Which Roo To Keep?

[jenifry]

I would think that when they offer RIR at a reputable hatchery they wouldn't be the "production reds" that I see, where they cross them with leghorns, but I suppose that's wishful thinking.

 

[donrae]

Well, look at the hatchery birds, then look at the pics of the true heritage birds on the breed thread. I'm betting you'll see a huge difference. I've not looked at the reds so much as they're not my thing, but with barred Rocks there's a world of difference.

 

[jenifry]

Well... I brought home the new girls, and the new guy, and now have two bloody roosters in separate cages. I watched them for three hours and nothing, I go in the house and BAM, they try to kill each other. Even the little Americauna chimed in. I guess I have a week or two to decide while they heal up.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Do as you please not as I say:

Heritage breeds tend to be grossly inbred and some are so closely bred, that it makes difficult for the amateur backyard chicken enthusiasts to rear or even to keep some heritage breeds alive. In my opinion the only reason to keep "pure" heritage breeds when you're starting out with chickens is because you are intending to cross breed two compatible heritage breeds in order to have a healthier, more robust, type of chicken or because you are intending to inbreed a heritage chicken for the fancy fowl market or else to keep a few around for personal eye candy.

A little background information here, if you intend to perpetuate a heritage breed, you had best have a very sharp hatchet close at hand, own a robust chopping block, have easy access to a means to quickly re-sharpen your hatchet, and above all be prepared to use the hatchet, the chopping block, and the grind stone and mercilessly cull, cull, cull in order to achieve your goal. If you fail to cull close enough, sooner or later someone will see the hoard of sub-standard or cull chickens on your place and the word will quickly spread, "Don't buy from breeder X because he or she only has a bunch of substandard or mongrel chickens running loose on their place." Once this happens your hard earned reputation is shot, and your customer base will end up on the compost pile.

Whether you are X breeding chickens for more health, vim, vigor, and vitality or if you are in breeding heritage chickens because you are enchanted with some trait bred into them, in the chicken world there is room for both production Xs and heritage breeds and breeders, but not necessarily living on the same track of land.

 

[lazy gardener]

I vote for the BO roo. I've never been fond of RIR, had one that was truly nasty. He'd just as soon as rip my hand off as look at me. Spent his last few weeks before being invited to dinner in solitary confinement. It sounds like you will be breeding your own replacement stock. Do you have a place to grow out your roosters away from the rest of your flock? I think a BO x RIR might actually be better than either a BO or a RIR! But, that's just my warped sense of what is right and wrong in the world of chickens.

Now, Chickengeorgeto: All I can say is WOW! I've gotta ask you, what are your flock dynamics? Hatchery, Herritage, breeding program, back yard mix? From reading between the lines from a lot of posters re: what they're trying to do with establishing flocks of endangered breeds, I totally understand what you're saying. So what's your philosophy re: working with established pure breeds, vs. introducing blood from a different breed to stir up the gene pool a bit, when the goal is to bring a breed back to it's original vigor???

 

[jenifry]

My sole goal is eggs in the fridge at this point, I don't intend to sell chicks. I just want replacements so I don't have to shell out 50$ a year. I may keep both Roos. I cleaned up their combs, and let them sort it out. The BO has put the RIR in his place, and he hasn't even looked crosswise at my daughter today. We finally killed off our remaining meat birds today, and it's a little humorous: the BO has taken the entire older flock, and left the RIR his young set of three BO hens. They are at peace today, and the Ameracauna took a two second beating from the BO and gave him a wide berth. I don't need three Roos, but I do have 17 hens at the moment, so two wouldn't be bad if they get along.