years. I'm interested in what people have been breeding as our economic situation here has become more challenging. Did you change which birds you had or change breeding goals??

 

[Illia]

Well, I'd for one disagree with production strain birds, especially Leghorns and the such.

To me the smart choice is in dual purpose types and types that are frequently broody. With this, you get offspring each year and don't need to worry about incubators or buying new chicks. Araucanas, American Gamefowl, and Marans are a few of many to name of really good choices. They're not slow growers, they're very good foragers, very prolific layers, very intelligent and hardy, and make some very good and protective mothers, too. Marans especially offer a lot of meat, and Araucanas pack on a lot of breast meat for their smaller size, plus they're some tough buggers! American Gamefowl are very adaptable to their environment, and do pretty well with very little care.

 

[bobcart]

This is a thread that doesn't seem to get stale. I think what happens is people getting started or with new requirements do some research, make their choices and then maybe defend them. hat's all wel and good, but it is so important o really consider where you are for climate and resistance to predators. If you have to spend a lot on fencing, that's contrary to this thread. We're just getting started on all this and trying to figure out if our selections for a low cost, low maintenance, dual purpose breed were good ones and whether to switch horses before I invest too much time and energy in breeding.

We're in northern CA on the coast on 5 rural acres surrounded by wilderness and parks. Six months I started with 27 birds from three utility breeds (plus a polish rooster they threw in for free) all with good foraging credentials. Dominiques, minorcas and red caps. It may not ever drop below 32 or above 80 in a year so cold or heat tolerant breeds aren't at all important. I also wanted to help salvage old breeds if that made sense. We got a couple of cockerels from each to keep for breeding once we decided which breed to work on. All the birds have ranged well and probably waste more feed than they eat. The eggs have been wonderful! Unfortunately, we're down to 7 hens and 3 cocks including the polish. The birds day range in about a half acre protected by an electric mesh fence and roost in a closed door coop at night. We have a lot of predator pressure and we regularly see foxes, coyotes, and bobcats in broad daylight and even a mountain lion! All the regular suspects are here too. This has turned out to be our biggest challenge and the primary breed selection feature. The red caps are eliminated because they have been decimated. We lost three pullets in the first day. Not strong enough to handle the postal system. Only the red caps were lost that way. We went on to lose more of them once they were moved to the coop. I think it was hawks when they were small and maybe even a great blue heron. Interesting that one hen remains and she's probably the hardiest of all our remaining birds and certainly the best flyer. A real survivor. We culled the surviving red cap rooster knowing the rad caps were off the list. He was a pretty tough chew...

With all the losses, we're now looking at broodiness and good mothering traits that I didn't think would be so important. We don't want to buy hatchery birds every year for many reasons. The Minorca's and Red Caps don't cut it on broodiness. Luckily the dominiques do, so they remain in the running. The minorcas are great in many other attributes. They are fantastic layers of big white eggs and they are big and meaty and fast growing. They were strong chicks and laid early. Their cock is the top of the peck - and loud. However, the Minorca's aren't broody and for some reason have been the targets of foxes. Maybe they aren't quick enough?

This leads me to the doms. 4 of the 6 hens are still here and still have a cock - real survivors. They are also more docile than the others and are very steady layers, though the eggs are smaller. They are smaller birds than the others, so perhaps not ideal for meat and not as fast growing as Minorcas.

I then started looking at the standard common breeds like RIR, New Hampshires, Plymouth Rocks, Buff Orps, Delawares, Australorps and even Buckeyes. These breeds all have a lot going for them which explains why they are so common. A lot of people around here have birds like these, but all are in fenced runs. We're the only ones I know doing a limited free range or day range - perhaps for obvious reasons. The birds regularly fly over the electric net fence. It's for keeping predators out! Anyway, for our needs, we started eliminating these breeds for one reason or another. I fear these breeds just aren't hardy enough to survive in our setting, perhaps because of the breeding that makes them so good at what they do otherwise. However, I don't think I need to go back to a game fowl either as the doms have shown me that with better management, they can do well. Chantecler and Sussex are also attractive, but not ready to start over. Time to stick with what works.

I'm betting there is a lot of opportunity to improve the Dominiques through breeding, but survival is a pretty good start! The next step is to just have a successful natural hatch. Maybe later we can select for growth speed and size on all and the continue selecting for laying and mothering ability on the hens. That's the good old fashioned way that has worked for so long anyway.

Sorry for the long post, but thanks for reading...

