Questions about "purebred"

[Martha444]

I bought some barred rocks from a hatchery. I'm interested in having them for my own food but also to help maintain a valuable heritage breed into the future.

I'm hatching extra chicks to sell into the local area and I'm wondering what "pure breed" means exactly. I obviously do not have show quality barred rock, probably have the industrial type that almost everyone has. My roosters are lovely, nicely sized and shaped but do not have the fine barring or perfect combs and waddles of the show quality birds, and my pullets and hens are keeping up with the breeds egg laying expectations, and meet the breeds general size range.

Does pure breed mean the show quality lines of birds? If so, how does this relate to birds of my type that are well, supposed to be more practical birds? And had an industrial line that was bred at a point still considered heritage? Their purpose is and was to make meat and eggs reliably for home farms, not only be pretty? Are the show quality lines also bred to meet the end product expectations of the home farm poultry keeper?

I don't really want to mislead people by selling a pure bred animal that is not really that. And there are a lot of hatchery detractors here, and people that say, "If you really want a pure bred animal you have to go to a breeder.". And, what does that mean for heritage breeds that already have a very small pool of genetics they are drawing from?

 

[Iluveggers]

I bought some barred rocks from a hatchery. I'm interested in having them for my own food but also to help maintain a valuable heritage breed into the future.

I'm hatching extra chicks to sell into the local area and I'm wondering what "pure breed" means exactly. I obviously do not have show quality barred rock, probably have the industrial type that almost everyone has. My roosters are lovely, nicely sized and shaped but do not have the fine barring or perfect combs and waddles of the show quality birds, and my pullets and hens are keeping up with the breeds egg laying expectations, and meet the breeds size range, but also everyone is a little dark in color, and doesn't have the fine barring.

Does pure breed mean the show quality lines of birds? If so, how does this relate to birds of my type that are well, supposed to be more practical birds? And had an industrial line that was bred at a point still considered heritage? Their purpose is and was to make meat and eggs reliably for home farms, not only be pretty? Are the show quality lines also bred to meet the end product expectations of the home farm poultry keeper?

I don't really want to mislead people by selling a pure bred animal that is not really that. And there are a lot of hatchery detractors here, and people that say, "If you really want a pure bred animal you have to go to a breeder.". And, what does that mean for heritage breeds that already have a very small pool of genetics they are drawing from?

If both hens & roosters are pure barred rock from a hatchery, they are pure bred barred rocks. Just not show quality.

 

[Coops Dad]

Your last sentence depicts my conundrum; I'm also looking for a good dual purpose chicken and have settled on Bresse and Rhode Island Reds. The RIRs are from a local guy whose birds are heavy bodies compared to hatchery examples, so that side is pretty much covered. The Bresse, though... the genetic pool for them is as shallow as a raindrop.

 

[Emmaloveschickens9156]

If both hens & roosters are pure barred rock from a hatchery, they are pure bred barred rocks. Just not show quality.

Yeah, agree.

 

[Martha444]

If both hens & roosters are pure barred rock from a hatchery, they are pure bred barred rocks. Just not show quality.

Thanks! In hindsight I'm not exactly sure where my confusion was coming from. Perhaps I was conflating peoples preferences with breed definitions.

 

[Perris]

Thanks! In hindsight I'm not exactly sure where my confusion was coming from. Perhaps I was conflating peoples preferences with breed definitions.

It's not just you; confusion on this is common. I find it helps to remember that no-one keeps pedigree books for chicken breeds; if a bird looks like the specified Standard of Perfection for a given breed, then it counts as that breed. Shows focus on what's visible, hence the emphasis on appearance, over e.g. resilience, number and quality of eggs laid, disease resistance or all the other qualities that might be important to a breeder or to you.

All modern breeds were created by cross-breeding, and good strains often used out breeding at some point(s) or other, any of which ancestors can throw up something unexpected in one offspring or other somewhere down the line. So variations appear even in 'pure' lines - and just get marked down in the show pen. Hope this helps.

 

[Siana]

This is exactly what I wanted to understand, thank you! To me, it is strange and unusual that poultry don't have pedigrees (because I am used to how it is with dogs), but I guess I will get used to this concept. It can be a bit difficult to make sure you don't buy relatives of your birds when looking to add fresh blood, if the breed is not very widespread. A friend had to outcross her rare breed hens and then cross back to return to the type. Challenging and exciting!

 

[Cammo77]

This is exactly what I wanted to understand, thank you! To me, it is strange and unusual that poultry don't have pedigrees (because I am used to how it is with dogs), but I guess I will get used to this concept. It can be a bit difficult to make sure you don't buy relatives of your birds when looking to add fresh blood, if the breed is not very widespread. A friend had to outcross her rare breed hens and then cross back to return to the type. Challenging and exciting!

I struggled to understand it all as I came from horse and dog breeding. If both parents are pure bred then the offspring are pure bred. Everything registered was pedigreed. Trying to pedigree chickens would be hard unless they were in pairs.

 

[Perris]

It can be a bit difficult to make sure you don't buy relatives of your birds when looking to add fresh blood, if the breed is not very widespread.

yes, this is a real problem with rare breeds, especially those people are trying to rescue from oblivion, like the North Holland Blue. But chickens have a lot of DNA to begin with (78 chromosomes; we have 46) so there's lots of scope for variation at every generation.

 

[Siana]

Ah, I didn't know that! I need to read something on poultry, at last. Thank you!