Heritage chickens make wonderful additions to the family - whether you want to 'exploit' them for eggs and meat or you just want to admire them and share this unique part of American history. The American Poultry Association has found many breeds to be truly historic, valued by colonists and pioneers for food, feathers, and companionship.
If you have never known a chicken up close and personal, you have missed a lot! These friendly birds make great pets, but even if they are mainly outdoor animals that will provide food for the family, they are fun to have around. Hens cluck and murmur all day long, they hatch and care for adorable fluffy chicks, and they get very excited about a bug or a perfect little bit of gravel.
Modern poultry is raised for a certain need and can no longer be called all-purpose. If eggs are the desired product, producers choose a small hen that requires less food and that will produce an egg a day. The white leghorn is an example of this sort of specialty fowl. Meat chickens grow extremely fast, produce more flesh - especially beast meat - then their skeletons can support, and are meant to be harvested as soon as they reach a desired weight.
Many people know that the nutritional value, appearance, and taste of an egg from an outdoor chicken is superior to an 'assembly line' product. A natural diet includes grasses and insects as well as grains provided by the owner. A free-range chicken produces eggs that have strong shells, bright yellow yolks, and which retain their integrity when cooked.
Others are more concerned with what they consider a humane environment. A chicken is naturally active, scratching for its food all day long, and many feel that cage confinement is cruel. These people also prefer free-range eggs, though they may have a different reason.
An outdoors environment requires greater hardiness in a bird, with strong feet to scratch the ground, strong bones to support years of useful life, and the ability to also provide for the young that are conceived and raised by the parent birds. Hens guard the chicks and roosters cluck loudly to call their attention to tasty bits of food. The birds must also be able to withstand extremes of temperature and things like wind and rain.
Old-fashioned poultry breeds have all these abilities and also provide valuable protein in the form of meat and eggs. While they might not match modern production records, they do very well in the average family barn yard. It is fun to share in a home-production tradition as old as the first human settlements.
Heritage chickens can be very beautiful, if what you want is living lawn ornaments. Some breeds are also in danger of dying out, in some instances, so giving a home to some of the more endangered breeds is a valuable service to us all.
If you have never known a chicken up close and personal, you have missed a lot! These friendly birds make great pets, but even if they are mainly outdoor animals that will provide food for the family, they are fun to have around. Hens cluck and murmur all day long, they hatch and care for adorable fluffy chicks, and they get very excited about a bug or a perfect little bit of gravel.
Modern poultry is raised for a certain need and can no longer be called all-purpose. If eggs are the desired product, producers choose a small hen that requires less food and that will produce an egg a day. The white leghorn is an example of this sort of specialty fowl. Meat chickens grow extremely fast, produce more flesh - especially beast meat - then their skeletons can support, and are meant to be harvested as soon as they reach a desired weight.
Many people know that the nutritional value, appearance, and taste of an egg from an outdoor chicken is superior to an 'assembly line' product. A natural diet includes grasses and insects as well as grains provided by the owner. A free-range chicken produces eggs that have strong shells, bright yellow yolks, and which retain their integrity when cooked.
Others are more concerned with what they consider a humane environment. A chicken is naturally active, scratching for its food all day long, and many feel that cage confinement is cruel. These people also prefer free-range eggs, though they may have a different reason.
An outdoors environment requires greater hardiness in a bird, with strong feet to scratch the ground, strong bones to support years of useful life, and the ability to also provide for the young that are conceived and raised by the parent birds. Hens guard the chicks and roosters cluck loudly to call their attention to tasty bits of food. The birds must also be able to withstand extremes of temperature and things like wind and rain.
Old-fashioned poultry breeds have all these abilities and also provide valuable protein in the form of meat and eggs. While they might not match modern production records, they do very well in the average family barn yard. It is fun to share in a home-production tradition as old as the first human settlements.
Heritage chickens can be very beautiful, if what you want is living lawn ornaments. Some breeds are also in danger of dying out, in some instances, so giving a home to some of the more endangered breeds is a valuable service to us all.
About the Author:
The following page www.whynotfarm.net contains further details on heritage chickens that people require for their farming needs. You can get more information by visiting our website at http://www.whynotfarm.net today.
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