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In some ways chickens are like WordPress Plugins.  What do I mean by that?  Man and chicken go back so far that no matter what you really want, someone has likely already bred a chicken breed that does that.  Different breeds have different intrinsic characteristics.  In permaculture any living element is analyzed for a few different things but one is intrinsic characteristics.

For this discussion let’s break down and define those words

Intrinsic – belonging to the essential nature or constitution of a thing

Characteristic – a distinguishing trait, quality, or property

In other words some animals and further some breeds of animals behave in a certain way simply due to their nature.  Some of this is shared among all breeds of a species, as in all chickens scratch.  And breed specific as in all breeds of chickens can be broody but some are more likely to than others.  I am often asked what type of chicken or other livestock to get, what is best.  The answer is as so often, it depends.

Now since the chickens have dominant intrinsic characteristics, our analysis needs to focus on us, our resources and our goals, not the chicken. Analyze the homesteader, analyze the homestead, analyze the goals, analyze the risks, etc. then pick the chicken.  Is it that simple, as we will see today, sort of.  Goals change and in the end as powerful as intrinsic characteristics are, animals are also individuals.

Join Me Today to Discuss…

• What is an intrinsic characteristic
• What is element analysis
• What are the core intrinsic characteristics of all chickens
  • They scratch
  • They eat
  • They poop
  • They breed
  • They make noise
  • They lay eggs
  • They roost
  • They are predators
  • They are prey
  • How many more can you name
• Some Breeds Matched to Needs/goals/situation
  • Consider this as I proceed
    • I am giving you a breed not THE breed
    • I am doing this for homesteaders not commercial farmers
    • I am assuming you want to reproduce your own birds
• Meat Production – Red Rangers/Dixie Rainbows
• Egg Production – Red Sex Links
• Eggs with Quality Meat Culls – Jersey Giants
• Birds that will brood with regularity – Cochin (especially bantams)
• Predator evasion, damn near feral – Egyptian Fayomi
• Heavy compost processing – Any Heavy Breed
• You can just get chickens and eat the problems
• Picking a breed is either really important or not very depending on you, the chicken keeper

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• Follow Life With Jack on Instagram
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• TspAz.com
• TSPC on Discord
• TSPC Group on Telegram (group chat)
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• Jack on Parler
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• Join Me on Odysee
• The Key – REO Speedwagon

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