The Poultry Guide A Free Source Of Information for poultry Keepers,Raisers, Beginners and poultry food lovers
Are you planning to have a nice and healthy chicken flock? If that is your plan then you must be having a fair idea about the different breeds. Have you heard about ‘Heritage breed’’? Do not worry if you lack information than this excerpt is more of a guiding light for you. Continue to read for better knowledge:
Heritage Chicken breed:
In simpler words, it is the old-time chicken; in modern terms, it is known as non-hybrid type. Similarly, traditional farmers call this breed as ‘Heirloom’. This breed when born looks exactly like the parents, which is a general natural phenomenon.
Industrial Chicken breed:
The normal chickens that we see in the market these days are known as industrial chicken. In other words, they are the modern breeds and mainly used for their meat and fresh eggs.
There are many things, which require common about heritage and industrial breed like:
- They need proper ventilation
- Dry and clean housing
- Fresh water and food
If you talk about most popular industrial breeds you must be thinking of ‘white Leghorn’ and ‘Cornish’ – they are used for their eggs and meat normally. However, without their friends or outside their farm they are very annoying and wild. This makes them less popular among the humans and they are likely to be the serving of the guests. If not hunt, these hens have the ability to live up to two years easily. You may like to see other types of chicken breeds such as white and black chicken breeds.
Variation in heritage Chicken breeds:
Within the category of heritage breed, there are more than thousands types based on their color and traits. Many would be a good source of food like meat, while there may be some, which are ideal for both eggs and flesh. Similarly, you may find some breeds, which have potential to bear cold temperature while other may be good in warm weather. Therefore, with some research it is good to know what kind of breed you are looking for.
It has been seen that heritage breeds tend to exhibit a better behavior than industrial ones. Interestingly, this type of chicken would be many times used as ‘ornamental purpose’ because of its wonderful natural colors. In addition, these chickens have special traits including big feathers, long tails and crest. You may like to see other types of chicken breeds such as rare chicken breeds.
By now, you must be having good idea and differentiation knowledge of what makes heritage chicken different from hybrid ones. So, have a look at the popular types of heritage chicken breeds from the list we have prepared for you.
List of Heritage Chicken Breeds:
Top ten diversified types of chicken breeds include:
1: Ancona:
If you are looking for a ‘winter breed’, which is energetic, active and playful, you must go for Ancona. This chicken produces a good number and size of ‘white eggs’.
2: Araucana:
The second breed we have in our list lays blue color eggs. You may find great variation within the araucana types as some may lack long tails while some have weird tufts.
3-Buff Orpington.
It has always been’ favorable chicken breed‘ because of many attributes such as laying good number of eggs, go broody and hatch chicks better than other breeds, has good tasty meat and lays ‘creamy color eggs’. You may like to see other types of chicken breeds such as chicken breeds that lay colored eggs.
4-Barred Plymouth Rock.
Mostly called as simply ‘rocks or barred rocks’, It’s originated in United States, cold hardy, heavy than Rhode Island red ,dual purpose breed that produces ‘brown color eggs’ and also serves as a good roasted chicken.
5-Black Australorp.
It’s originated in Australia, very calm, docile, have ‘black plumage’ with some shades of green and purple in sunlight. It lays ‘light brown eggs’ and has very famous among backyard chicken enthusiast.
6: Blue Andalusian:
As the name suggests, this breed has ‘blue feathers’ – also, ‘the large eggs may be white in color’ but the babies might be of white, blue or black color. You may even see some great combinations of hues too.
7: Black Minorca:
If you want to know who is the gangster when comes to chickens, have this breed in your flock. They are arrogant, moody and hardly blend up in the flocks. They lay over-sized eggs, which are ‘half-white in color’. You may like to see other types of chicken breeds such as egg laying chicken breeds.
8- Single comb brown leghorn:
You must have heard about ‘leghorn family’ a lot – defiantly, the breed belongs to the leghorn family so share almost every other feature of the cousins. They are big in size, lay ‘bright white eggs’ and remain unfriendly to all in the flock.
9-RHODE ISLAND RED.
No doubt it’s well popular among various heritage chicken breeds. It is a dual purpose breed that lays ‘brown color eggs‘ and famous as a fine broiler.
10-SPECKLED SUSSEX.
This breed originated from England about 100 years ago. The feather has a mix of ‘mahogany and black with white’ tips. It’s known as good laying breeds produces ‘light brown or tinted eggs’.
11: Silver Campine:
Highly adored for its ‘ornamental value’, this breed remains popular for those who want to have a small backyard farm but majorly for decor purpose. It’s lightweight, fully feathered, active and energetic chicken. However, the biggest benefit of this breed is constant production of ‘white eggs’.
