Interesting thread and perhaps a bit ... disheartening? We have a small flock of Silkies for fun and have decided to expand into a dual purpose bird for meat and eggs. I've done some checking around and reading before making the plunge. The heritage birds appealed to me and my husband as they represented so many things we are loosing to a faster, more, poor quality society we are turning in to.
I guess I'm feeling like it's pointless to try because there's no way we can produce hundreds of birds a year. It's just him and I on 5 acres of land. Am I right in feeling its pointless and we can't even make a small contribution?
Hum.. you need to read some of thedragonlady's posts.
She has been in poultry over 50 yrs. Has very few birds
and raises a minimum of chicks each year. However, her
Buff Orpingtons are admired nationwide for their beauty
of type and production virtues. It's not how many you
have, its how you breed them. Some breeds need 100's
hatched a year, some don't. It all depends on the breeder's
aims and the needs of the breed. Some of the breeds here
on this thread are a work of preservation so they don't
disappear. The gene pools are smaller, the birds need more
upgrading after decades of neglect because they weren't
popular anymore. Other breeds here have actually been
recreated to help preserve what was left of the gene pool
thru the same neglect due to lack of popularity. Still other
breeds here are hugely popular and bred to a very high standard
because they meet today's needs for show, eggs and meat.
It all depends on which breed you start out with and what
you want
from that breed and to do
for that breed.
Of course you can make a contribution.
These breeds
which are well-
bred now won't stay well-bred if they don't
have folk willing to breed them. That's how these other once
well known breeds came to need saving.
Pick a well-bred breed which doesn't require 100's of chicks
a year. Pick a well known strain to maintenance. This is very
important. Because if the other folks having that strain have
a catastrophe like a predator hit, they need to be able to
resource their flocks. How will they do that if no one else has
the strain ?
Stewardship of the strain is the flip side of preservation of the
strain. Older breeders can share how many important strains
disappeared because the owner died or left the poultry world
without making sure the strain survived in other hands, or
died and the family dispursed the flock because they weren't
interested or didn't see it's value.
Best Regards,
Karen and the Light Sussex
