Chicken breeding

I live in rural Kansas, on 3 acres. I want chickens that actually thrive here so I want to develop a local landrace.

Issue 1 is Predator pressure: Coyotes, foxes, feral dogs, hawks, owls, etc.

Breeds: Bielefelder (roo), Black Australorp, Black Jersey Giant, Mottled Java

I will free range the birds during the day only. I have chosen large, dual purpose breeds because my goal with chickens is eggs and meat. The hope is that some of the predators will avoid the larger birds. I have also chosen dark or mottled breeds, which may be easier to camouflage. That piece is up in the air, since the size of the birds may cancel it out to some extent. I have seen a hint that aerial predators will avoid dark birds because they look like crows or ravens. It's a possibility, anyway.

I have chosen breeds that go broody and make good mothers, since sustainability is important to me.

I have chosen breeds that prefer to free range.

I have chosen breeds with roos that are protective of their ladies but relatively docile with humans.

I have chosen breeds that lay a good number of eggs (200+ per year)

Other traits that will be developed eventually include cold tolerance, heat tolerance, meat to feed ratio, early development, and winter laying.

I have already had issues with my roo, so I may have to go with another breed.

I'm still building my henhouse, to be finished late spring, so I haven't started yet, but my plan is similar to what you're describing. I'll buy a bunch of Icelandic landrace chicks the first year, and then each year after, I'll 'top off' the flock with other breeds that are cold-hardy mottled egg-layers if and when they're needed to compensate for predation, but a different breed each year. I'm not sure how long it'll take to really figure out what I'm doing and not need to import much just keeping the flock up, but hopefully only a few years. Then I'd like to form a rooster-swap with a few other breeders to keep genetics freshened.  

Of those breeds I've only had the Black Australorps, but they are great. Have you tried looking into Bresse? Bresse Farms has really great stock, if you need a breeder reference. They are cold and heat hardy, lay 200+ eggs per year, free range pretty well, are pretty predator savvy, go broody, and have marbled meat if finished right. I will say though, you may want to look into slightly lighter breeds from the escaping from predators perspective. A large chicken is going to have a much harder time running/flying away if the predator does decide to attempt the attack.
I'm breeding towards very similar goals here in Wyoming! It's cool to see so many people working towards specialized landrace breeds! I have a very mixed flock, and my strategy is to pick breeds that I think will match those goals, and let them breed naturally. I hatch eggs from the hens who lay in the winter, which are fertilized by the roosters who are doing well enough to successfully breed (I do confrontation checks on my roosters, so that part is more calculated) , and let my flock naturally acclimate to the environment through generations of natural selection. The breeds I have in my mix that have done well are Bresse, Easter Egger, Hamburg, Norwegian Jearhon, Brahma, Black Australorp, White Rock, and Standard Old English Game. An additional goal I'm breeding towards is longevity. Most of my current flock is three to five years old, so I'm currently hatching out eggs from the hens who are still laying to make sure that I utilize those hens trait of laying past the traditional two to three year laying age.
Good luck on your breeding program! Keep us posted on your progress!

I'm doing the same type of thing with different breeds.  I currently have some of my own cross breeds, wyandottes, easter eggers, partridge rocks, naked necks, russian orloffs.  I'm breeding mainly for cold hardiness up front.  I can't believe I'm going to find a breed that is more cold hardy than the russian orloffs unless I create it.  These guys are awesome.  They have no comb, so no frostbite issues there, and they seem wholly unfazed by weather that causes the other breeds to puff up.  They are larger birds when adults, but mine are still young so haven't reached full size.

For anyone doing this, I would recommend you trade out roosters every year or so.  Too much breeding of the same roosters to their offspring caused issues for me, usually with their feet.

Christopher Weeks wrote: Then I'd like to form a rooster-swap with a few other breeders to keep genetics freshened.  

I'm happy to work something out with you from Wisconsin.  I have extra young Russian Orloff roosters right now if anyone is looking for one.  So far, I really like them.  They are gentle, easy-going birds and I'm really enjoying them.  I would love to get an Icelandic rooster down the road a bit.  As it is, I have too many right now.

Trace Oswald wrote:I'm happy to work something out with you from Wisconsin.

Yeah, we talked about doing that in another thread! But my henhouse construction is waiting for Spring, so setting this up with any greater detail before I have a flock is a little premature. And ideally, we'd have at least another couple of people to spiral with each year.

Christopher Weeks wrote:

Trace Oswald wrote:I'm happy to work something out with you from Wisconsin.

Yeah, we talked about doing that in another thread! But my henhouse construction is waiting for Spring, so setting this up with any greater detail before I have a flock is a little premature. And ideally, we'd have at least another couple of people to spiral with each year.

I remember :)  We can touch base again in summer or whenever works for you. I'm not going anywhere.  

There are a lot of Amish farms around this area and roosters are very easy to find.  I'm sure I can track some down that are from chickens that are already something of a landrace.  We can easily work those into the rotation too.

A Curious Study Regarding Chicken Breeding:

"Box 13-7 Cooperation or Competition? The Chicken and the Egg.

