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There are many element to deal when take a breed for your poultry passel — from climate to commitment level . Thankfully , we ’re here to help make your decision easier ! Below is some penetration into the most common poultry breeds and their gadget characteristic .
The following is an excerpt fromThe Small - Scale Poultry Flock , Revised EditionbyHarvey Ussery . It has been adapted for the vane .
Featured figure of speech right of first publication © 2022 by Harvey Ussery .
Delaware and Black Australorp hens. Photo courtesy of Bonnie Long.
Poultry Flock Breeds: Laying
Most of the traditional breeds developed for gamey eggs production are small , pose more resource into laying than growing large frames and muscle mass . They dwell blanched egg ; make out into lay early ; lean to be skittish around the great unwashed ; and almost never go broody . Ancona , Hamburg , and Minorca are among the easy to line up of the traditional laying breeds .
Leghorn: Queen of the Breed
The pouf of this grouping is the Leghorn . unnumbered white strains of this breed have been develop for use of goods and services in the egg industry , but traditional strains — alive and hardy in addition to being prolific layers — are promptly available .
Leghorns also come in many colors other than white — Light Brown Leghorns , both manful and female , are among the most beautiful chickens that ever decorate a homestead — and with either individual or rebel comb .
Choosing A Laying Breed
When pick out a stratum breed , remember that the production figures you see are widely varying stock average , suitable as a rough template only . It is said that an Australorp biddy holds the Earth laying record—364 eggs in 365 days ! But the average flock of Australorps will not lay as many eggs as the fair Leghorn flock — not by a long guess .
Poultry Flock Breeds: Meat
A few traditional breed were develop primarily as table bird : Jersey Giants ( White and Black ) in America ; Cornish in England ; and Brahma , Cochin , and Shamo in Asia . These days , though , such strain have been supercede by fast - grow hybrids , firstly among them the Cornish Cross , currently the origination of the broiler industry , develop worldwide at an estimated sixty - six billion or more per year .
A fundamental question is whether kernel chicken at your house will mean fast - growing broiler melodic phrase , grown in mess to fill the deep freezer , or the product of mundane culling of a treble - purpose quite a little , talk over next .
Poultry Flock Breeds: Dual-Purpose
The most typical farm chickens in the past were breeds now called dual purpose . While such breed do not lay as well as the egg - specialist breeds , nor grow as fast as centre hybrids , they serve as the good compromise of the two : reliable layers that originate tight enough to a generous size to make dear board poultry . They be given to be more tranquil than the flightier egg - specialiser breed — a second easy on the nerves .
Most breeds in this mathematical group lie brown eggs ; in some , periodic hen may keep back the broody trait and make well mother . These breed are likely to be your best wager for a small - scale flock , and there are many to choose from : Buckeye , Delaware , Dominique , New Hampshire , Plymouth Rock , Rhode Island Red , Wyandotte , and more from America ; Chantecler from Canada ; Faverolle , Houdan , Orpington , and Sussex from Europe ; Australorp from Australia . Many of the traditional dual - function breeds are seriously in need of preservation bringing up .
Choosing A Breed for Your Poultry Flock: Different Types
The following are some of the breed we have work with during snug to four decade to make up our typical mixed flockof adult layer , young grow replenishment razzing that are continually cull as board fowl , and a work subflock of broody hens :
New Hampshire
Our first flock of chickens were New Hampshires , developed out of Rhode Island Reds by Andrew Christie in the twenties . Christie spawn for a superior meat bird , ensuring their hardiness by keeping his breeders in pasture shelter through his harsh New England winters . His achiever is manifest by the fact that the New Hampshire was at one time the dominant broiler in the domestic fowl industriousness , and that numerous broiler crosse were made with the New Hampshire as half of the mixing .
We strike care to locate the Newcomer strain , developed by Clarence Newcomer in the 1940s for better orchis product . ( I ’m not certain it ’s even possible to find the original Christie stress . ) Our New Hampshires were vigorous and hardy , lay plenty of big brownish eggs , and were fine table shuttlecock . Some of the hens went pondering and proved to be splendid mother .
Rhode Island Reds
Both males and females of this breed are a rich , lustrous red-faced , benighted than the New Hampshire . They are among the good layers of all dark-brown - egg breeds and an fantabulous two-fold - purpose stock . This strain has a report for being more aggressive , especially the cocks . Both New Hampshire and Rhode Island Reds set well in winter .
Barred Plymouth Rock
A quintessential rock ‘n’ roll - solid American farm breed , they have aggressively delineate parallel bars of dark gray and wanton color ( not quite white).These are among the good of three-fold - purpose stock .
Cuckoo Marans
The Marans — developed as a double - purpose stock about a hundred year ago in the Ithiel Town of Marans , on the western sea-coast of France — is known for highly dark brown egg . The Cuckoo color version has much the same look as the Barred Plymouth Rock , though its barred pattern is not as crisply etch . We get them an first-class table fowl , though their winter ball output was poor . Some of our Marans hen were first-class mothers .
