Hmm. Had to ponder this a bit. Your first sentence seems to indicate that a "homestead bird" is a bad thing, but it is in fact what the founders you frequently cite were trying to develop when they created the breed back in the 1840s and standardized in November of 1898. At least that is my interpretation of, and I quote from, your own website article:
"It was the passion of these early members to have a dual-purpose large fowl chicken. They decided they wanted this breed to have a brick-shaped frame - giving it a large egg laying capacity but still sustaining lots of meat for eating. In addition, the objective was to have a pullet that would weight about six pounds and a cockerel that would weigh about eight pounds at eight months of age. The final goal of the early founders of this breed was to have a beautiful bird, which would be even in color, such as the current Rhode Island Reds, with lustrous crimson shaded feathers."
Is that not what you and others are breeding for now? I plan to. The only place we differ is the TIMING of setting up our breeding pens. I set up fall/autumn breeding pens because I ALSO want chickens that have a tendency/trait to continue laying throughout the winter and/or moult later. It is a heritable trait, just like color and type. Given our temperate Novembers it works for me. And apparently it will work for anyone who wants autumn eggs/chicks. I'm not planning to cross breed RIRs into production reds...that's been done by others already...and I'm not impressed.
You live even further south than I and could easily breed in the autumn but you don't /didn't because (I assume) your focus is/was showing which times the peak maturity of the stock with the show season. In other words the chickens are bred on the exhibitor's schedule, not their own. Not a crime certainly but, IMHO, not the best way to select for late season egg laying if that is one's goal --- and it is mine. I don't have chickens for just the pleasure of watching them run around, though that is a bonus. I'm a small scale farmer and businessperson. We sell produce (veggies, herbs, flowers, honey, jams/jellies) and eggs in season as well as baked goods, particularly around the holidays, for which I need eggs. Chickens here are certainly pretty (at least I think so) but they also need to work.
I am also confused by your comment about the scope of this thread. I understood it to be about "heritage" or traditional type RIR as opposed to production reds. That's what I have been referring to and what I've been reading and learning about over the past 578 pages.
I have no problem with what the "Homesteading" crowd does with their chickens. As a matter of fact I have no problem with what anyone's prerogatives are with their chickens as long as the take care of them and treat them in a humane manner. It is the "Homesteading" crowd that always seems to criticize the "Show" crowd.
I think you may have a slight misunderstanding of what "we" do with our chickens and what they are capable of. My birds are laying right now and they will lay some throughout the winter albeit sporadically like you suggested earlier "one or two eggs a week" but if you give them the proper amount of light during the months in which they naturally slow down they will lay as if it were spring. Yes we do that so that the birds are as old and mature as possible as cockerels and Pullets for fall shows. All we are trying to do is jump start their natural spring laying cycle so that we can hatch earlier than normal. Some may think that this stresses the chickens but it doesn't because when you take the lights off in late spring they slow down laying and go through their natural laying rest period as if it were their summer slow down.
You made some pretty pointed comments as if they were fact and they are not. The quote I made earlier about "only laying in spring and summer" is simply not true. We have not bred these birds to genetically do that as you suggested. If left alone they will lay just as they were intended to 100 years ago. So there again is my point...you shouldn't make assumptions about things you have no experience with.
Matt
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