Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens (5 page)

Two other characteristics that enhance a breed’s self-sufficiency are carefree reproduction and plumage color. Breeds that have retained their instinct to brood require no human intervention to reproduce, in contrast to their specialized industrial cousins, whose brooding instinct has been taken away. Some breeds, notably the Cornish, have been so distorted in the quest for a broad-breasted meat bird that the cocks have difficulty mounting a hen. Feather colors
other than white blend more easily into the surroundings, offering birds protection from predators.

LOW-MAINTENANCE BREEDS

Low-maintenance breeds are good foragers that have other-than-white feathers for camouflage, tend toward broodiness, and are suitable for your local climate; crested breeds like the Houdan should not be left out in wet, freezing weather.

In contrast to production birds — chickens kept for meat or eggs —
ornamental birds
are kept primarily for aesthetic reasons, and many keepers like to show them off at poultry exhibitions. While the same breed might be raised for both show and production, rarely will you find exhibition and production qualities in the same strain.

The
Standard
depicts and describes the ideal shape, or type, for each breed. A chicken coming close to the ideal for its breed is said to be “true to type” or “typey.” Production strains are generally less typey than exhibition strains, since their owners emphasize economics rather than aesthetics. By the same token, the typier exhibition strains tend to be less efficient at producing meat and eggs, since their owners emphasize appearance over production. When you think about it, that doesn’t make much sense, because a breed’s type is directly related to its original production purpose, but exhibitors tend to select for showy, exaggerated type to the detriment of production.

Even among exhibition strains, not all birds are created equal, since different exhibitors choose different characteristics to emphasize or exaggerate. The
Standard
states, for example, that a Sebright should have a short, well-rounded back, yet I have seen more than enough Sebrights with long, straight backs and have shown under a judge who preferred them that way — proving the old adage that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

ORNAMENTAL BREEDS

Ornamental breeds offer a wide range of interesting features.

In 1868, Charles Darwin published an inventory of chicken breeds that existed at the time — all 13 of them. Most of the breeds we know today have been developed since then. Breeds and varieties proliferated in the United States between 1875 and 1925, fueled by interest in both unusual exhibition birds and dual-purpose backyard flocks.

This incredible genetic diversity has since fallen victim to the whims of fowl fads. The decline began in the 1930s, when new zoning ordinances prohibited the raising of chicken flocks in many backyards, and emphasis began shifting to large-scale commercial production strains requiring higher-energy feed and climate-controlled housing. Among the hardest-hit breeds were North America’s two oldest: Dominique, the oldest American breed, and Chantecler, the oldest Canadian breed.

In an ever-speedier downward spiral, birds that had been valued for their appearance declined in popularity, and poultry shows became less frequent; as the number of poultry shows dwindled, interest in chickens declined further. The Depression added its impact — people could no longer afford to keep chickens just “for pretty.”

Interest in exhibiting regained some of its popularity in the affluent 1950s, but by then some of the more exotic breeds had all but disappeared. In the spring of 1967, poultry fancier Neil Jones warned
Poultry Press
readers that a serious effort was needed to preserve these endangered ornamental breeds. Jones’s warning led to the birth of the Society for the Preservation of Poultry Antiquities (SPPA), the mission of which is to perpetuate “and improve” rare breeds. To this end the SPPA publishes an annual critical list of historical show breeds, designating as rare those breeds and varieties not widely available and seldom seen at poultry shows. (See
the Resources pages in the appendix for the SPPA’s contact information and that of all other agencies referred to in this book.)

ENDANGERED BREEDS

Some breeds are quite rare and face extinction without a serious conservation effort.

Dual-purpose breeds experienced a comeback during the self-sufficiency movement of the 1960s and 1970s, then declined at an alarming rate as people abandoned country life in their scramble for paying jobs. Those of us who stuck with our classic breeds took our domestic chickens for granted (after all, they’d been around since Grandma’s time). Unaware of the dynamics at work, most of us never dreamed they were becoming irreplaceable.

I count myself among the unwary but guilty who did not fully appreciate the value of my birds. During the 1970s, I had a wonderful flock of New Hampshires, which in the 1980s I dispersed before moving cross-country, thinking I would replace them when I got resettled. I never again found a strain that equaled those New Hamps in uniform appearance, rapid growth, steady laying ability, and laid-back disposition. During my fruitless quest, I heard countless similar stories.

