Looks vs Egg Production

[arthury]

Hi there,

Does egg productivity and looks run counter to each other for any of the Heritage breeds?

Thanks,
Art

 

[alibra]

Orpingtons are a heritage breed. Theyre beautiful birds in my opinion. There are many color varieties. Mine lay 3-5 large beige eggs per week.

Check out this PDF: http://www.aviculture-europe.nl/nummers/08E03A05.pdf

 

[Fred's Hens]

Not in my experience. That is, such need not be the case.

The true bred, bred to standard bird lays what the breed was intended to lay. 180-200 eggs per year for our Rocks and Reds. Some will lay even a bit better.

When selecting for breeding, not everyone selects for temperament. I do. Not everyone selects for egg laying. I do. It is possible to so narrowly focus on the bird's appearance and not account for other traits to the bird. This ignores, however, that the bird has heritage traits, such as meat, temperament and egg laying, that also make it the bird the originators intended.

What isn't going to happen is making a Rock or old fashioned Red into the 300 eggs per year production types typically sold today at feed stores and hatcheries. To get that high level of laying, the old breeds often had Brown Leghorn crossed into the Reds to hype production. Since most of these American class, so called Heritage birds were composite breeds, it is a simple matter to jack up the egg laying, but at a great cost to the breed's true type. When this is done, the brick shape, the deep mahogany color and often the temperament of the true RIR is greatly effected.

I see Barred Rocks here almost every day where the Mediterranean influence is quite obvious, an influence that doesn't belong in a Rock. That out crossing can increase egg production by 30% or more but seriously changes bird's type.