Help Me Decide on a Great Dual Purpose Homesteading Breed!

[underground chickenman]

Barred Rock, Black Australorp, Red Star, Black Star.

UGCM

 

[Lensters]

I would say Delaware or Buff Orp (funny, I don't sell either breed, currently) and it comes down to availability and how often you want them to go broody. I like the Dels other than they are so friendly they are often underfoot (I use them in my cross to make "Len's Special Whites". The Buff Orps I've had in the past were friendly but smart enough not to try to walk on your feet. However, the Buff Orps were constantly going broody so I mounted a wire cage in their pen where I would put them to get them to start laying again.

 

[poltroon]

Sounds like you've settled on some good choices, but another wonderful breed selection tool is:

http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

 

[Beekissed]

I've been really impressed by a few of my dual purpose breeds. The most consistent egg layers, most meaty, hardy and broody have been my White Rocks. I'm sure this probably is true of all the Rock varieties. My Aussies are big and meaty, great layers, hardy..but, sadly, not broody at all. The New Hamp Reds are also large, meaty, great layers, hardy...not real broody. All of these breeds are also good foragers and have a mild temperament...especially the Aussies.

The BOs that I had I chose to eliminate from the flock due to their large feed consumption, spotty egg laying and too docile behaviour...they were the only hens in the flock with raw backs from being bred so repeatedly. When I processed them they were absolutely rolling in fat! Same feed for the whole flock, but these gals seem to eat more and retain more fat....this tells me they weren't foraging on the free range but hanging around the feeders.

 

[cybercat]

Ok since you want to breed true and want hen to raise her own. That narrows you down alot. Partridge Rocks rule for large fowl broodiness. I have one right now and she is not even a year old, also have a few more about too. Many of the plymouth Rocks will go broody as it has not been breed out of most colors. Some barred rocks are production and will not though , again it matter where you get them from. Stay away from show line birds for they will not be very broody or lay alot. Interfers with showing them so they have alot of that bred out of them. Others to look at for that trait Chochins, wyandottes and some brahmas and orpingtons. Others that may will be Speckled Sussex, amerecuna the true rhode island red(real dark color), dominiques,dorkins, marans and the true breed cornish. All listed are dual purpose breeds.

A great place to look for breeder will be the ALBC. Here is a link to their online breeder list. http://www.albc-usa.org/documents/ChickenBreederPublicList.pdf These are people working to perserve the breed outside of the show ring. Some do show though but many are trying to bring breeds back to what they should be from older lines. Here is there Heritage chickens area. It has alot of info in it. http://www.albc-usa.org/heritagechicken/index.html You will find there are a few of us on here with this goal of raising one breed or 2 not for show but to maintain our own flock and are breeding to the SOP. If you have any questions you can PM or just ask here I will keep watch of this thread.

 

[walkswithdog]

Quote:
Hatchery barred rocks are easy to find sure. Good barred rocks are harder to find. Hatchery birds tend thin and rarely broody. Cheap chicks are not a savings if you have to plow through fifty to get five good hens. Or feed them for six months only to have them too small to be meat birds.

Of all the colors whites have been maintained as the largest of the rocks. Good white rocks aren't usually hard to find, go to any local show, and some of the people showing barreds have some good sized ones. Finding heritage quality barreds is harder and more initially expensive but the years and generations it takes to make hatchery issued barred rocks into heritage quality birds is MORE expensive. I've had good partridge birds from Ideal and bad ones from a couple other places - at least the Ideal chicks were thrifty, did well on free range and some went broody. It's far rarer to get a broody hatchery barred rock. Heritage quality partridge rocks are non-existent, show birds hard to get and not broody. I kept them for awhile but was discouraged at the difficulty obtaining better lines and once I'd raised Delawares, liked their size and foraging skills much better, their size at 16 weeks is easily a third larger than a normal partridge or barred rock, and still a bit larger than a white. The blues I have are large hens but I don't have a roo yet. I'm keeping my blues, but I sold the partridge and the barreds, the eggs were smaller, they didn't turn out a good sized meat carcass, at least not as big as the dels, and my marans eggs are larger yet, from a pullet, than many of the delawares' eggs. So I'll be keeping some marans.

Traditional homestead breeds were affected by what was expected and what was available - people took what they could get that did "well enough". While they are traditional, there are bad, decent and good examples of them, available in much different places. Half the poultry men I know locally were a tad surprised to learn a) that a barred rock should have a five point comb, and that cuckoo and barred are not the same color. AKA their constant confusion between what is a dominecker (dominique - totally different comb btw) and a Barred Plymouth Rock. I had to haul out the Standard and give an impromptu class on it once they found out I could tell the difference. They didn't even KNOW what they didn't know. Funny, I was loaning out that old black and white standard a lot over the following weeks. Many of them come by and ask if a bird is mixed or not, or to buy some of mine. I take that as high praise.

Going by what has been done is a good thing only to an extent. Would yesterday's barred rock owner have been happier with a bigger bird that produced bigger eggs? Probably. They did with what was regionally available and common. Ours is a wider world. If you start with hatchery birds, you will spend years, recreating the wheel, which can be gratifying but expensive, or you can go to a breeder who has already done that work and pay more for chicks. Or find a breed that without years of work, offers a bird nearer what you want. Because we have the internet, the sky's the limit. Delawares are also a heritage breed, as are buckeyes, Marans are a French breed, a dual purpose breed and while not readily available and not cheap, certainly one to look at if you're talking about the closest to true dual purpose that a breed can come.

So looking and asking is just flat brilliant, deciding whether you want to work up from hatchery, and it is work, or buy quality birds to begin with, that's both hard and part of learning that every choice is part of the learning process, and the joy of having chickens.

 

[beckymom3]

Hey, I'm right there with you and here's what I've chosen to hatch to add to my Dorkings, Australorps, Brahmas and Wyandottes: Delawares, Houdans (I was told they can be nicely broody), Buckeyes, Speckled Sussex and Exchequer Leghorns. I like big dual purpose birds with 5 toes (also have some "just for fun and broodiness" Silkies), an interesting history, Heritage value as well as just plain good looks. I've heard great things about how well Dorkings dress out as well as their broodiness and motherliness. Similar with Sussex. In my experience, as one other BYCer pointed out, Orpingtons are fat and lazy and so broody they are almost like the breeding cow of the chicken world. Like something with a thyroid problem and can't stop eating! Brahmas are very, very docile but not silly like orps, and mine love to free range, hunt for bugs, etc. I had similar issues with Cochins as the Orps. They hung out in the coop all day and night around the feed, even the rooster was a big baby!

Have great fun in this search. And look up the ALBC site as recommended. I love that site, it's great help in choosing what breeds might be worth your energy. There's value in working to revive a breed that helps us keep in touch with the origins of our food! That's the point of heritage and homesteading in my book: know your food and be independent of corporate models of living. Also great info on other types of livestock.