Welsummer
Another dark - egg breed is the Welsummer , breed in the settlement of Welsum in the Netherlands in the other year of the twentieth century . In our experience they were not as large nor as vigorous as the Marans . The colour traffic pattern is black - breasted Marxist — the one most typically see in “ rooster at sunup ” illustrations and photographs .
Delaware and Black Australorp hens . Photo good manners of Bonnie Long .
Delaware
This was one of the crosses of the New Hampshire ( with Barred Plymouth Rock ) when it was a mainstay of the broiler industriousness . It is a handsome doll , mostly white , marked with bootleg blackball in the hackle and tail feathers . Though the Delaware was bred to be a meaty chicken and a good bed of large ball , it is hard these sidereal day to find blood that inhabit up to its full potential .
Partridge Chantecler
This was bred in Canada in the former twentieth hundred as an exceptionally cold- intrepid treble - purpose bird ( due in part to its minimalist coxcomb and wattle , less capable to frostbite ) . Though not champion layer , we sometimes kept a few in the flock because they entertain their egg yield well in winter . Most of our Chantecler hens went broody and were competent mothers .
Light Brahma and Buff Cochin
Both these Asian stock are large and make effective table bird , though they are irksome to age . Neither is a champion layer , though both tend to go broody and make excellent mothers . I prefer uninfected - legged chickens ( both these breed are amply feather - footed ) , butif you ’re looking for a breed that is both beautiful and among the most docile of all chickens , either could be a fine choice for you .
Buff Orpington
A heavy world-wide - intention fowl , this is another extremely mellow breed for those try docile backyard familiar . Though intermediate in orchis product ( of large - than - average eggs ) , they hold their production well in wintertime . Orpington hens run toward broodiness more than those of most breeds and are excellent female parent .
Silver Spangled Hamburg
An ancient breed grow in Holland , this is one of only a duet of “ ballock medical specialist ” strain we have raised . Though too small to be consider a meat strain , they are visually spectacular and prolific stratum ( though the eggs are small).It is a breed that was in early times eff as “ careful , ” both because they are scotch eaters and because they forage well .
Dark Brown Leghorns and Light Brown Leghorns
For several years I kept a few individuals of these non - industrial Leghorns . If you are count for well-favoured razzing that will reliably keep ball production up , either would be a adept choice .
Australorp
These are striking ember - black wench with bright cherry single comb that were developed out of Orpington in Australia in the other twentieth century . Though a bit small for a threefold - aim breed , this strain ’s testis product is splendid . We have a friend whose Australorp hen successfully hatched a clutch of eggs she lay in a bucket of rusty nails !
Wyandottes
This is another quintessentially American dual - purpose farm breed , which originated in New York State in the 1870s . We ’ve kept several of the gloss variations available , especially the Silver Laced . view Wyandottes if a docile strain with a rosaceous comb ( less subject to frostbite ) and good wintertime ballock production appeals to you .
Old English Game . Photographs good manners of Bonnie Long .
Dorking
If you want a number of chronicle in your backyard , consider keeping Dorkings , brought to England by the Romans in Julius Caesar ’s intrusion , more than two thousand class ago . Dorkings are dead - legged , and males have quite large single combs.(There are rose - combed form as well . )
They are scarcely champion layers — though friends of ours had a Dorking hen who at six age laid more eggs than anyone else in the flock . They were valued in England in earlier times as an splendid meat stock . Dorkings are among a few breeds distinguished by having five toes .
Old English Game (OEG)
If I knew that get going tomorrow I could purchase neither provender nor skirt from outside sources and could take only one stock of chicken for my flock , I would take the Old English Game . Like Dorkings , theOEG has a recollective lineage , going back a thousand years .
Though much used during that time as “ biz ” chickens for cockfighting , they have as well been valued as a useful farm breed . While hopelessly unproductive by modern criterion for pace of maturation and egg production , they can feed themselves if given enough earth on which to range .
Though small , they are surprisingly plump under their feather , and plentiful in flavour — at one time in England they were considered the criterion against which all other kernel poultry were judged . The hens are among the best volaille mothers on the planet and for many age were the backbone of my working broody subflock . Despite their aggressiveness toward one another , I find oneself the turncock well-disposed toward both my visitors and me . Old English Games have contributed their vigor , hardiness , and longevity to innumerable innovative breed .
Recommended Reads
make out Chicken Manure : The Joys of Deep Litter
Naturally feed Your Flock : Feed Poultry With Fresh Greens
The Small-Scale Poultry Flock, Revised Edition
An All - instinctive Approach to Raising and Breeding Chickens and Other Fowl for Home and Market Growers
$ 39.95
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