Most of the adult birds moved into the big coop during that cold snap. So 11 adults and 6 chicks (purchased eggs, bym) in the big coop and 6 juveniles in the other coop.
In addition, 3 boys are in isolation, one because of unacceptable behavior and the others to give them a chance to calm down and grow up a bit.
I have 5 birds left that are recognized breeds. Two Buckeyes, two Rangers, and a Black Australorp. All have contributed genes to the mix. The BA is my single reliable broody, and just abandoned her latest clutch at 10 weeks.
I found someone raising Iowa Blue (Sandhillpreservation) so I’ll probably be getting a few more breeds this spring. I need reliable broodies. If I have a large enough population and they’re finding most of their own food, broodiness becomes an advantage.
And the author effused about Icelandic chickens, which are a highly diverse landrace that does everything he wants chickens to do (non-aggressive, the males dance for the females, good meat, good eggs, good egg production, consistently around 10% and no more of the hens go broody and are excellent mothers when they do, etc.). Those sound like they have very good genes!
I decided against the Icelandics for this purchase. I ordered American Game, which are also small with small eggs but go consistently broody and are excellent foragers. I’ve been looking for the Iowa Blue and finally found a breeder, so the Icelandics fell off the list. The third breed isn’t really a breed, but a cross between Sussex and Dorking. I could not pass that one up.
It also makes breeding easier. All of our five hens lay different sizes and colours of eggs so we know exactly whose eggs they are. Good foragers, reliable layers, ideally through winter, hens that use nest boxes rather than secret nests, good broodies and mothers, hardiness and not flightiness are criteria that we‘re looking for. And ideally larger dual purpose size.
That’s cool! If you know exactly whose eggs are whose, you can easily track who has been laying the most when. That’s useful information to have available. I like that.
Wow, so glad I found this thread! I recently picked up Harvey Ussery’s book on my shelf and I was rereading it, and with the price of eggs and the uncertainty of everything, started thinking that I should get more serious about my chicken breeding and making it more sustainable. The idea of creating a regional chicken landrace is super exciting. We usually raise a batch of cornish cross for meat, but my husband and I know that isn’t sustainable long term. I can see moving toward a model where we don’t eat as many chicken breast/thighs/roast chicken, and instead “chicken” is simply broth/soup from culled hens. (I eat soup or congee once a day so I’m totally fine with this!) If I’m doing a lot of selection from a breeding program, we’d have lots of cull chickens to eat…
We have had our flock for several years. Lots of RIR and some australorp, a few blue egg layers, and maybe a bit of Icelandic genetics still remaining from some we used to have. Usually we source a new rooster every year or two, and allow a few hens to go broody and get new chicks that way. I’m thinking of upping my game, bringing in as much new genetics as I can, and start doing the rolling breeding where I separate for mating season the young hens with old roosters, and old hens with young cocks. No record keeping required. And doing lots of culling and selecting for good traits (egg laying (though I’m still not sure how to keep track of this), decent size, foraging ability, some broodiness).
Some breeds I’m interested in adding in: American Breese and Plymouth Rock. I got a few hatchery chicks this week: naked neck, ameraucana, and cuckoo maran.
Also wondering how people manage their broodies. I like what Ussery says about it. I have an incubator but I would much rather have the moms raise the chicks. I don’t think relying on machines is good for anything, especially when nature can do it better. Ussery has what he calls a “working subflock” of broodies. He collects hatching eggs during mating season then puts them under one of the broodies. Most of them are Old English Game (or hens of various species he’s identified, then bred to OEG cocks), which he says make the best mothers. The cocks are aggressive though… Wondering if anyone had any experience with that.
Also, a few people mentioned icelandics. We’ve had them multiple times. About 4 years ago we decided to purge them all because they are just so nuts about laying their eggs in the woods, making secret nests and coming out of the woods with huge broods. Great, in a sense, but not if you are trying to get eggs to eat!
The icelandics are small and lay small eggs. Although they do go broody, I am trying to create a dual purpose breed so small, light, and flighty aren’t necessarily in the recipe.
I do want the broodiness, and these new breeds all have a history of both broodiness and being great foragers. The Dorking mix have extreme hardiness, with the disease resistance of both the Dorking and the Sussex. The American Game have been raised in Iowa for 20+ years so they should be used to the cold. They add in predator wariness and extreme foraging instincts. They do love to roost in trees, so I’m going to introduce the ceiling of my carport as their roosting spot.
The Iowa Blue has foraging, broodiness, and disease resistance. Basically I’m throwing breeds at the wall to see what sticks.
For the roosters I’m focusing on behavior at the moment. Any boy that attacks me is gone. Any that tries to breed chicks is gone. I watch the girls–they won’t voluntarily stick around an abusive rooster unless they have no choice. If they’re actively avoiding one of the roos, I add him to the cull list.
Your landrace sounds so awesome. I’m not at a point where I’m ready to start keeping chickens yet (it could be years before I am), but assuming that point comes at some point when we’re still in contact with each other, I keep thinking I like what you’re doing with chickens.
I wonder if there could be some way to set up a way to share animal landrace germplasm in this community? Still under the landrace umbrella, and it may be very useful for people who are breeding landrace livestock.
Not quite sure where you came across this idea, but it’s not accurate in my experience.
Male rabbits will go temporarily infernal somewhere in the 80°F-90°F range (depending on who you ask which also depends on their genetic stock and their observational ability or simply who they’re listening to), so I put the males in the basement when it hits around 80°F so i can breed in late summer to get fall kits. I have had a couple of mothers give birth in a hot spell during one late spring (high 80s low 90s for a week) with no losses.
My rabbits have survived days with highs skightly above 100°F (in the shade of a Post Oak on the Northside of my house). They were clearly not happy but no apperent damage.
I’m not saying that no rabbit finds temps above 77°F dangerous just that there are plenty that can handle much higher with minimal effort. So don’t let high temps deter you.
We have a few feral rabbits in my neighborhood (somebody apparently released 100 pet rabbits into the neighborhood over a decade ago, to the fury of their gardening neighbors), and our summer temperatures are generally 90-100 degrees Fahrenheit, with no rain or humidity, for four months straight. They enjoy chowing down on the alfalfa that grows as a weed in our neighborhood. There is a river across the street, so that is probably where they get their water. The rabbit population has gradually declined over time, so they’re clearly not thriving, but they do seem to be surviving.
I don’t know if they tend to stay in the shade during the hottest times of the day; it would probably be an intelligent thing to do.
Does anybody have advice regarding using ‘hybrid’ layers in the landrace chicken mix? I’m thinking of the Sasso varieties, ISA brown, Golden Comets, Bovans Brown and similar breeds. I don’t have much knowledge on genetics, but I believe many traits would be recessive in the hybrids. Does that mean there would be no immediate benefit, but possible long term improvements whenever there was a match for those recessive genes?
That makes sense. I think I will start adding in some of those genetics and see what happens. So far I have only used non-commercial breeds and barnyard mixes composed of heritage breeds. I add a couple of new roosters every year to keep the diversity growing.
Had a test of the “good behavior” this past week. I invited some friends over for dinner and one of the young men decided he wanted to hold a chicken.
He decided to chase down one of my roosters. After being caught, the bird made no attempt to peck or fight him, and this is one of my more aggressive birds.