Ive been doing some thinking and I've got a question.
I don't have this but let me create a scenario here that I've wondered about.
Say someone's family has kept RIRs. These are birds that have have been passed down for a few generations, they go back to Grandpa and Grandma's birds when she kept some during the war effort has always had them around. These run around the property, they lay a large brown egg, they are not swimming in eggs but they have them whenever they need some. Some are butchered when its time to eat. Grandpa gave some to his kids when they bought a house, and now the grandkids have a flock of these birds too. Nobody is really serious about breeding them the birds just go up into the coop at dusk. The big old roo looks over his hens, nothing special. Sometimes a hen goes broody and they see chicks on occasion in the spring but there isn't any effort to incubate chicks because there's always enough of them around. Its something that each generation has grown up with and its just "what we've done" when asked why they have them.
When you look at them their color is so so. Its not real dark mahogany. Its darker than a NH, but not that real rich red like many SQ birds have. No other colors just a medium red. There more square shaped than a real brick. Some are more brick like but by and large they are not that classic brick shape. These are nothing special to look at they are just chickens.
Are these considered heritage?
Now if I had some of those exact same birds that had so so color. The same medium red, same body shape that more square shaped than brick, and my hens laid about 160 eggs a year. I keep them because I want to be more self sustaining but I got them from the local feed store who ordered them from Murry McMurry I know they won't be considered heritage.
What's the difference?