Farming and Homesteading Heritage Poultry

[Cedarknob]

Heritage birds were the production fowls of their day as far as the egg breeds, meat breeds, and dual purpose breeds; with each breed developed to fit the needs of the time and place. Function dictated form, and though a few characteristics [such as color] might have been aimed for to please the breeder's eye, these birds were the best of their day for production and the preferred bird to use when the breeds became standardized. Their appearance only gave evidence that they were pure and therefore likely to have the preferred production qualities. They were the best bird to own for the practical purpose of feeding the family and providing some cash income by selling eggs and/or meat locally. The heritage breeds became obsolete for production only because some breeders ignored form completely and bred or cross-bred for maximum production only. Breeding only to come as close to possible to the written description [standard of perfection for showing purposes] of what the breed is supposed to look like has, in my opinion, most probably had a bit of negative effect on the heritage breeds as far as their production qualities. Hatcheries sold chicks that were much closer in appearance to the heritage breed they were sold as 50 years ago; and I can remember a time when a show breeder's line might be scoffed at as a "show line" by an old timer sticking with the heritage breed that his family had been raising for many years. I realize such statements are often taken as insults by the people breeding chickens for the purpose of winning shows, but that is not my intent. These heritage breeds are still in existence, for the most part, only because of hobby/show breeders, and can still be utilized by those wanting them for the production qualities they were famous for. However, if you're wanting to profit by the sale of eating eggs or meat you are not going to compete with those using modern crosses or production lines. What you will have is a line of birds that can be kept year after year to feed your family without having to order chicks to replace them, possibly recoup some money by selling fresh eggs for eating, hatching eggs, or breeding stock, and the satisfaction of preserving the breed. Plus, if you want, you can show them.

 

[Arielle]

I think the spirt of this article is chicks purchased for $1.50 each or something like this we are talking hatchery chickens. Pure breed Production is simply the cherry eggers that will lay about 275 eggs a pullet year. The normal average flock of Rhode Island Reds or Standard Breed dark dark Rhode Island Reds will lay about 175 per year. Thats good enough for their purpose as a dual purpose fowl. You can push them to lay more say 200 eggs per pullet year but that will take about five years of trap nesting or selection to get the females to lay that high. Most people who are top R I Red breeders dont do this nonsense only a guy like me would take up five years of work to do this but it was fun and I did it.. Any more eggs than that you Risk the chance of ruptured oval ducts or blow outs on these females. These production birds normally are in the stew pot with in two years in commerical settings. The name of the game is high yield and then replace then with new young pullets. Its my idea if you are trying to make a profit on eggs you have your females lay as many as they can and most of these are in wire pens and then after they go through a molt shes off to the processing plant and into our meat market for us to eat. We have a poultry plant up the road from me that has thousands of brown egg layers doing this in cages.

In regards to white rock production birds I really have not seen any live only pictures. They do the same I think for the production egg producers.

There seems to be a over lap on production and standard breed birds for the beginner. They just can not figure out why Standard breed birds are not high yield layers I guess the reason is they have never had nothing but commerical production chickens. Its kind of like a Morgan Horse you would not see one in the Kentucky Derby and you wont see a race horse in a Sled pulling contest.

Robert Hawes wrote a great article for our Plymouth Rock Fanciers Club Newsletter on Silver Pencil led Color. He is a great Poultryman and judge.

Thanks BOb for mentioning in your last paragraph that Dr Hawes is also a breeder. He is actually a professor emeritus,and have found Dr Hawes to be very helpful when I hit technical information. as he is both worlds commercial and heritage.

You also need to understand that the article was written for MOFGA. THis covers all sorts of poultry people both small commercial and homesteading-- covers a lot of different set ups for poultry. My impresion was that the last paragraphs were stictly heritage But overall food for thought.

 

[Arielle]

Cedarknob-- my frustration has been that old lines that really produce maybe as hard or harder to find than the SQ birds.

 

[fowlman01]

Thanks BOb for mentioning in your last paragraph that Dr Hawes is also a breeder. He is actually a professor emeritus,and have found Dr Hawes to be very helpful when I hit technical information. as he is both worlds commercial and heritage.

You also need to understand that the article was written for MOFGA. THis covers all sorts of poultry people both small commercial and homesteading-- covers a lot of different set ups for poultry. My impresion was that the last paragraphs were stictly heritage But overall food for thought.

