Thank you, I have a better understanding. I kinda thought the term would mean an older established breed that reproduces true. I guess I'm in between. I want birds that lay eggs pretty consistently but would also like some hens that will brood and raise chicks. Any chick that comes from my birds now are "mutts" because my roo is a mix breed. I just hope since I got three pullets from the last hatch that they will be good layers in a few months. They are almost 6 months old. And make a good batch of dumplings later in life.
Well, there's still more to it. You have to look at what you want out of your birds.
If you get birds that originally came from a hatchery, chances are they are going to be egg laying machines no matter what.
But if you decide that you wanted to get "heritage" birds from a breeder, then you can still get good laying birds too. There are chickens bred for egg laying, chickens bred for meat production, and chickens bred to be dual-purpose - which means that they will be decent egg layers and decent meat birds, but they aren't going to be as good as the best egg layers or the best meat producing birds.
And THEN, you have what the breeder has been selectively breeding for. You can still push these old bloodline birds to improve on egg laying or meat production. So even if a breed is a dual-purpose breed, if you selectively breed for better egg production, you can get it after a few generations if you keep selecting for better egg layers.
Also what your families' needs are and how many birds you have come into play too. A good number of our Javas lay about every other day to every couple of days. Some of them lay every day for a while, and then take a few days off and then lay every day for a while etc. And for just me and my husband, even when we just had 6 hens that laid every other day - that was WAY more eggs than we could use up most of the time.
When I am choosing breeders, I am examining them for all kinds of things. I'm checking to see things like what they weigh, do they have pinched tails, what is their pelvic bone width, what is their keel depth, who has big thick shanks, who matured the fastest, who laid first, who increased the size of their eggs first, how often is the chicken laying....with last year's hatch I kept a pullet that had a horrid comb that would disqualify her in a show, but she was the heaviest in the hatch and actually met the correct SOP weight for a pullet. She matured the fastest, laid sooner and more often, she had a wider pelvic bone width - things that I want to see in more of our birds. Now in her offspring I will have to work on combs, since she has such a bad one, but I'm hoping it will be worth it to get her better size and pelvic capacity introduced into the flock down the road. And she is already an improvement over her mother, so that was terrific for our first year of serious breeding.
This kind of serious breeding is NOT for everybody. It's a lot of extra work. But there are people that get heritage birds because they like them even though they aren't going breed seriously. So don't let all the hype deter you from getting birds that you like, whether they are from a breeder or a hatchery. It's about what suits your needs and goals for your flock.
