Heritage Animals

[harvester]

Is anyone out there raising Heritage animals? When we moved to our new little farm I had the opportunity to begin useing Herritage animals on the farm. I am still looking for rabbits, they are very hard to find up here. I am stuck on my LaMancha goats however and would never replace them with heritage breeds. I do have heritage chickens and will be getting a few additions of animals this summer. Any advice or comments would be appreciated. :)

[Hoosier_STSCS]

We've got heritage bonze turkeys. That is basically an improved beed of the eastern wild. The toms roost in the big hickory in the fencerow. The hens will go into the coop with the chickens. We have a set of Silver Laced Wyandot chickens, 1 rooster, 4 hens. We paid for all hens, but the chick sexer let one through. We've got some pilgrim geese on order this year. Hopefully they'll make it here alive from the hatchery.

We also have American Guinea Hogs. Our boar is registered, pedigreed, and official. The two gilts are most likely guineas, but they are not from a registered bloodline. We're waiting on results from a DNA test to see if they are pure enough American Guinea Hog that we can register them and add aother bloodline to the breed. Check out the AGHA website, they are neat little porkers.

Somehow I've come to enjoy trying to preserve the old heritage breeds. They seem to be a little bit more self sufficient (read that as "less fuss") than the modern industrial breeds.

[harvester]

That is the same thing ive found out with the, as well as being very disease resistant and much more hardier.

[fancyfowl]

We did Hamburg , Sumatra & columbia Rock poultry, along with kardosh bronze and Spanish black turkeys, American Buff & Pilgrim geese.
Any breed can be vigourous and resistant, selection is the key, not the breed.
I would like to breed Champaign and Creme d'Argent rabbits; but there are plenty of Mini Rex shows and not a lot for the older breeds.

[harvester]

selection is the breed with heritage animals tho.

These animals were bred for their qualities that have made them last this long. they were bred very selectively and therefore created a breed out of it.

I do not believe any breed can be as vigorous and resistant as the heritage breeds already are. It takes generations of breeding to create that kind of stamina.

[fancyfowl]

selection for resistance to disease and selection for the best type for the breed need to be constantly applied to work. I could show several flocks or herds where people think they are preserving some heritage breed but those animals in fact are not close to the standard and they are not resistrant to anything. Being a breed from 200 years ago or even longer doesnt gaurantee that it will be any more fit than say a breed developed last month. The only reason an animal has resistance is because it has been selected as an individual for certain traits , its all in gene selection. There have been certain breeds which have been selected heavily for resistance and they have a certain ability to carry that superior genetic base on for some time. Take a pit game for instance. They have been selected for many generations, 100s, probaly thousands of years of selection has resulted in a family that is especially fit. Now that it is a felony in most areas to fight them their interest is in decline. this will surely bring about their end as the most fit family of fowl on earth. many heritage breed flocks suffer from inbreeding depression and have become no more than sickly non discript chickens.

[harvester]

oh i absolutely agree. Im just saying that there is much more to heritage breeds than meets the eye. and yes you have to make very sure you are getting heritage animals from heritage breeders who got theirs from heritage breeders as well..any breed will convert to an easier way of life if they are coddled. and its easy to weed out the ones that dont have that heritage stamina built into them when you see they just arent cutting the mustard like the rest of them.
I am quite aware that heritage breed animals have to be maintained as of olde. *otherwise you can very easily breed that right out of them. Its much harder to put a good quality into an animal than it is to breed it out.
I think we are on the same page here fancy, dont get me wrong. I just didnt want to go into a nine mile long discussion on the breeding and genetics of heritage animals. Im assuming that the word "heritage" explains all the genetic factors and other elements that are in these animals, and I wouldnt have to explain the whole thing..which i will not do.
I didnt intend this thread to be a discussion on wether or not the animal is heritage, thats a given..I intended it to be about people who are or have had experience with particular heritage breeds,,good or bad.