# Self-sustaining Chicken Flock?



## Organic Cowgirl (Oct 6, 2007)

With emergency preparedness in mind, what group of chickens would you get and how would you keep them? For example, I have Rhode Island Reds, who lay well, but no RIR roo, so I can't keep a clean line going. I have Cochins, but their fertility rate is very low due to their feathering. Alas, none of my ladies go broody.

What breeds would you keep to provide eggs, meat and raise their own chicks? It doesn't have to be only one breed, though I'd have to pen them, if the traits required that I keep the chicks from being crossbreeds, as they freerange right now.

I know bantys are good mamas. As are what, Polish? Do any of the meat breeds breed on their own?


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## Guest (Mar 11, 2009)

Any kind of games are excellent. Bantam or standard. They can find all their own food, are wary enough to escape predators (most of the time), and multiply very well without any human intervention.

If you decide to go that route, get dark colors. Light colors are too easily seen by owls and other nighttime predators.


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## vegascowgirl (Sep 19, 2004)

I like bantams as far as keeping chickens that will hatch their own chicks . My bard rocks and buff oringtons (sp?) are great layers but not broody at all. so bantams/bantam mix would probably be what I ended up with in the long run.


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## joseph97297 (Nov 20, 2007)

I'd get Buffs and Barred Rock as well (to me, more winter hardy), with a few RIR thrown in for broodiness. Our best Rooster is a RIR/Barred Rock mix, large, docile and ....how can I say this..... insatiable.....even for a chicken.....

I'm not too worried about pure strains, figure if things don't go south, will replenish bloodlines in 2 years.... if things head south, then who cares what variety chicken you have, the eggs taste the same....

We did get 14 bantams for free, but I don't like them, wife does. They just stay under foot too much for my liking, and you can't really "toe" them like a standard....


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## Bonnie L (May 11, 2002)

I gave up on pure lines shortly after beginning my chicken "career." Last year I bought some more Buff Orpington chicks (my favorite breed) to replace my old non-layers, but my favorite rooster is a Buff mix with several different breeds. I'm getting some bantams this spring to hatch out my own. All my old broody hens died of old age.


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## Common Tator (Feb 19, 2008)

I have had australorps and americanas both go broody. I stuck day old chicks from the feed store under them and they were excellent mamas!


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

I agree with mutts.. get several different breeds.. I have a few roos that are of very large breeds that I use for breeding meat birds. Marans make good meat and are very hearty and easy to keep. 
For a 'no fail' set of broody hens you should get several standard game hens or game mixes. They can set a good number of eggs..over 12 at a time.. and will brood several times in a season.
And as the games breed in and lay many of their offspring hens will brood as well.
In their pen, to make your life easier, you need to build a frame and top it with rat wire.
Plant grasses and greens under the ratwire (birdseed is a good thing to plant as are oats, rye etcc) That way the birds can peck the grasses as they grow through, but cannot scratch the roots out of the ground and kill the grasses and that way they will always have some green in their pen.


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## RedTartan (May 2, 2006)

My Buff Orpintons are fabulous broodies. I had one hatch out a clutch of 18 last year.

 RedTartan


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## diane (May 4, 2002)

I found that my Barred Rock-RR cross hens went broody on the very first cross. I plan to order some chicks from both breeds and do some hatching to get some cross-breds. We had a major predator attack almost 8 years ago and I lost all my crosses. Prior to that my flock had been self-sustaining for many years. I love my Buffs but I want to establish a self-sustaining flock again.


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## menollyrj (Mar 15, 2006)

We have Buff Orpingtons & Black Australorps in separate flocks. We have hens go broody all spring & into the summer. The buffs in particular are great mothers because they are...poofy. They are heavily feathered, and usually start laying about a week earlier than the BA's in the spring. Their eggs are larger too. Finally, they are of mellow temperament. The BA's are jumpier and meaner to each other. Never had a BO roo flog me, but seems like all the BA roos are hateful to a degree.

-Joy


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## turtlehead (Jul 22, 2005)

A great resource for deciding what chicken is right for you is Henderson's chicken breed chart. You can find a breed that lays well, goes broody, forages (or does well in confinement), and you can pick a breed that gets large enough that the roos are a good source of meat.

We really like the Speckled Sussex. They lay well, forage well, and the roos are decent butchering size at about five months or so which is not bad for a dual purpose breed. I've only had one hen go broody but she hatched 15 out of 16 eggs. My broodiness problems are due to heavy predation around here and a struggle to get hens old enough to be broody. We've only had a really secure place for them for about four or five months now.

the chart: http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html


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## AnnieinBC (Mar 23, 2007)

That's a great link, turtlehead, thank you for posting it

Annie


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

Avoid Polish..... unless you like to give 'haircuts'... they'll literally get 'blinded' by their crests.

