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Many homesteaders choose heritage breed chickens for their land for eggs, meat, or both. There are many reasons to choose a heritage chicken breed over a hybrid or production-breed chicken.
Heritage breeds have long pedigrees that produce predictable traits like egg-laying or meat qualities, personality, disease and parasite resistance, and foraging abilities.
Many characteristics of a heritage chicken benefit small farms and homesteads, making integrating them into a homestead system more efficient. So, how do you choose the best breed for your homestead with so many options out there?
What is a heritage breed?
You may have heard this term thrown around quite a bit in the chicken world. So, what defines a heritage breed anyway? The Livestock Conservancy describes a heritage chicken breed as follows:
- APA Standard Breed – Heritage Chicken must be from parent and grandparent stock of breeds recognized by the American Poultry Association (APA) before the mid-20th century, whose genetic line can be traced back multiple generations, and with traits that meet the APA Standard of Perfection guidelines for the breed. Heritage Chicken must be produced and sired by an APA Standard breed. An APA Standard breed must lay heritage eggs.
- Naturally mating – Heritage Chicken must be reproduced and genetically maintained through natural mating. Chickens marketed as Heritage must result from naturally mating grandparent and parent stock pairs.
- Long, productive outdoor lifespan – Heritage Chicken must have the genetic ability to live a long, vigorous life and thrive in the rigors of pasture-based, outdoor production systems. Breeding hens should be productive for 5-7 years and roosters for 3-5 years.
- Slow growth rate – Heritage Chicken must have a moderate to slow growth rate, reaching the appropriate market weight for the breed in no less than 16 weeks. This gives the chicken time to develop a strong skeletal structure and healthy organs before building muscle mass.
A true heritage chicken satisfies all the above requirements. Some hatcheries will advertise their blend of hybrid meat chickens as being “heritage” because they are slower growing than a standard cornish cross chicken, but they do not satisfy all the characteristics.
Most of the time, if you try to breed a second generation from these meat hybrids, they will not breed true, and you will get varied results.
There are also many newly developed breeds of egg-laying chickens with trademarked names that may be described as “heritage.” They are usually a mixed breed chicken like an Easter Egger or Olive Egger.
There is nothing wrong with raising the above-mentioned birds if they work for your homestead, but if you are looking for a true heritage breed, you must steer clear of these varieties.
How to Choose Your Heritage Breed
It’s really easy to get sucked into hatchery websites and put together an order of 20 different chicken breeds! I know because that’s exactly what I did when we first bought our homestead.
For example, some breeds have been chosen for their keen senses and “flightyness,” which means they are quick to elude predators while free-ranging. Others are adapted to chilly climates with their dense feathers and ability to lay eggs throughout the winter.
As it turns out, Cochins are cute with their fluffy feet, but they don’t appreciate the 110-degree Texas summers. They also lay small eggs unsuitable for filling egg cartons for paying customers.
Mixing diverse breeds of chickens is perfectly ok if you understand their unique needs and know each chicken will give you a different egg and meat output. If you are looking to fill your freezer with plump chicken carcasses or want large dark brown eggs, you must tailor your flock for those qualities.
Many heritage breeds are considered “dual-purpose”, meaning they can be raised for both egg laying and meat purposes. These breeds are ideal for homesteads because you get more bang for your buck!
You can raise the roosters for meat and keep the hens as your egg layers. Since true heritage birds can also reproduce naturally, you will always have a sustainable source of chicks to replenish your flock yearly.
Things to Consider When Choosing a Heritage Chicken Breed
What purpose will the heritage flock serve on your homestead? Some of the most common reasons to keep heritage chickens are:
- Eggs
- Meat
- Showing
- Breed preservation
- Companionship
- Pest control
Your goals will determine what breeds to consider, where to purchase your chickens, the amount of care and effort you put into your birds, and their daily diets. All of these factors will also affect how much time and money go into the birds as well.
For example, we decided to raise a flock of heritage chickens for meat but didn’t want to break the bank feeding them for up to 6-7 months. Knowing this, we chose a heavy breed that tends to grow quicker than some other heritage breeds (15-16 weeks to harvest as opposed to 20-25 weeks).
We also purchased our day-old chicks from a hatchery that focuses on meat birds instead of a standard hatchery that might focus more on breeding egg layers or companion birds.
We researched the proper diet for a heritage breed meat bird and discovered that they should be fed a ration of at least 28% protein for optimal growth (most chickens start on 18-20%). Higher protein feed is generally more expensive and harder to source – especially if you want non-GMO, non-soy, or organic.