Dr Hawes is not a licensed poultry judge. He probably judges, but he does not have a license to judge. He would not be able to judge an ABA/APA show. There is no doubt he is knowledgeable about poultry, however.

Walt

 

[Yellow House Farm]

The normal average flock of Rhode Island Reds or Standard Breed dark dark Rhode Island Reds will lay about 175 per year. Thats good enough for their purpose as a dual purpose fowl.

It really is enough. Even at say 150 eggs a year, a conservative estimate, with 12 hens that's 150 dozen. That's almost 3 dozen a week on average. That's a lot of eggs, and that's imagining that we're only going to keep 12 hens, most of us aren't even close to that sane.

 

[Cedarknob]

Cedarknob-- my frustration has been that old lines that really produce maybe as hard or harder to find than the SQ birds.

What I did was to locate some Cornish from show breeders, since those I got from a hatchery failed to even come close to having the meat qualities I was looking for, and commenced breeding them for meat with an eye aimed towards the SOP. Show quality and the original production qualities are not opposites, but breeding only only for one or the other may have negative effects on a breed. I doubt there are many show breeders that are ignoring egg count or other production qualities completely on their layer or dual purpose bird, and the SOP does define the shape and weight on them, but hatcheries cannot afford to put much emphasis on type and weights and sell chicks at the price they sell them at.

 

[Fred's Hens]

It really is enough. Even at say 150 eggs a year, a conservative estimate, with 12 hens that's 150 dozen. That's almost 3 dozen a week on average. That's a lot of eggs, and that's imagining that we're only going to keep 12 hens, most of us aren't even close to that sane.

Agree. If one keeps a dozen hens around, 3 or 4 eggs a week, per hen is plenty of egg production. If the bird is the right temperament, beautiful, forages well, provides offspring and brings joy into your life? Perfect. If you're running a mini egg production facility? You'd probably not be happy about "only" getting 3 or 4 eggs per week, per hen. It's all about what you want out of all this. I've run production hens for years and years. As the work gets harder with age, I'm changing course a bit, and moving toward other virtues than merely eggs and more eggs.

 

[gjensen]

I agree with the points concerning production, and the birds that we have. I would like to add, that I want to be ever mindful of what the breed should be. I know this is can be disputed, but a NH is known for certain traits outside of their appearance. I slow maturing NH is not a NH in my opinion. To me that is simple. NHs were popular because they were quick to feather out, and filled out early. To me, that means they should now. Not all breeds are the same in this respect.
I find that the rate of lay with some of these strains are not as much of a problem as length of lay. I will use the NHs again. If the pullets get laying before the days get too short, then they lay better through the winter. If a hen molts later than the rest, she lays a bit longer. Personally, I want my pullets laying, before my hens molt.
A little improvement in both directions, mean 20 more eggs per year. You can take a 160 egg strain and get them to 180 with selection on two simple points. I understand and agree when it is said that our birds are not production birds, but I do not want to use that as a reason to settle for poor performance. My NHs should be decent layers, and be fast maturing birds.
I guess that I want it all.

 

[fowlman01]

I agree with the points concerning production, and the birds that we have. I would like to add, that I want to be ever mindful of what the breed should be. I know this is can be disputed, but a NH is known for certain traits outside of their appearance. I slow maturing NH is not a NH in my opinion. To me that is simple. NHs were popular because they were quick to feather out, and filled out early. To me, that means they should now. Not all breeds are the same in this respect.
I find that the rate of lay with some of these strains are not as much of a problem as length of lay. I will use the NHs again. If the pullets get laying before the days get too short, then they lay better through the winter. If a hen molts later than the rest, she lays a bit longer. Personally, I want my pullets laying, before my hens molt.
A little improvement in both directions, mean 20 more eggs per year. You can take a 160 egg strain and get them to 180 with selection on two simple points. I understand and agree when it is said that our birds are not production birds, but I do not want to use that as a reason to settle for poor performance. My NHs should be decent layers, and be fast maturing birds.
I guess that I want it all.

My experience with these New Hamps that I have is that the females look pretty adult at 5 months, that is the females. The males look like they will take close to a year before they look mature, but at 6 month the males were at 9 lbs which is over the SOP weight. These came from kathyinmo in a roundabout way. Should they mature faster than that. I was impressed with these, but I don't know what your expectations are in terms of growth rate.

Walt

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Let me see if I understand how this works-- since the SQ stock already has athe frame, then you can select for heavier muscling over the years. THis is interesting. Correct me if I have misunderstood.