Farming and Homesteading Heritage Poultry

[BGMatt]

Beautifully put! Lol on the bantams

I love bantams, and enjoy showing them. There's just not a lot of meat on them. Some of them lay like crazy though and I know folks that keep bantams as layer only flocks. I'd recommend Leghorn, Dutch, even some lines of Old English Game Bantams lay really well.

 

[glddog]

I really like the standards(is that what they call them in chickens !?) . Especially the continental and American breeds. Snooped on the Marans thread for a while, the colored egg thing again. Seemed a bit of a mess in that breed. Orps are too big,though I love the fat bottoms I live in Al. So the heat, though I've yet to lose a bird to heat stroke, is always an issue. Also think speckled Sussex is amazing but feel the color would be tuff for a beginner. Really like a mello sort of chicken. Must be thrifty, good egglayer, enough meat to feed 1 well.... I dunno I keep looking!

 

[BGMatt]

I really like the standards(is that what they call them in chickens !?) . Especially the continental and American breeds. Snooped on the Marans thread for a while, the colored egg thing again. Seemed a bit of a mess in that breed. Orps are too big,though I love the fat bottoms

I live in Al. So the heat, though I've yet to lose a bird to heat stroke, is always an issue. Also think speckled Sussex is amazing but feel the color would be tuff for a beginner. Really like a mello sort of chicken. Must be thrifty, good egglayer, enough meat to feed 1 well.... I dunno I keep looking!

If you're looking for meat for one, look into the mediterranean birds. They are super thrifty, excellent free rangers and will outlay anything else. They are white egg layers if egg color is important to you though. And are "wary" I won't call them flighty because they're not, but that same wariness makes them more apt to notice the predators and make an escape if ranging.

A mellow bird that lays well, thrives in all climates, and has good meat qualities sounds an awful lot like the Langshan. They are a stately fowl that are better layers, more active then other asiatics. Lay a tinted brown egg. Very very hardy. They will go broody about once a year and I've always found them to be excellent mothers. None of the colors are particularly hard to breed (save Blue, but that's much easier than a lot of pattern patterns {pencilled, spangled, speckled, mottled etc}). The only downside I've ever experienced is it really does take about 24+ weeks for the males to fill out to market weights.

 

[glddog]

Interesting. I've never looked at the langshan , or any of the orientals really.... I'll check out mediterraneans as well. Thanks!

 

[gjensen]

It is true that Dominiques are slightly smaller, but they do not grow more quickly than a NH, quite to the contrary in fact. They would be a little easier on the feed bill. For size, you bring up a very valid point. I actually think a lot of people would be served much better by an Ancona, Leghorn, or Minorca. There there are savings, high production, superior foraging, birds tough as nails, fertility out the kazoo, much more predator alert than the larger birds. They eat much less. They are an optimal homesteading bird.

I missed where it was mentioned where the Dominique would grow faster than a NH. They shouldn't, but really I know nothing of Dominiques. I do find them interesting. I do know NHs.

I think you get my point on size. This thread is called Farming and Homesteading Heritage Poultry. I think they are two different things. I like my NHs, and they fit me. I would not recommend them as homesteading birds, because they are not low input. Different birds for different times. I see breeds like the NH and Delaware as the link between before and now. These two came about as we became serious about large scale intensive rearing of poultry meat. They were it in their time. Their short time.
I cannot help but consider the what goes in and what comes out part. When I think of the word homestead, I picture a system where commercial production is the anti thesis. Many of the more modern breeds were developed when grain was cheap and plentiful. The system depends on it, and NHs and Delawares are commercial birds of a different time. I picture lighter more active breeds for "homesteading". That would be like going back in time to me. A time where poultry meat was an extra and seasonal. I like the Mediterranean breeds for this, and to me the Dominique are a bridge between the large dual purpose American breeds and the Mediterraneans.

I like to mention this, because I have come to appreciate the lighter more active breeds. I have not understood why there is not more interest in the Mediterraneans. I probably bought into the flighty notion myself. I get 25% more eggs from my Catalanas and they eat a good bit less than my NHs. They have 100% more personality. I have been surprised to realize that they are more hand tame than my NHs. The cocks/cockerels are especially bold. They have a way about them that wins you over.

 

[mountaindog66]

Do any of the lighter Mediterranean breeds lay large/xl eggs, or do they mostly produce small to med. ones?

 

[glddog]

Lol I agree "homesteading" is one of those ridiculous catch phrases. A more accurate description but also rather a catch phrase...a sustainable living .enviromentlly friendly I enjoy my chickens and rabbits but I eat them and their poop goes in the garden . Raise worms in the poop . Have a catfish pond, the worms feed them and aerate the garden, a grey water tank to save on water. Still a work in progress.
Big and fluffy is hard to resist in dogs too
I will look hard at your suggestions, they certainly seem to be far closer to what my needs are.

 

[BGMatt]

Do any of the lighter Mediterranean breeds lay large/xl eggs, or do they mostly produce small to med. ones?

Almost all large/XL in my experiences. As an example, I just set a Dozen Buff Leghorn Eggs that dwarf the Brahma and Langshan eggs I put in the same batch. Minocra eggs are bigger yet.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

Just like dogs there's good breeders and bad breeders. I find most of the folks that show or breed to the SOP for large fowl do also pay attention to the production qualities and eat culls. Bantam breeders not as much. One thing about the "form follows function" as much as I say it and believe it, I think the truth of it is

"form ALLOWS function(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)". Birds bred to the SOP have the correct body type to match their original purpose and excel at it

. However it is possible that those traits have not been selected for. However if you get a start in birds with the proper bodies/confirmation/type YOU can select for production qualities and have an easier time of it then if you had started with birds lacking in those qualities.

One thing to remember is to be realistic, "Heritage" breeds are no longer the forefront of production, for eggs it's expendable hybrids that produce heavy at the cost of longevity and health. Meat is dominated by terminal crosses that are lucky to survive the 7-10 weeks to butcher. It wasn't until the 1950's that dual purpose fowl started producing over 150+ eggs a year consistently, 16 weeks was the absolute minimum to attain a market weight.

As far as the right chickens, it depends greatly on what your exact purpose is: Eggs and very little meat, Eggs with a good chunk of meat, Meat with a good chunk of eggs, or meat with the occasional egg.

For the first, the streamlined continental and mediterranean class white egg layers (Leghorn, Ancona, Spanish, Andalusian, Buttercup, Polish, Hamburg, Campine, Lakenvelder etc) will do a fantastic job,

For the second (Eggs with good meat) something like a Rhode Island Red, Langshan (the best breed), Welsummer, Dominique fits well.

For the third (eggs/meat with more of a meat emphasis) Wyandotte, Dorking, Orpington, Jersey Giant, and the like.

For the fourth, primarily meat with a few eggs, Cornish, Brahma, Delaware are in their element here.

There's some overlap and opinions, but that just kind of gives some ideas.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes....

did I mention I agree.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

Does form really follow function? I

The difference between a determined dog and the production of fowl is that it is actually body type. A Dorkings are built to have more meat than Wyandottes. Do they? Well that depends. A well bred Wyandotte could be better meated than a poorly bred Dorking, but a well bred Wyandotte roaster will not out-do a well bred Dorking roaster.

The basic body shape: long, deep, broad makes more meat and more eggs. If you look at a Dorking and Ancona, they're the same shape, the former more prone to roundness and fat, the latter more prone to lean; the former larger, the latter smaller; the former a bit calmer, the latter with a bit more spit.

This does not mean that all birds bred to the Standard are killer producers, but it means that the stage is set. From there selection will lead to success.