Future survival chicken project?

[Rocky_Road_Poultry]

At the moment, I only have a bunch of laying hens and roosters of various breeds and a few silkies that I've had a few breeding experiments with. I'm really into prepper things and survivalist stuff, but I love chickens too. This made me wonder, what chicken breed would I use if I was in a doomsday situation? I've looked for good dual purpose breeds that are great at foraging, but none of them are up to my standards of thriftyness. So I thought, why not just breed my own! I don't plan on doing this now, but would love to do it in the future. In this "Doomsday Chicken", I'd want a few different traits:
.Good foraging
.Good at evading predators
.lays 140 to 180 eggs per year
.consistently goes broody once or twice a year
.roosters at least 6 pounds at maturity.
.Cold and heat hardy
Breeds I want to use:
.American game ( I've heard they are good at foraging and frequently go broody)
.Rose comb brown leghorn (lays a lot of eggs and are more cold hardy than the single combed leghorns, also camouflaged)
.Buckeyes or partridge chantecler (cold hardy, good foragers and occasionally go broody)

I'll figure out a name for it later.

Tell me what you think!

 

[NatJ]

.lays 140 to 180 eggs per year
.consistently goes broody once or twice a year
...
Tell me what you think!

You probably do not want EVERY hen to go broody at once in the spring, because then you are not getting any eggs until they quit.

I would suggest you keep two slightly different lines of chickens: one that lays well, and one that goes broody. That way you can use the broodies to hatch eggs from either kind.

Given how long some chickens can live, especially some of the breeds that do not lay well, you could keep the same broodies for quite a few years, and only need to hatch a few more of their eggs every year or so. You could mostly use the broodies hatch eggs from the good layers, who could also be your meat birds.

I've had Old English Game bantams that made pretty good broodies. They had an interesting laying pattern: lay about a dozen eggs, go broody, raise chicks, lay another dozen eggs, go broody, etc. That was convenient, because each time one would start to lay, I knew it was time to collect eggs that I would want her to hatch. It's especially convenient when the broodies lay eggs that do not match what the other hens lay-- bantam vs. big eggs, or different colors. Then you don't have to separate hens to know which eggs come from who.

I know plenty of people recommend Silkies as broodies, but they would not do well in a situation where they have to forage for themselves. Old English Game Bantams do not have crests, feathered feet, or an odd type of feathers. They also fly quite well, compared to most other chickens.

You would not want the broody-type roosters mating with your productive hens, of course, so you might have to house those roosters separately. Most of the time, it would be fine to let all the hens run together with the productive roosters, and just not hatch eggs from the broodies.

 

[chiknGeek]

I would keep a few hens for broody behavior and another breed for egg/meat. I've got two marans hens who are quite broody. Most bantam breeds are known to be more broody than average.

My best egg laying breed thus far has been barred rock, but I am interested in buckeyes as well.

 

[samanthaoverton]

My white leghorns are fine with the snow. I live in the mountains of TN. And white leghorns are amazing with heat because of their big floppy combs. But as a side comment. I agree with people here. You would need two types of chickens. The phrase dual purpose can be misleading. Most of the time chickens do one or the other well. Now I'm sure there are true dual purpose 60 years ago when people didn't eat as much as we do now. We as Americans eat much more meat then 60 to 100 years ago when these dual purpose were developed. Also we eat more eggs too. Hence production leghorns and Cornish cross. But all is not lost. I think we need to adjust our demands when it comes to meat and then maybe these birds can return to there true value as dual purpose. Excuse my odd ramblings

 

[NatJ]

The phrase dual purpose can be misleading. Most of the time chickens do one or the other well.

Good point.

Having good layers, and eating their brothers (small cockerels) is one way to do it. Of course females are just as edible, if you hatch more than you need for egg laying.

I think that works better than trying to get a useful amount of eggs from big, meaty birds.

I suppose one might be able to keep a broad, meaty type that also goes broody, and cross that male to the layer hens to produce meat birds after hatching enough of each pure type to replenish the broody & layer hens each year. For a bird with a good meat conformation, but it does not grow fast, Standard Cornish or Bantam Cornish might work. Not the white Cornish Cross, but the purebred Dark Cornish or White Laced Red Cornish or other colors of Cornish. The hens typically will go broody, too. If you cross them with a fast-maturing layer, you get lots of eggs to hatch (from the layer), and the chicks will grow faster than the slow parent, bigger than the small parent.

 

[samanthaoverton]

Id like to get Cornish hatching eggs or chicks at least but dang you have to find a breeder. I like the red patterned looking one..? The Cornish cross has literally drove the breed that it came from into the ground.

Good point.

Having good layers, and eating their brothers (small cockerels) is one way to do it. Of course females are just as edible, if you hatch more than you need for egg laying.

I think that works better than trying to get a useful amount of eggs from big, meaty birds.

I suppose one might be able to keep a broad, meaty type that also goes broody, and cross that male to the layer hens to produce meat birds after hatching enough of each pure type to replenish the broody & layer hens each year. For a bird with a good meat conformation, but it does not grow fast, Standard Cornish or Bantam Cornish might work. Not the white Cornish Cross, but the purebred Dark Cornish or White Laced Red Cornish or other colors of Cornish. The hens typically will go broody, too. If you cross them with a fast-maturing layer, you get lots of eggs to hatch (from the layer), and the chicks will grow faster than the slow parent, bigger than the small parent.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Here's a few breeds that maybe of use for your project, that have good survival/foraging traits.

Red JungleFowl

Cracker Fowl(Red JungleFowl/ American Game crosses)

Black Sumatra(Any Color Really)

Malays

 

[NatJ]

Id like to get Cornish hatching eggs or chicks at least but dang you have to find a breeder. I like the red patterned looking one..?

Several hatcheries sell the the standard sized Cornish. Yes, the ones from a breeder will be even bigger and meatier, but even ones from a hatchery will tend to be meatier than most other dual-purpose breeds. I've seen them listed by McMurray, Ideal, Cackle, and probably a few other hatcheries.

Ideal Poultry sells Cornish Bantams, and they really are round like a Butterball turkey. So they are a smaller overall bird, but have a better meaty shape. They do go broody sometimes. The prices for bantam chicks look awful, but if you sign up for their email specials, they are often on sale. The Cornish Bantams seem to go on sale more often than most of the others, so either they lay well or else no-one is buying them.

 

[samanthaoverton]

Thanks for the info

Several hatcheries sell the the standard sized Cornish. Yes, the ones from a breeder will be even bigger and meatier, but even ones from a hatchery will tend to be meatier than most other dual-purpose breeds. I've seen them listed by McMurray, Ideal, Cackle, and probably a few other hatcheries.

Ideal Poultry sells Cornish Bantams, and they really are round like a Butterball turkey. So they are a smaller overall bird, but have a better meaty shape. They do go broody sometimes. The prices for bantam chicks look awful, but if you sign up for their email specials, they are often on sale. The Cornish Bantams seem to go on sale more often than most of the others, so either they lay well or else no-one is buying them.

 

[Appalachian homestead]

Sounds similar to what I'm doing. I also wanted brown rose comb leghorns crossed with American game,but I couldn't find them. I ended up getting some games to cross on my barnyard mix of heritage breeds. I also got a wyandotte rooster for rose comb genes. If my egg production drops too much,I might add the leghorns later . Im interested too see how it works out for you.