Landrace/adaptive breeding discussion

[EdgeC]

Rhode Island Reds do not go broody, which seems like something you would want.

You might want to look into Icelandic chickens. My neighbor has them and loves them. They don't lay as many eggs as RIR or leghorns, but they do lay in winter. Extremely winter hardy, great foragers. I don't know if they typically kill mice, but my neighbor's chickens do.

I am trying to breed them with silkies who are too broody, to introduce that into the RIR and I am adding Brahma (Both Dark and Light) who also go broody but also most importantly to me... makes the birds larger (silkies will shrink the reds) but with the right balance I think you could get the 3 traits.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I haven’t caught up on this thread completely but I have been looking into landrace “breeds” (specifically Greenfire Farms because they’re relatively close to me) and they say on that site that some of these breeds should not be bred to others in order to keep them pure, etc. It seems like that kind of advice is for people looking to sell eggs or birds, not necessarily for someone using them as a foundation for their own flock. I have seen on this thread where people are breeding game birds with other game birds, etc and I also think @Shadrach’s advice in the beginning about not starting with hatchery birds is interesting. It’s too late for me to just start with imported landrace birds and that also doesn’t sound very economical. Or fun. But getting a few and letting them mingle with the ones I have doesn’t seem like a bad idea to me. Right now it’s just a pipe dream so I have time to plan.

Edit to say my question is would that be a good way to start my own free range flock.

 

[LaurenRitz]

I haven’t caught up on this thread completely but I have been looking into landrace “breeds” (specifically Greenfire Farms because they’re relatively close to me) and they say on that site that some of these breeds should not be bred to others in order to keep them pure, etc. It seems like that kind of advice is for people looking to sell eggs or birds, not necessarily for someone using them as a foundation for their own flock. I have seen on this thread where people are breeding game birds with other game birds, etc and I also think @Shadrach’s advice in the beginning about not starting with hatchery birds is interesting. It’s too late for me to just start with imported landrace birds and that also doesn’t sound very economical. Or fun. But getting a few and letting them mingle with the ones I have doesn’t seem like a bad idea to me. Right now it’s just a pipe dream so I have time to plan.

Edit to say my question is would that be a good way to start my own free range flock.

I see no problem with using landraces.

I do not have the time, space, resources or interest to maintain a static flock, so if I did not buy these birds for my own purpose their "cause" would not recieve any support from me at all.

Also, any attempt to keep biology static is a losing proposition. Like it or not, these birds bear only a physical resemblance to their ancestors, if that.