I have dozens of varieties... pretty much all the bantams will lay a clutch and then go broody, and hatch out. I've got four or five hens running around with chicks, right now... My flock outbreeds their losses...


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

You need a land race chicken that is adapted for your area.


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## diane (May 4, 2002)

Cyngbaeld said:


> You need a land race chicken that is adapted for your area.


As the poultry forum moderator one would think you might know some of us would not have a clue what you just said. Care to elaborate?


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

Landrace breeds
Landraces (not to be confused with the Swedish Landrace swine breed) are local populations of animals that are consistent enough to be considered breeds, but are more variable in appearance than are standardized breeds. They also lack the formal definition and organizational structure that is typical of standardized breeds.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Basically a land race is an animal that has lived multiply generations in one area. It has not been culled except by nature (survival of the fittest). It thrives in its environment with little input from humans.


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## diane (May 4, 2002)

Thank you.  I had not heard that term before.


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## steff bugielski (Nov 10, 2003)

I second the game birds.
We rescued about 30 hens from a cock fighting operation a few years ago. The ASPCA gave us the hens but no roos. I can not tell you how many clutches those birds have gone off and hatched. I think they are all in the coop and one day they appear out of nowhere with 20 chicks. They will raise every one up to adulthood too. I have even seen them fend off the hawks.


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

I guess I've got a lot of 'landrace' breeds then. Some of my flock are over 20 generations old...


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## Feral Nature (Feb 21, 2007)

My flocked has sustained itself for many years. It is a mix of many breeds that I bought in 1991 when i first started in chickens....it was 50 Murry McMurry's Rarest of the Rare Pullet Collection and 3 Phoenix rooster chicks. So really all kinds of cool chicks. So now years later, who knows what genes have been preserved? They are broody and scrounge well and do well in our heat, unlike heavy breeds who often die in the summer from heat stroke here. In winter, they still roost in the trees, and in ice storms are covered in ice just like everything else. baby chicks hatch in the fall and winter months, they run around in the freezing weather, doing fine, alert and smarter than their hatchery raised counterparts. Summer broodiness and laying is rare as it is hot and snakey and so many fire ants make it impossible to raise offspring. Summer layers don't reproduce. It's the winter layers who have learned to fool mother nature.


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## Cygnet (Sep 13, 2004)

My vote would be for marans. The ones I've had were naturally mareks resistant (I was losing lots of other breeds at the same time and only lost the occasional roo among the mareks), big and meaty enough to make a decent meal out of, prolific breeders that readily go broody and do so in the nest boxes (they rarely "go missing"), and good foragers.

They're not very good layers, however -- the ones I had were strongly seasonal. But they will definitely reproduce themselves, with plenty of extras for the table.


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## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

I like banties cause they are natural born survivalists. They scratch up their own food. They roost high in the trees where it's safest for them. They are fast little things that rarely get caught by a predator when they're on the ground. They can hide in a tiny little spot, even hunkered down in the grass. Their eggs are small so I use 2 instead of 1, but what the heck, the eggs are free so I use all I need and still have leftovers. It takes a couple of them to make a meal, but as long as they keep hatching out chicks to keep growing to table size, that's ok, it's free meat for the table. 

The hens go broody often enough to keep the flock built up pretty good. They are natural born survivalists.

I don't try to keep them limited to a pure breed. I'll be happy as long as they lay eggs and taste good. Oh, and did I mention that they are natural born survivalists? 

The longer you have a strain, the more they will adapt to the conditions where you live. After a few generations, you'll have a flock that is custom designed to your area and needs. I bought my first chicks from a 4-H'er who had bred several breeds over 4 years to get a great chicken for meat & eggs. I wish I still had some of them, they were the best flock I've ever had.


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## JW Parker (Sep 4, 2008)

This is just an idea that I had but couldn't you free-range all you pure blood line and crossed chickens togather. Pin them up and seperate them a short time before you want to collect eggs to hatch. Put the eggs under any kind of chicken that wants to hatch them.


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## Cygnet (Sep 13, 2004)

You could do that, but I will tell you that I used to range all my chickens together in the off season and then separate them out for breeding purposes. I learned real fast that if I didn't want weird mongrel chicks that I needed to wait at least thirty days.

-- Leva


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## JW Parker (Sep 4, 2008)

Well you have to eat something!


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## julieq (Oct 12, 2008)

We have buff and white Cochin bantams. Nice egg layers and with 24 hens we pretty much have one or two that are broody at all times. We've butchered the extra roosters and although they're not huge, they're more than adequate for our small family. We're really pleased with their hardiness as compared to various standard breeds we've raised in the past.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Be sure to have a LGD if you want to free range your survival flock. I have birds that rarely visit the feed dish, hatch their young and raise them and I never get to lay a hand on them. If I want one to eat I have to use the .22.


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