Farming and Homesteading Heritage Poultry

[Arielle]

Quote: Yes, these are in the top10 so to speak.

 

[Arielle]

I've worked with a number of heritage breeds and by far the best I've seen as free-range meat bird is the American Bresse. There are now many people breeding them in America and the hatching eggs are frequently on eBay.

Pardon me, I seem to have a mental block. Maybe I need to relook at thegame birds-- I assume this is one of them??

 

[BGMatt]

If you have Marans already...they should make a good meat bird too. Also in your climate the Chantecler is oft overlooked but would seem to have the traits you're after.

I really feel the Langshan is the superb homesteading fowl. The more I mess with other breeds the more I read, the more I talk to people the more firmly I believe that. They are hardy, they are very very good layers. The males get a good roasting size (granted it does take a good 6 months to reach but all the same). They adapt to most climates very well. They are amazing foragers and usually do well on the range.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

PRimary goals-- a chicken that can thrive in a farmsteading environment. Eggs must get deposited in a coop for collection and not a makeshift nest.( THough goodness knows the EE are good at doing this already.) I am willing to alter the available forage from closed canopy trees to grasses, shrubs, etc. Economical = production at the least cost, decreasing the dependence on commercial pellets and increasing foraging on the farm.

primary goal--
A. strong meat characteristics, all of the "dual" birds I"ve tried are NOT meat birds. For the effort of dressing a bird, I want a very good meat : bone ratio. ( SOme dorkings, a BO line, Reese's NH line, ALBC buckeyes are the ones I have ID'd so far as very good meat birds). Fast growth to coincide with the growing season of New England. ( I can't see how to maintain a large number over the winter months without a big investment in commercial grains-- which are more economical than I can produce. ) The vast majority of dual-purpose breeds are roasters at 6 months. As long as you're hatching in a timely fashion, the culls will be in your freezer before winter. As to your first statements, if you were getting hatchery birds, then, no, they've all been selected for laying qualities without any real meat qualities to speak of. Nevertheless, this is that point when you need to realize that if you want to work with heritage fowl, you yourself will need to be part of the selection process. Gently asked, are you sure you want heritage fowl? Heritage meat fowl follow a different rhythm that industrial fowl. Chances are, what you get will need work to be the bird you want it to be.

B. Eggs--For my own use I am flexible on size and color. I cannot keep up with 2 dozen eggs a day. Don't get Anconas then, although I imagine you'll find that Reese's NH, ALBS Buckeyes, and YHF Dorkings will keep you in eggs beyond your capacity. This is why God created neighbors, hogs, compost, dogs, bartering, and any other piece of creative you got. We really like to make pickled eggs.

C. Cope with winter to summer swing and 2 rainy seasons. White Dorkings, Wyandottes, Buckeyes, Dominiques. There should be something here for you.


I'm sure I have more. Need to put birds out in new pen. Need to think.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

I've worked with a number of heritage breeds and by far the best I've seen as free-range meat bird is the American Bresse. There are now many people breeding them in America and the hatching eggs are frequently on eBay.

I handled one of these at a show last fall. They're meaty birds like our Dorkings. They're not, however, heritage birds. The first difficulty, is that there's no such thing as an American Bresse. The poule de Bresse comes from a region just south of where I used to live in France. We used to go driving through it. They're very proud of their Bresse fowl, and there were big highway signs with pictures of "les poules". Unless there were recent importations, there never were true Bresse fowl in the States. I'm not sure what the origin of these new birds is. If they ever are admitted into the SOP, I doubt they'd be called "American Bresse" because it doesn't jive' there's nothing American about Bresse fowl.

The bird I handled at the show had no finish on it, nor did it have any sign of having protential for finish. It was a pretty rough bird with poor feather quality and poor feather development. It ill take a lot of breeding to get them up to SOP level. They are, of course, a perfectly viable option for putting meat in the freezer, but, in the interests of this thread, namely using heritage fowl for the homestead, well, they're not a Standard bred bird.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

If you have Marans already...they should make a good meat bird too. Also in your climate the Chantecler is oft overlooked but would seem to have the traits you're after.

I really feel the Langshan is the superb homesteading fowl. The more I mess with other breeds the more I read, the more I talk to people the more firmly I believe that. They are hardy, they are very very good layers. The males get a good roasting size (granted it does take a good 6 months to reach but all the same). They adapt to most climates very well. They are amazing foragers and usually do well on the range.

