Family or regional history of chicken breeds.

[Franklinridgefarms]

I hope that I can articulate my question so that it makes some sense. It seems like nowadays there are hundreds of breeds and many varieties of some breeds, and with the large hatcheries and shipping capabilities, a flock owner can have access to so many kinds of chickens. I am just wondering for those who had chickens growing up or that your families in earlier generations what kinds of chickens did you or your families or neighbors have? My grandparents in my mother’s side had Barred Plymouth Rocks. My mother said that when she married my dad got White Leghorns. An older friend sold eggs years ago and he said he had Rhode Island Reds and Barred Rocks.

 

[The Moonshiner]

I got my love of chickens from my grandmother. At one time she used them for eggs and my grandfather used them for meat. They had rhode Island reds and/or barred rocks (which they called "domineckers").
My grandfather was such an @$$ about them. He would ask us grandkids which was our favorites and when we picked he would swiftly break their necks and throw them down and tell us now go catch it.
My grandmother switched to white leghorns because he always swore they didn't have enough meat on them to waste his time to butcher them.

 

[centrarchid]

My paternal grandmother produced hatching eggs for the now defunct Shepherds Hatchery in Perry County, Indiana. When I was really little she involved with Barred Plymouth Rocks, White Plymouth Rocks and Rhode Island Reds. Prior to that I think she also produced American Dominique hatching eggs. Later she downsized to produce several dozen hatching eggs per day that were sold to people she worked and some that came by the house. My grandfather reconfigured her previous egg production building to support a 50-sow farrowing operation where annually we raised a couple hundred pigs to market size with balance sold as 40-lb feeder pigs.

The more interesting part was on my maternal side where gamefowl where bred and used for a lot longer than even my maternal grandfather was around. My mother had multiple ancestors along multiple lines that had reputations for gamefowl. Some of those ancestors are not the sort I am proud of for reasons having nothing to do with fighting chickens.

I still have the same line of gamefowl my grandfather had before WW1.