PS: I think what happens with the fence is that if the fence is not working properly because of high grass shorting it out or low battery, a new fox will touch the fence and learn that it isn't a problem. He hops over takes a bird and is then forever a problem. A new fox approaches the fence and touches it with his nose then gets a shock and takes off never to return. We lost a bunch at first and trapped the fox and afterwards had coast clear for a month. Then we let our guard down (literally) on the fence and we lost two more hens this week. The fox trap is set and the fence much improved, so we're getting better.

 

[Soli]

"What is good" depends a lot on your climate, food availability, and predators. Ideally for subsistence farming you want chickens who lay, but more importantly are excellent foragers (because buying feed totally erases the point of the chickens in subsistence farming...they get scraps if anything) AND have survival instinct (ability to fly helps with this).

In the south, I have had good luck with Cornish being able not only to fend for themselves, but lay big nice eggs, stay away from predators (although they fly poorly if at all, mine have been smart) but perhaps best of all they taught the OTHER chickens how to forage more efficiently and further away from "home base". The other chickens, Phoenix, are exceptionally good at predator avoidance and flying, but weren't as good at foraging until the Cornish showed them that good bugs could be found elsewhere. The Phoenix lay about as good as the Cornish, but are smaller birds with smaller eggs.

 

[monkeemakr]

I have added onto my requirements that they be able to brood their own young. After all, if something happens to the infrastuctures, or you can't afford an electric bill if things get really bad, you need chickens that will brood their own young. I'm trying out the speckled sussex for this - great camo, layers, meat, docile, brooders. Will see how it works.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Speaking from the perspective of the daughter of two people who got through the Great Depression on small farms in Western Washington: the best chickens to have if the economy tanks are the ones you already own and have facilities for, chickens you know do well on your place, and which you've already determined fit your climate and access to naturally available feed or your animal food chain. My maternal grandmother kept White Leghorns, SLWs, some kind of bantam she used for incubating eggs (including turkey eggs she traded a neighbor for), and Guineas as predator alarms; they "followed the cows" which is to say they ate spilled grain and scratched in the manure pile, and ate garden waste and what little leftover feed the family of a dozen had. Dad's grandmothers raised different chickens- his parents and siblings lived with different grandmothers at different times- one of them Barred Rocks and the other a mixed flock which started with game fowl and was influenced by other large-fowl roosters; they were generally fed orchard waste and "followed" draft horses. His paternal grandmother also raised geese off and on, and the men (his father and uncles; both of his grandfathers died young) in the family hunted ducks and picked oysters and dug clams. They had the fowl that fit their talents and facilities, and they kept them as they had always kept them, with perhaps a little less scratch to throw down in the winter months.

Trying to come up with a perfect chicken on short notice is probably a waste of energy. If I were to need to feed myself and my family on a drastically reduced income tomorrow (that is, the end of summer, this year), I'd spend my money on seeds for short-season vegetables and grains which could be harvested for human and animal feed or overwintered for late-winter and early spring eating, and raise whatever fowl I could find free or cheap in greater numbers than I actually need, so I would have eggs and meat to trade for other things. Assuming I had somewhere predator proof let them roost, and somewhere fenced in to let them run during the day so I would not have to spend resources and time getting that together. Getting by on limited or non-existant income is not a matter of chosing the magical best chicken ever: if you're having to buy everything you feed them, you're already defeated. And it's absolutely necessary to have a strong human community to draw on, to barter with and trade labor with and learn from (which is why BYC is a wonderful thing) because anything resembling farming is full of bad surprises, no matter how long you've been doing it, and the people who survive the best are the ones with the strongest friendships, not the best chickens.

 

[Pathfinders]

An interesting question. We cut back to just Buckeye large fowl this summer. Several weeks ago my husband was told that the newspaper printing plant where he works will be closing in the 4th quarter of next year (all the printing will be outsourced to a press installation two hours away.)

I love having bantams, but they're just not cost effective. I adore showing, but can't justify it at this point. I may go to one or two shows this fall, but that's it.

I love my Buckeyes for their many strengths. They deal with cold and heat well, I never need to use heaters or run fans. They range as far as I'll let them, but being dark are not overly attractive to raptors. They lay well, will brood chicks if I let them, and friends who've done so say they are excellent mothers. They eat anything that moves, and the young males are an excellent source of tasty meat. For me, they're the best homestead bird there is, and I've raised many breeds over the years.

Although they are not "common", their numbers are increasing. When I started the Buckeye club in '08, the ALBC still had them on the "Critical" list. Due to their efforts and those of the American Buckeye Poultry Club members, we were able to see them moved up a notch to "Threatened" as of last year, and I'll bet when we do the census again, we'll see the numbers rise even more.

If you can find a Buckeye breeder near you, I'd encourage you to try some, I'll bet you'll like them a lot!