WHY ARE RARE BREEDS RARE?

[seedcorn]

Easy answer is most people raise chickens for eggs or meat. They picked the most efficient breeds so less efficient breeds dropped down in numbers and became rare. Luckily some people do it more out of love so they kept certain genes alive. In the 60's the breeder companies were worried that genes would disappear that would later be valued.

 

[bigzio]

Heritage breeds are healthier than hybred breeds for specific purposes like eggs and meat.

Meat bird varieties burn out before a year old, and the hybred layers are becoming worn out a two years, while the heritage breeds are still going strong for years to come.

I would think an egg every other day from hens that are 3 years old and older is a ok thing at my place.

The older healthy flocks are a true fun experience, just their anticks are priceless....

bigzio

 

[seedcorn]

Heritage breeds are healthier than hybred breeds for specific purposes like eggs and meat.

No they are not. Many "heritage" breeds are inbred so bad, it's not funny. Egg laying production birds are the "healthiest" and toughest birds in existance. All hens come with a set number of eggs that they can lay in a life time. Do you want the majority of them in 2 years and then replace the hens or do want them scattered over 4 years? If you consider feed/doz. of eggs, eggs layers dominate "heritage" breeds.
Meat types' offspring do have leg problems and become so huge that they do have other health issues. The thing is that they've been bred to to butcher in 4-6 weeks depending on size you want them. Their parents do not have said problems, it's their offspring. Again if you look at feed/lb. of gain, clear winner here.

So if you are trying to raise broilers or gather eggs for a living, you will buy "production" birds. If you can find someone who will pay 2-3X more, then raise whatever the buyer wants.

 

[fowlafoot]

Quote:
You are right, that's the attitude that drove a lot of these breeds into rarity. I would argue with toughest and healthiest birds being the egg laying production stock. They are also becoming inbred with greater stress on the highest production, unless they are in the first few generations they no longer benefit from the hybrid vigor it's now selection for production that causes the yield. No commerical breed is really bred for disease resistance. That's why we have such high biosecurity concerns. Heritage breeds can be inbred as well due to lack of genetic diversity because they are rare. It all depends on the breeder and the breeders resources. Heritage and rare breeds were what created the production stock so it would be in our best interest to keep both around for continued genetic diversity.

 

[seriousbill]

Well, yes, I agree with Fowlafoot. Commercial production strains are efficient and cost effective, but they're rapidly becoming a huge, static genetic pool. When I say this, I'm referring primarily to the big-time industrial breeds like the production White Leghorn. I'm not referring to hatchery-based consumer-marketed production birds like the Comet. What bigzio meant rather than "healthier" may have been "more natural." Heritage breeds are sometimes resistant to diseases that could wipe out the genetically similar commercial layers, and they maintain natural abilities such as broodiness that we have artificially bred out of most of the hatchery production strains.

Sure, breeds like the Delaware were inbred in the past, but there are now folks interested in breed preservation that have been working with these breeds to recoup them from obscurity and make them healthier. Not to mention the fact that hatchery strains of heritage birds are some of the healthiest birds you'll see, because they've been outcrossed for vigor and production. They may not make the show circuit, and might disappoint the history/heritage buff, but darned if they're not healthy.

With the new interest in homesteading, self-sufficiency, and locally-produced food, there's a lot of renewed interest in the old heritage breeds that make good all-around family farm birds. This is very good news for rare breeds like the Delaware and the Buckeye, which excel at being old-timey dual-purpose chickens.

 

[chicken_boy_Kurt]

Quote:
I read an article in Backyard Poultry (lol) that if you wait a little longer (which you can do with heritage breeds since they don't have leg problems) the bird will taste better because they have had more time to grow more bone mass and muscle tone therefore they taste better. I don't know if them tasting better from the muscle tone is true but its something to think about.

Equibling I am just like you lol, I have Sumatras (critical) and am thinking of getting true Araucanas (study) next year.

 

[silkiechicken]

Another thing that I think makes birds "rare" is their conformation to the standard. A RIR isn't "rare" per se, but a good show quality bird who conforms to the standard is much harder to come by, thus making the standard rare. I'd have to say almost every long time chicken owner has had a "RIR" but most were "production RIR's".

As for heritage vs production, there is hybrid vigor, and there is a happy medium. The mutt is the most vigorous, as anything bred for a highly specific trait can be "bred true" will lose diversity in their genes. Be it conformation to a heritage standard, or for the most eggs, they lose their vigor over that good old, unpredictable Heinz 57 chicken.

 

[seriousbill]

Quote:
Generally true, but I still think Fowlafoot has a point about the variation in breeder skill and health of stock. A good breeder can maintain vigor in standard program more than a lot of people think.

 

[fowlafoot]

In terms of taste it's actually interesting... a lot of ethnic groups prefer the slower maturing game breeds and don't butcher until 7 months old or so. Cubalaya (threatened according to ALBC) are actually prized by epicures because of the quality of their white meat. We eat quantity over quality and most don't even know what they are missing.

Hybrid vigor is a very good happy medium, the birds I keep for our egg and meat use are random crosses of dual purpose hatchery stock. They are great birds for meat and eggs.

For our heritage and rare breeds we work very hard to create breeding plans that utilize stock from different lines or families to prevent inbreeding. It's well worth the effort in the quality of birds produced but not every one has the time or money for a conservation project.

 

[seedcorn]

Quote:
None of these first 3 bolded statements are accurate. Commercial stock is most definetly bred for disease resistance. The "parent" stock is inbred thus giving the offspring the greatest amount of hybrid vigor available. Production birds are NEVER inbred.

Biosecurity concerns are over the environment not the genetics. Put ANY "heritage" bird in their environment and they wouldn't last 2 months.

Heritage and rare breeds were what production stock came from and it's most definetly in everyone's best interest to keep them alive and well. Poultry breeder firms have access to more genetics than any single person or breed has and they do cherish them.