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I can only give you my experience from growing up on a farm in Oklahoma. My uncles all raised chickens, and would tend to lean towards one of three varieties for whatever reason - Dominickers, Barred Rocks, and Rhode Island Red - depending on the uncle in question. These were raised in rural farm conditions - they were not kept penned for the most part, slept in coops or the rafters of barns, and provided the vast majority of their own feed by free ranging in the cow pastures or turned fields when corn or other crops were planted. Without going into a lengthy discussion of their relative merits and opinions - which were sometimes the subject of lively debate - I can tell you the similarities I saw between them.
First is ALL THREE had a rather aggressive bent to their personality. I do not know if this is a breed tendency, or an environmental factor of life on a rural farm, but you did not want to run through a flock of them or surprise them. If you walked calmly through them however you tended not to have a problem. I have seen more than one rooster set a hungry cat to running however so it is fair to say they can become aggressive if they feel provoked or threatened. I will say that for the most part none were too happy to be picked up and handled, unless that particular bird had been handled a lot from the time they hatched. I remember my uncles always wearing gloves when it was time to send them to freezer camp for this reason. Yet I also remember a huge rock rooster who thought he was my puppy, followed me everywhere, and loved to sit in my lap or beside me wherever I went. So I think there is a combination of both innate disposition as well as environment in this question.
Second is ALL THREE seem to do quite well in such surroundings, free ranging, and so forth. I could never tell a huge difference between them, possibly giving a slight nod to the dominickers, but all would work fine and served this purpose quite well.
Third they all layed well enough. Decent sized eggs, and probably 4 or 5 eggs a week out of 7 during the time they were laying. Not sure how many this amounts to per hen, but they always kept 40 or 50 so it was never an issue. There were always plenty of eggs. I think maybe the Rhode Island Reds had a small edge here, but that shouldn't surprise anyone.
Forth they were all eaten at the supper table. Again no surprise but the Barred Rocks seemed to do the best in this area by virtue of size if nothing else.
Fifth the OLDER hens would go sometimes go broody and become a living incubator. This didn't seem to hold true for the pullet year, but often would start showing on their second season. Pullets from known broody hens were often kept past the first year for this purpose. Good hens could be around for quite awhile it seemed, as a 2 legged incubator. So where you hear that some of these breeds never go broody - it just is not the case, at least from what I saw as a kid. It was however usually older hens that became the momma hens.
As far as noise goes - I couldn't see any difference. Roosters crowed. Period. Every morning. Sitting on the roof of the house. They would start blowing at the first hint of dawn. Didn't matter what kind. They would say hello to the dawn. Chickens tended not to be too noisy overall unless something was moving around - then there would be a ruckus.
Don't know if this helps - or if it is even relevant. My memories date back to the late 60's and the 1970's. At 2011 - there is a lot of water under the bridge from then to now. But if we are talking old heritage breeds - this is what I noticed when they were not nearly so old as they are today.
I can only give you my experience from growing up on a farm in Oklahoma. My uncles all raised chickens, and would tend to lean towards one of three varieties for whatever reason - Dominickers, Barred Rocks, and Rhode Island Red - depending on the uncle in question. These were raised in rural farm conditions - they were not kept penned for the most part, slept in coops or the rafters of barns, and provided the vast majority of their own feed by free ranging in the cow pastures or turned fields when corn or other crops were planted. Without going into a lengthy discussion of their relative merits and opinions - which were sometimes the subject of lively debate - I can tell you the similarities I saw between them.
First is ALL THREE had a rather aggressive bent to their personality. I do not know if this is a breed tendency, or an environmental factor of life on a rural farm, but you did not want to run through a flock of them or surprise them. If you walked calmly through them however you tended not to have a problem. I have seen more than one rooster set a hungry cat to running however so it is fair to say they can become aggressive if they feel provoked or threatened. I will say that for the most part none were too happy to be picked up and handled, unless that particular bird had been handled a lot from the time they hatched. I remember my uncles always wearing gloves when it was time to send them to freezer camp for this reason. Yet I also remember a huge rock rooster who thought he was my puppy, followed me everywhere, and loved to sit in my lap or beside me wherever I went. So I think there is a combination of both innate disposition as well as environment in this question.
Second is ALL THREE seem to do quite well in such surroundings, free ranging, and so forth. I could never tell a huge difference between them, possibly giving a slight nod to the dominickers, but all would work fine and served this purpose quite well.
Third they all layed well enough. Decent sized eggs, and probably 4 or 5 eggs a week out of 7 during the time they were laying. Not sure how many this amounts to per hen, but they always kept 40 or 50 so it was never an issue. There were always plenty of eggs. I think maybe the Rhode Island Reds had a small edge here, but that shouldn't surprise anyone.
Forth they were all eaten at the supper table. Again no surprise but the Barred Rocks seemed to do the best in this area by virtue of size if nothing else.
Fifth the OLDER hens would go sometimes go broody and become a living incubator. This didn't seem to hold true for the pullet year, but often would start showing on their second season. Pullets from known broody hens were often kept past the first year for this purpose. Good hens could be around for quite awhile it seemed, as a 2 legged incubator. So where you hear that some of these breeds never go broody - it just is not the case, at least from what I saw as a kid. It was however usually older hens that became the momma hens.
As far as noise goes - I couldn't see any difference. Roosters crowed. Period. Every morning. Sitting on the roof of the house. They would start blowing at the first hint of dawn. Didn't matter what kind. They would say hello to the dawn. Chickens tended not to be too noisy overall unless something was moving around - then there would be a ruckus.
Don't know if this helps - or if it is even relevant. My memories date back to the late 60's and the 1970's. At 2011 - there is a lot of water under the bridge from then to now. But if we are talking old heritage breeds - this is what I noticed when they were not nearly so old as they are today.
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