'Chicken breeders did an interesting experiment that sheds some light on the cooperation versus competition question. The goal of the chicken breeders was to increase egg production in chickens. They used two approaches, each beginning with nine cages of full of hens. In the first approach, the breeders selected the most productive hen from eachof the nine cages, then used these hens to produce enough chickens to fill another nine cages. In the second approach, the breeders selected the cage that produced the most eggs, and used these hens to produce enough chickens to to fill another nine cages. They continued the experiment for six generations.
Which approach resulted in the greatest increase in egg production? As it turned out, the experiment was truncated after six generations because the treatment using the most productive hen from each cage could no longer produce enough hens to fill nine more cages. Many of the individual hens were the most productive because they bullied  the other hens into underproduction. The breeders were selecting for the hen version of psychopathic bullies. The cooperative hens, in the meantime, had doubled egg production.' D. Wilson, Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives New York: Delacorte Press, 2007", as quoted in Daly, Herman E. & Farley, Joshua Ecological Economics: Principles and Applications, 2nd edition, Washington DC, Island Press 2011.

My girls are almost up to laying age. I have one mottled Java, one Bielefelder (my roo turned out to be a pullet--how difficult is it to get that right on an auto-sexing breed?), and three Jersey Giants. The fourth JJ turned out to be a roo. I got a Bielefelder roo from a friend in the area, and I don't intend to hatch any if the Bielefelder pullet's eggs because of some medical problems that developed as a chick.

I am planning to add RIR and Black Australorp this year, if the BA's ever come in.

I don't want the JJ roo mating with his sisters (no pure JJ's in the next generation) so I am thinking of separating him and giving him the BA and RIR pullets. Not sure yet. At the moment he has a hard time mating, apparently because of the toes lost to frostbite, so it might not work anyway.

That would be 2 population groups that could trade roosters for the next generation, but that would mean building another coop and I don't want to think about that at the moment.

Brian Cady wrote:A Curious Study Regarding Chicken Breeding:

"Box 13-7 Cooperation or Competition? The Chicken and the Egg.

'Chicken breeders did an interesting experiment that sheds some light on the cooperation versus competition question. The goal of the chicken breeders was to increase egg production in chickens. They used two approaches, each beginning with nine cages of full of hens. In the first approach, the breeders selected the most productive hen from eachof the nine cages, then used these hens to produce enough chickens to fill another nine cages. In the second approach, the breeders selected the cage that produced the most eggs, and used these hens to produce enough chickens to to fill another nine cages. They continued the experiment for six generations.
Which approach resulted in the greatest increase in egg production? As it turned out, the experiment was truncated after six generations because the treatment using the most productive hen from each cage could no longer produce enough hens to fill nine more cages. Many of the individual hens were the most productive because they bullied  the other hens into underproduction. The breeders were selecting for the hen version of psychopathic bullies. The cooperative hens, in the meantime, had doubled egg production.' D. Wilson, Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives New York: Delacorte Press, 2007", as quoted in Daly, Herman E. & Farley, Joshua Ecological Economics: Principles and Applications, 2nd edition, Washington DC, Island Press 2011.

More on group selection of chickens:
"In the context of artificial selection, Muir (1996) and Craig and Muir
(1996) show how yields of intensive chicken farming increase when
chickens are selected based on group rather than individual traits.
Systematically selecting and reproducing individual chickens based on
their egg mass - a feature desirable to farmers - does not maximize the
overall egg mass of a group of chickens (Muir 1996). This is due to the
fact that other individual-level traits can appear, which reduce the
desired outcome at the group level (Griffing 1967). In intensive chicken
farming, individual-level cannibalism appears (Craig 1982), bringing
down the egg mass at the group level. Selecting chicken groups with
higher egg mass therefore procures more success than selecting in-
dividual chickens based on their egg mass." https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106838

Brian
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I had in mind to get some super size ones.
People in Thailand offered me Brahmas, they said also they are heart tolerant which I not agree with.
After 2 got eaten by a Boa and a Cobra I found that Brahma is way to docile...

One day at my father in law's house I met a rooster.
By the way,
My father is law has Thai Game Fowl and is well know for his fighting chickens (unfortunately still a popular sport in Thailand)

This Rooster didn't like me from day one and whenever he was in the mood he wanted to beat the living cr@p out of me, just because I was there...
...and I defended myself gave tough back, nevermind the scratches on my lower legs..

Then a day came the chicks at farther's house were raising alarm and I have seen the Rooster what he was capable of.
A cobra of at least 6 Feet entered the chicken fence and this fellow shellacked him to a helpless coil of snake..

I thought this boy is the right for my Brahma lady and after long begging my father in law gave him to me..

My thoughts were:
Are they compartible?
Well, beside the clumsy 1st time mom stepped on 3 eggs and one baby chick they are compartible..
Meet Calimero:
Not so round like a Brahma and not so slim as a Thai fighting chicken...
The middle toe must be some kinda re-develpoed Veloceraptor toe..

Scared? No, loves to climb on the open hand and goes sightseeing, but if you push it with your finger it kicks already..
heat tolerant? Fully, runs in the midday sun around like her daddy

I now have two population groups, each in their own coop. Biel x JG cockerel (22 weeks old) with JG and BA hens, 5 Buckeye chicks in the brooder. I got 5 rangers as well, but it looks like all of them are cockerels.

Group two, JG x RIR back-cross, 3 8 week old cockerels being evaluated for behavior before I decide who to keep. Ten chicks in the brooder, currently 4 weeks old. Chicks are Marans and Speckled Sussex.

Eventual goal is 10 hens and 2 roos in each group. Once the genes are well mixed (3 generations?) I'll open the gates and let the chickens work it out, culling or rehoming those that don't fit my criteria.