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:

You may like to see other types of chicken breeds such as white and black chicken breeds, rare chicken breeds, chicken breeds that lay colored eggs, egg laying chicken breeds and small chicken breeds.

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 you 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.

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.

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 now:

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:

This breed 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’.

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’.

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.

Other than the mentioned ones, 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.