Landrace/adaptive breeding discussion

[Mother of Chaos]

that's a good point.

It, and BLC's point quoted below, prompts another: that 'insta-flocks' (you have a talent for neologisms @Mother of Chaos ) are composed of unrelated members, whereas all my birds think they are related (even if actually they are not), because all but the eldest hens were hatched and raised within the flock.

I'm sure that's a key feature with regard to multiple roos getting on especially; perhaps because they all share genes, so some of their genes will be passed on whoever sires whom, and perhaps because as a large social group they are promiscuous (males mate with multiple females, females mate with multiple males). The latter also selects against hurting any chick, because in such a situation that might lead to adults killing their own offspring.

I firmly believe that the more closely we can get to providing the general conditions in which chickens evolved (feed, habitat, flock size and make-up, etc.), the healthier a flock will be. Allowing a flock to move toward this original lifestyle should be a prime goal for all chicken-keepers.

And no, I'm not talking about playing dress-up and imitating 18th century life. It's understanding the conditions in which a specific animal thrives and doing our best to duplicate them with the options we have today.

Obviously I'm far away from being able to provide a setting like those that you or @No Coop No Problem or others have. But I'm getting them out of their run into varied mini-habitats in the backyard as much as I can, providing a run that imitates a forest floor, and so forth.

- I've given up trying to believe that I know what's coming in the future, haha sort of, but it seems very unlikely that I'll suddenly find myself with 10 acres of undeveloped land. But I know what I'd do with chickens if that were to happen, thanks to posters here.