Where to Find Heritage Chicken Breeds
Once you know what purpose the heritage chickens will serve on your homestead, you can start looking into breeds that fit the bill. The Livestock Conservancy is an excellent resource for learning more about heritage breeds and how to care for them.
Starting with this list, you can get an idea of what breeds are out there. They even have a directory to search for breeders and clubs in your area.
With the advent of modern agriculture and a shift towards hybrid meat and egg chickens, many farmers stopped raising heritage breeds for their more productive counterparts. This led to some of the heritage breeds across the globe becoming endangered or even extinct.
Many homesteaders opt to raise a flock of threatened heritage birds to aid in breed preservation and feed their families.
If you are set on raising a specific breed, you might have to work a little harder to find a hatchery or reputable breeder that can get you started with your flock. Price will become a factor. One of the only options you might have for more uncommon breeds is ordering hatching eggs from a breeder several states over from you.
Many large hatcheries don’t breed for the APA’s standard as closely as a breeder would, which can make a huge difference in the quality of your birds. The APA will designate a specific weight, color, comb type, body shape, etc., that breeders and showers strive to meet.
Join a heritage breed club.
Many helpful resources are available for budding chicken breeders, and the popularity in keeping heritage chickens is growing.
The American Pastured Poultry Producers Association (APA) merged its organization with Heritage Poultry Breeders (HPB), making a wealth of knowledge accessible to its members. Poultry forums and clubs are welcoming places for novice and expert chicken keepers to share information, photos of their birds, troubleshooting information, and more.
Find a group
We recommend finding groups specific to heritage chickens or the breed you are interested in. Sometimes, the large poultry Facebook groups, for example, get bogged down with irrelevant material.
Poultry shows and fairs
Poultry shows and fairs are great events for networking with breeders and asking questions. Even though it can seem intimidating to approach a seasoned poultryman to ask basic questions, more likely than not, he or she will be thrilled to chat about their chickens and share knowledge!
Common Types of Heritage Chickens
Some of the most common heritage chickens that are well-suited to a homestead system are:
- Plymouth Barred Rocks
- New Hampshire
- Delaware
- Rhode Island Red
- Buckeye
- Dominique
- Java
- Jersey Giant
These old American breeds were all developed for small farm living. Many dedicated breeders in North America are focusing on building these breeds back up to their former glory as functional, dual-purpose homestead birds.
How to Choose a Breeder
- NPIP certification
NPIP (National Poultry Improvement Plan) certification is awarded by the state, but the general requirements for receiving this designation are the same across the US. Even though the certification by the state may only cover 1-2 mandatory disease screenings, it shows that a breeder is willing to test their flock yearly or even up to every 90 days, which is a lot of work and responsibility to keep up with.
Additionally, if the breeder does not participate in NPIP, ask them why not and what they practice for biosecurity. It would be devastating to bring home a new flock of chickens only to have them fall ill or infect your existing poultry. It is always a good idea to quarantine new birds for at least 30 days far away from your existing flock.
- Check if the breeder has any guarantees on day-old chicks or hatching eggs.
Just in case something happens, it’s nice to know that a chick or two can be replaced or an expensive order of hatching eggs can be refunded. Usually, breeders will file a claim with the post office if shipped chicks or eggs get lost or destroyed in transport, but it’s worth checking before you commit. It is disappointing to assume a breeder or hatchery will refund you only to find out they do not offer that guarantee!
- Verify their reputability.
Many tempting-looking “businesses” are out there claiming to sell rare breed chickens for discounted prices. Often, these known scammers will have many complaints written about them online. If you are going through a breed club or poultry show, you will unlikely encounter one of these types. Watch out for ads on Facebook, Craigslist, and eBay that seem too good to be true. Do a little digging on their business name or username and see what the reviews say if you can’t confirm they are a legit breeder through other avenues.
We want to thank Olivia Kramer at Red Rock Farmstead for sharing her knowledge of heritage chicken breeds with our readers! For more information on how Olivia chose her flock of heritage meat chickens, you can visit her blog post on the topic at her site, Red Rock Farmstead.
Olivia Kramer
Olivia Kramer is a homesteader living on 5 acres in Central Texas with her fiancé, 3 dogs, and 50 chickens, ducks, and turkeys. Moving from Los Angeles, to Austin, and finally to Red Rock, Texas, they followed a lifelong dream of farming and self-sufficiency. She blogs at "Red Rock Farmstead" which follows their homesteading journey from the hardships to successes and everything in between. Follow her daily journey on Instagram.