If you have spent any time browsing backyard poultry forums or hatchery catalogs, you have probably run across the phrase “heritage breed” more than once A heritage breed chicken is a traditional, slow-growing bird that can mate naturally, live a long, productive life on pasture, and trace its lineage back to standardized breeds recognized generations ago These are the same hardy chickens that fed families long before commercial hybrids showed up, and they are making a strong comeback in backyard flocks across the country

Chickens have been a source of protein for hundreds of years When Spanish explorers arrived in