Javas were one of the popular meat birds in the early 1900's (if I remember correctly). They are cold hardy, but you may need to watch roos with large combs just in case. They are a slow growing bird that is more independant than many dual purpose breeds. This can be a benefit when free ranging. They are excellent foragers and very intuned to what is going on around them. My flock has grown more curious and friendly with me as they have matured. Their personalities were slightly dissapointing to me until a switch seemed to be turned on one day. Now they are like "Where'd you come from? You're kind of interesting." My second batch was much friendlier from the start, so this may be more of a difference in the bloodlines. I've read conflicting opinion about layers. My birds just started laying in the past 2 weeks and seem to be laying 5 eggs a week. That's a good layer in my book. The toughest thing is finding good stock. It took me months to find hatching eggs. Now we have two different lines that we are going to cross. It is going to take some time, but in a few years we should have a very solid program.
Ellen
