Breeding (mostly) self-sufficient chickens

[RiverOtter]

Not exactly. Your history starts with advent of complete feeds.

In what way? I never even mentioned feeds, complete or otherwise.

But if you'd like to discuss it, first I suggest you read The Book of the Farm, published 1842

 

[centrarchid]

No, it really wasn't.
Did you ever see the Tales From Green Valley BBC series? The same team also did Victorian Farm and Edwardian Farm. You can find them on YouTube.

Or, have you ever read the Little House books? Fascinating diaries, describing childhood memories of carefully raising chicks in a wooden box next to the wood stove and Dad building a chicken coop sturdy enough to keep everything out.

Until very recently, we did very much like OP is considering using American Games. The birds provided, eggs, meat, and other. Predator management was intense and not restricted to immediate vicinity of where chickens kept. Some birds were penned, but not all the time, and were penned at considerable expense compared to resources at the time. We had little chicken domes all over the yard made out of what were essentially sticks. I am not reading books on this.

 

[falcon500]

Lots of great responses. Thanks for the info! For the record, I don’t necessarily want a great layer, I just want a chicken that will lay at all year-round, like FRs do. I know that this will require a bigger flock for the same egg count than a fast laying breed like leghorns, but it also means that the chickens will be sturdier, healthier birds. I have personally seen an FR rooster chase off a hawk, and another FR rooster I knew died... because it kept chasing the cat it had already beaten, and the cat ended up killing it in self-defense, after turning tail and running. Adding Asil blood can only make them better, more aggressive fighters, as well as increasing their broody tendencies. I think I want to do this breeding process by getting some Asil hens, two or three FR roosters, and a JG rooster, breeding primarily from the FRs. I’m not too worried about what the JG genes might do, because if any of the traits that come cause severe problems with survivability, they’ll get selected out pretty fast. Again, I’m going for dangerous, broody, foraging, winter-laying, and preferably quite large, but I’m willing to drop that one if it can’t work. Orpington and RIR are two of the four breeds that were mixed to get FR.

 

[Severne]

I raised a self sustaining flock for many years, although I did provide a coop, feed and water. I used Orpingtons and RIRs. The RIR roosters I had were pretty good at keeping the hawks away. The RIR hens were great layers and the Orpington hens tended to be broody. The RIR / Orpington cross hens were even better brooders. The further down the rabbit hole the crosses got, the lower the egg production got so I tried to raise some pure chicks from both breeds each year. I did incubate one or two broods per year, but that was mostly because I enjoy incubating.

I also tried this with Barred Rocks & Orpingtons, but it was not nearly as successful. No scientific data, just observations.

If you used the same bloodlines it was just because of inbreeding. From 2 good laying breeds you can’t just get a bad layer unless from inbreeding.

 

[Severne]

Lots of great responses. Thanks for the info! For the record, I don’t necessarily want a great layer, I just want a chicken that will lay at all year-round, like FRs do. I know that this will require a bigger flock for the same egg count than a fast laying breed like leghorns, but it also means that the chickens will be sturdier, healthier birds. I have personally seen an FR rooster chase off a hawk, and another FR rooster I knew died... because it kept chasing the cat it had already beaten, and the cat ended up killing it in self-defense, after turning tail and running. Adding Asil blood can only make them better, more aggressive fighters, as well as increasing their broody tendencies. I think I want to do this breeding process by getting some Asil hens, two or three FR roosters, and a JG rooster, breeding primarily from the FRs. I’m not too worried about what the JG genes might do, because if any of the traits that come cause severe problems with survivability, they’ll get selected out pretty fast. Again, I’m going for dangerous, broody, foraging, winter-laying, and preferably quite large, but I’m willing to drop that one if it can’t work. Orpington and RIR are two of the four breeds that were mixed to get FR.

Honestly, a aggressive rooster might not help much. I’ve had roosters chase off dogs that got eaten by the local bald eagle pair. They moved and then I had a big Malay (similar to aseel) roo get taken by a coyote. It’s better to have small, fast breeds.

 

[falcon500]

Honestly, a aggressive rooster might not help much. I’ve had roosters chase off dogs that got eaten by the local bald eagle pair. They moved and then I had a big Malay (similar to aseel) roo get taken by a coyote. It’s better to have small, fast breeds.

Malay is the kind of Asil I was considering. What breed(s?) were the roosters that chased away the dogs? That is a very hard thing for most roos to do! I get that there will still be losses, but if you have to use bald eagles to beat them, I think that’s pretty good.

 

[spartacus_63]

If you used the same bloodlines it was just because of inbreeding. From 2 good laying breeds you can’t just get a bad layer unless from inbreeding.

I disagree and inbreeding was not an issue.

 

[Severne]

so you used different bloodlines @spartacus_63 ? If not, it was definitely from inbreedin, just plain chicken genetics.

 

[Severne]

Malay is the kind of Asil I was considering. What breed(s?) were the roosters that chased away the dogs? That is a very hard thing for most roos to do! I get that there will still be losses, but if you have to use bald eagles to beat them, I think that’s pretty good.

It was a freinds little Russel Terrier they brought over That got chased, the roo was a crossbreed between Orpingto, BR, EE, RIR, and Bantam. the Malay was given to me.

 

[falcon500]