Long Term Sustainability - What's the best combination?

[warmfuzzies]

I was wanting just the sort of set-up you are describing! My goal was to have chickens that could supply us with eggs, while raising enough of their own babies to replenish the stock and also give us a good portion of our chicken meat for the year.

I chose Partiridge Rocks, a breed you dont hear much about. They are beautiful red/brown birds that some sources say are one of the best non- bantam broodys. I dont know, mine will be one year this spring, so we will see! Thay are a heavy bird, but they are also decent egg layers.

I also have Cochin, which are not good layers, but they are big and they are supposed to make excellent mothers. They also lay steadily during the winter, which is nice when the others are slacking off.

I think what is importent, though, is to find a good dual purpose bird if you are wanting any babies or meat birds. The best layers are no good as either mothers or meat.


Sandspoultry, I am also very interested about how to stay out of trouble with inbreeding. How close is too close?

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

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Thanks...

And, if I go with just, say one batch of RIRs, is it ok to breed brothers and sisters, or do I get two different sets of chickens from 2 different batches of birds?

Marty

Ya know, they make a sex link with Delaware roo over New Hampshire Red hens - not sure if that would work with RIR too, or not. (with the NHR/Del the roos are white the hens are red).

Maybe try putting a Delaware roo with your RIR hens and see what ya get? It would certainly make culling and/or selling easier if ya knew what you had early on. The roos you could feed Broiler Finisher to make them bigger for the stew pot and grill

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just a thought -
meri

 

[PacsMan]

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Ok, a couple of newbie questions.

1) Can someone tell me the difference between bantam and non-bantam birds? Is one better over the other?

2) What is line breeding?

Thanks guys!

Marty

 

[warmfuzzies]

Bantams are miniturized versians of standards, which are regular sized chickens. Most Bantams, or banties, are very broody, but most standard breeds have had this bred out of them.

 

[swampwander]

I'm late to this post. I have BO's. My absolute worst layer is my best brooder and mother. She really isn't good for much else because she's also my smallest BO. I don't have a roo, but if someone wants pure BO's I get a few eggs from DSD (she has a real nice BO roo and hens I raised for her)and stick them under my almost constant broody hen. She does all the work. The roo DSD has is fairly quiet, campared to the local feral flock and has only been known to attack when he's guarding the eggs in the coop.

Good luck!!!

 

[AHappychick]

Australorps make for good dual purpose birds. Getting a silkie for fun and broodiness would be good,

chickens can be inbred with out the usual inbred problems so you can breed the child back to the parent with out problems.

I would go for some mixed breeds or make your own mix, I seem to get the best size and eggs from my mutts. I like Brahma and RIR mixed or Brahma with anything really makes a nice sized bird

 

[patandchickens]

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With inbreeding (bro to sis etc) you will run into trouble in the future. You can go 2 routes. From time to time add new blood into the mix or line breed them.

Inbreeding is often not a problem for a pretty long time, though. It just really depends on what gene pool you start with.

Also depends on what if anything you do with selective breeding (that is to say, whether you're exercising any editorial control over who does/doesn't get to contribute to the next generation).

I don't think there's any reason for a person to shy away from a reasonable degree of inbreeding as long as they are prepared to be attentive to what each generation is like, make a few decisions, and recognize that there may come a time down the road a ways when you wish you had kept a couple lines separate and have to add one or two new birds instead. (Or of course if you *did* keep a couple semi-separate lines, then there is no problem at all).

Pat

 

[PacsMan]

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How are Australorps on broodiness? I've heard that they don't do so well.

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hmm... there's just something a little taboo about that one... maybe it's my upbringing

 

[PortageGirl]

Hehe, chickens don't share your taboo, they don't recognize familial links at all, and it's the best way to select for certain things at least to a point… Past that point, it’s easy to go to a show, swap, or sale, or friend's coop, and get a new roo every year or so once you've let the current ones breed a while. It's also easier to isolate a trio or quad of a roo and a couple hens, for a selected cross periodically. Then, even if THOSE hens aren’t broody, you can put the fertile eggs under a different broody hen. They don’t care who’s eggs they sit on either.

Don’t forget you have to wait for 3 or more weeks (most folks say 4 to be sure) before you can be sure it’s only the selected roosters sperm that fertilizes the eggs.

 

[digitS']

Your Barred Rock hens can be used for producing sex-link chicks. It is the solid colored rooster (like the RIR) and the silver (like the Barred Rock) hens that can be used and you will know from hatch which is a male and which is a female. There will also be some hybrid vigor in these birds.

The poorest-layer broody is a common theme. I've only allowed one broody of a standard. (The bantams were mostly allowed to do their own thing.) The standard was a BO and the poorest layer at the time. Honestly, I think that good layers have a hard time turning off egg production long enuf to become broody.

For this reason I would not try to encourage broodiness even in a dual purpose flock. An older hen from a breed that is known for this quality, like a Cochin, may be the best idea.

I don't recall my Australorps ever wanting to go broody. They are productive egg-layers and also a pretty good meat bird.

Steve