Good point. There are good Chanteclers in New England and absolutely killer good Langshans.

 

[Arielle]

Thank you all for wonderful responses, and much to think about.

Commercial birds are not going to work I think. I"m growing out cornish X right now,and I don't like them on a number of fronts. My terrain is not conducive to moving pens as one might on an old level pasture. This is rough New England soil: rocks poking up everywhere. Consqently these birds are penned. THey hardly move. I cut grass to get it to them which is a time waster. THe pen is not as clean as I would like. Overall a very strange chicken. Maybe they would thrive better if they moved around more. THey have the space but lay around. I will try one more batch later in the summer just to be sure; but I think this will be my last attempt at cornish X.

The marans and ameracana are breeder stock, but honestly they are as thin muscled as my hatchery bred girls. So I consider these strictly layer types.

Buckeye, Chanties, DOminiques, and wh dorking, langshans and wyandottes. THese are the top contenders.

 

[heritagehabitatfarms]

stoneunhenged should know where these come from very well he imported them ... I believe the American got tagged on to them as the french say that it is not just the genetics's that make the Bresse chicken sold in France but is also the area and environment in France... So according to them the True Bresse can not exist out side there little valley in France... I believe the growers association over there even has it copy righted and patented... so u can import the birds but not the name... sry i cant remember all the french names lol... anyway this is the genetics's from the most expensive chicken in the world... i don't know about the white color as far as free ranging but they also come in black here in the USA... and while the don't really qualify for heritage here in the USA they sure are in France...

I don't own any of these i just read and research way to much lol...

I handled one of these at a show last fall. They're meaty birds like our Dorkings. They're not, however, heritage birds. The first difficulty, is that there's no such thing as an American Bresse. The poule de Bresse comes from a region just south of where I used to live in France. We used to go driving through it. They're very proud of their Bresse fowl, and there were big highway signs with pictures of "les poules". Unless there were recent importations, there never were true Bresse fowl in the States. I'm not sure what the origin of these new birds is. If they ever are admitted into the SOP, I doubt they'd be called "American Bresse" because it doesn't jive' there's nothing American about Bresse fowl.

The bird I handled at the show had no finish on it, nor did it have any sign of having protential for finish. It was a pretty rough bird with poor feather quality and poor feather development. It ill take a lot of breeding to get them up to SOP level. They are, of course, a perfectly viable option for putting meat in the freezer, but, in the interests of this thread, namely using heritage fowl for the homestead, well, they're not a Standard bred bird.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

stoneunhenged should know where these come from very well he imported them ... I believe the American got tagged on to them as the french say that it is not just the genetics's that make the Bresse chicken sold in France but is also the area and environment in France... So according to them the True Bresse can not exist out side there little valley in France... I believe the growers association over there even has it copy righted and patented... so u can import the birds but not the name... sry i cant remember all the french names lol... anyway this is the genetics's from the most expensive chicken in the world... i don't know about the white color as far as free ranging but they also come in black here in the USA... and while the don't really qualify for heritage here in the USA they sure are in France...

I don't own any of these i just read and research way to much lol...

So they are imports? Well, that's interesting. Breeders should try to work to get them into the Standard, then. I think it's going to take a lot, but that's OK. It's the fattening that makes a Bresse a Bresse like Dorking. They are, so to speak, the Dorking of France. I just visited the "American Bresse" website. There's more than a little propaganda there, but, if they're real Bresse fowl, they'd be on par with Dorkings, Houdans, et al. for meat quality.

White is fine for free-ranging. If a predator wants a chicken, there isn't a plumage pattern that's going to save it. Chickens aren't all that sneaky, they're not hard to spot. I wouldn't be surprised if in a mixed flock the white is taken first, but that's not so much because they're white but because they are a focus point over the others. In the absence of a white bird, the focus point would shift, but the predator wouldn't be fooled nor deterred by a pattern. Our Dorkings free-range all the time. Our experience has been that it is far more important to be aware of predator patterns.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Awareness by the birds, or the human caretakers??

As for color, I suspect anything that can look like the others creates a distraction factor. A school of fish works this way. . . . makes focusing on a single target difficult for a predator when they all race away.