Don old-fashioned chickens do better in a small-farm environment?
I used to think this, too, but when I put it to the test, the commercial breeds ran rings around the heritage breeds. Commercial White Leghorns are extremely productive and are very active foragers on free range. Commercial brown-egg birds are much the same. I’m not even convinced that the heavily feathered standard breeds have higher winter production than the commercial chickens. They lay so many fewer eggs to start with that extra-thick feathers aren’t enough to even up the score. With meat birds, it’s even more of a walkover. Standard-breed chickens will give you a two-pound dressed carcass at twelve weeks if you’re lucky. A modern broiler will give you a four-pound carcass at seven week.