The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC) periodically conducts a survey to identify the most endangered old-time production breeds significant to the United States, locate existing flocks, and tally their numbers. Their survey is based on respondents answering ads in a few publications and queries sent to hatcheries and to members of the National Poultry Improvement Plan handling nonindustrial breeds. Their sample base is quite small, and the number of volunteer responses even smaller, so quite likely the survey misses countless family flocks quietly scratching in backyards throughout North America. But even though the numbers may not be entirely accurate, the fact remains that old-time agricultural breeds are losing ground.

Rare Breeds Canada (RBC) — dedicated to conserving, evaluating, and studying heritage, rare, and minor breeds of Canadian farm animals — also periodically
publishes a conservation list, which is considerably shorter than those of the SPPA and ALBC. Like the ALBC, RBC’s mission is to preserve endangered agricultural breeds by increasing numbers, to assist people in finding particular breeds, and to educate the public about the need for breed preservation.

Some people argue that poultry breeds become extinct for lack of interest and therefore no longer have a purpose in the modern world. Others argue that losing these irreplaceable breeds depletes the overall genetic pool, resulting in the loss of such valuable traits as disease resistance, the brooding instinct, superior taste, and an ability to live naturally. They feel these heritage breeds must be preserved to safeguard the survival of poultry into the future. Since most noncommercial breeds and varieties are endangered to a greater or lesser extent, raising any breed — or supporting people who raise a pure breed by buying chicks, eggs, or meat birds — helps ensure their survival.

Bantams
are miniature chickens generally weighing 2 pounds (0.9 kg) or less. Their history closely follows that of the Industrial Revolution and the movement of families away from farms. Folks who didn’t want to give up their chickens turned to miniatures that require little backyard space, don’t eat much, don’t mind being confined, and respond well to human relationships. Interest in keeping bantams boomed in the affluent 1950s, when raising chickens in the backyard was considered good family fun, then waned, and came back stronger than ever at the turn of the twenty-first century.

Nearly every breed and variety of large chicken has a bantam version that’s one-fifth to one-fourth its size. A few breeds and varieties come only in bantam size. Some people make a distinction between bantams that have a large counterpart
and those that do not, calling the former
miniatures
and the latter
true bantams
.
The Bantam Standard
, published by the American Bantam Association (ABA), lists many more varieties than are listed in the APA
Standard
.

BANTAMS

A breed having no large counterpart is considered to be a true bantam.

Banties are popular as pets, as exhibition birds, and as ornamentals that add character to the yard or garden. Although their eggs are smaller than those of larger breeds, some banty strains are prolific layers. The chunkier breeds may not rival commercial Rock-Cornish in growth rate, but they look and taste just as good, if not better.

If you have your heart set on seeing your hens hatch their own chicks, you’ll want a breed that is known for hens that brood successfully. Except among commercially bred strains, the majority of hens will brood, some more successfully than others. Two outstanding broodies are Silkie and Aseel; hens of both breeds are often used to hatch eggs laid by other breeds.

As a general rule, heavy hens tend to make good broodies that can handle large numbers of eggs, but a really heavy hen with a loaded nest may break some eggs. Feather-legged breeds may have a problem with leg feathers accidentally flicking eggs out of the nest.

Because laying stops when setting starts, the instinct to gather eggs in a nest and keep them warm for 21 days until chicks hatch has, over the years, been selectively bred out of layer strains. The light, flighty laying breeds tend not to go broody, and when they do, they are not reliable.

Even among breeds that are not typically broody, the occasional hen will take a notion to hatch out some chicks. The accompanying table lists hens that are least likely to produce broody hens.

Chickens kept as pets may be any breed that appeals to you and has a calm disposition. If you like the looks of a big, heavy, meat breed like the Jersey Giant or Cochin, and you have the space to accommodate them, by all means go ahead and
enjoy having a few roam your backyard, since the economy of meat production won’t be an issue. If space is limited, at the other end of the scale is the Serama, the tiniest of all chickens, weighing as little as three-quarters of a pound (0.3 kg) and found in every possible color. Even the breeds typically known to be flighty can work in small numbers if you start them as chicks and spend a lot of time with them, although some breeds tend to be too nervous to trust around small children.