12: New Hampshire:
Looking for a breed which can be used for ‘both barbecue and egg production‘? Tame this breed as you can get quick desired results as you can see this type of chicken gains the weight and feathers quickly and produce ‘large brown eggs‘.
13: White Langshan
This breed is commonly considered polite, because it generally enjoys being with other. In addition, it can be called beautiful because of its big feathers, which cover almost toes too. This breed lays a good number of eggs, which has somewhat ‘dark brown in color’. They offer great nutritional value.
14: White Crested black polish:
This breed has somewhat gorgeous color and a very different look than the other types. The sheen of this chicken is worth praising and the color is admirable. With all this, God has gifted the bred with the ability to produce a good amount of eggs, which are ‘white in color’. The fancy breed in every way is practical.
15: White laced red Cornish:
This breed would simply test your patience because this bird takes a lot of time to get fully mature. Normally people use this bird for flesh because egg production does not seem to be a very good option here. If you want to enjoy great chicken meal with close friends, or earn money, sell this breed in form of meat. This is the best breed if the goal is to have raising meat chickens. You may like to see other types of chicken breeds such as small chicken breeds.
Final Thoughts!
Other than the ones we mentioned above, there are many pure heritage and industrial breeds too. Based on your choice you simply choose between the best egg laying chicken breeds and the heritage meat chicken breeds. Yes, you even have the option of choosing chickens, which are highly adored for their ornament values too. You can have some exhibitions at your place and pet lovers would buy them for good value.
I think my favorites are the Americaunas, Rhode Island Reds, Black Australorps, and Buff Orpingtons. 🙂
Dear Farsan
I am a Kenya interested in poultry farming with a difference. I would like to keep unique breeds like barred plymouth rock. Kindly advise on how i can secure such a breed.
Thanks
Muhinda
It’s nice to hear about your interest in barred plymouth rock,They are very cold hardy,docile,tame, and active.
Here is useful guideline to keeping the chickens safe from predators. https://thepoultryguide.com/keeping-backyard-chicken-safe-from-predators/
Barred Rocks are actually not very cold hardy when compared to Dominiques, which have a nearly identical barred pattern, but a shorter type of comb. Breeds which have long, tall combs do poorly in very cold weather, due to the much higher chance of frostbite on their combs. Breeds which have the shorter, smaller “walnut” or “pea” combs don’t have those issues.
There are also breeds with the small, compact combs that have feathered legs, which help them in cold weather, as well. One such breed is the Light Brahma, a striking black and white bird with a wonderfully docile personality.
Thanks for wonderful information on poultry breeds
Remember what is rare in one region can be quite common in another. The Barred Rock is quite common here in the US. They can be purchased for around $2 per chick at most farm feed stores. In other countries they may be much more expensive to obtain. Before buying a new breed one should do research and find out as much as possible about the breed. That way you will know what to expect. For example the Barred Rock rooster can be very aggressive and is not very good around children. The best research is finding a knowledgeable person that is willing to help you along the way.
This is marvelous.I have never seen such beautiful birds.Where do i get in order to start keeping.Honestly i cant afford to eat.They are too sweet.
I just love this.Please i need to have such in my farm. HEELP
I’m researching some new breeds to raise at our little farm this year.
We love our New Hampshires. The eggs we got from them were HUGE and delicious. They also very hardy and did well, free ranging and surviving this years harsh winter here in Michigan.
Terrible look New Hampshires….. We in the Czech Republic have a very different type of new hamphires – very similar to buff sussex(but we have only white a speckled here).But they i seem so much nicer, the black feathers on neck is very nice in combination with maroon and red 🙂 Here is some animals of my flock: http://img8.rajce.idnes.cz/d0803/8/8769/8769500_62d013a48a986e84c47e1e9244c29434/images/f_5_.jpg , http://img5.rajce.idnes.cz/d0502/9/9153/9153122_4a3280fe3fa95db8d0747f701d94bd8d/images/DDDk_299.jpg
But I have to agree that they are amazing in the growth and lay eggs! 🙂
A few points I must make:
You missed a couple of important heritage breeds – Light Brahma and Dominique – that are excellent dual-purpose breeds which do well with harsh winters. I love them both, and raise them both.
You made a very common mistake with regards to the Araucana breed. Your picture is of an Easter Egger, which is a non-standard Ameracauna, a totally different breed than Araucana. They can lay pink, blue, or green eggs. They often have muffs and beards. The Araucana breed will ONLY lay blue eggs, and are rump-less, often with tufts – which are different from muffs. The breeds both – centuries ago – came from the same breed, but diverged long, long ago.
Thanks MAB for pointing it, I really appreciate ur contribution. I’ve made some changes hope u will like them.
Daddy loved the little Banty’s running around for cuteness. They have small eggs so are just for fun (well, and bug control and hoeing your garden etc.
I did not realize there was so much beauty in chicken varieties. Thanks for sharing something lovely!