Barred Holland breed of chickens

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They were just overlooked by hatcheries. White egg layers are dominated by Leghorns, all the rest are pretty rare. Brown eggs get a better price so people want them more. Once they got rare, the genetics bottlenecked and no one has picked them up to restore them to their original qualities.
I had them, and also California Greys. Hollands were admitted to the APA, CG's never were, so the LC (Livestock Conservancy) doesn't care at all about CG's, though they are just as worthy of conservation IMO, and are far, far better production birds than the current Holland stock. The LC took special interest in Hollands a few years back and a number of breeders were sourcing them from Sand Hill Preservation Center and Ideal Hatchery (who got their original stock from SH). The LC advised against bringing in any new blood and wanted everyone to just breed and select from the available gene pool. I think that was a mistake and apparently little progress was made and interest died down. I quit the LC because they really concentrate on larger animals and poultry gets little attention. I believe they signed the "death warrant" for Hollands by their stand to not bring in other breeds. The CG's would be a perfect cross, they are very close. Hollands should be a bit heavier and the color of the ear lobes are different, but I think that was it.
If you want to see what a Barred Holland should be like, buy some CG's from Privett Hatchery and prepare to be impressed. If there were Hollands that laid like that, they would return to their former glory.
The CGs and the Hollands look almost indistinguishable. The only difference that I a able to see is the Tail feathers of the CG are white, insted of Barred like in the Holland. ANd thats just in the roosters!
 

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Why don't you cross the California greys and the Hollands together? I've thought of the LC so far as a noble cause to bring back heritage breeds. Now I see that not every cause is perfect.
If I wanted to bring back the Hollands, that is exactly what I would do. Then cross the F1's together and raise a LOT of chicks, selecting for ear lobe color first, then whiter eggs (Hollands lay a tinted egg, despite the old descriptions). The F2 generation usually has the greatest diversity of phenotypes, that is where hard culling gets you results fast. And the "culls" are still going to be great layers to keep for eggs or sell as pullets.
It would not be an easy project, but I would expect you'd see real progress in 2 or 3 years.
I don't have time for this, and I know Sand Hill does not. I know of no one doing it, possibly since you might get disparaged by other breeders, going against the "conventional wisdom" and all.
 
The CGs and the Hollands look almost indistinguishable. The only difference that I a able to see is the Tail feathers of the CG are white, insted of Barred like in the Holland. ANd thats just in the roosters!
When I had CG's, they looked a lot more like your pic of the Hollands than of the CG pics, but there is some variation even in the CG's, remember they were never standardized as a show bird.
Look closely at the ear lobes, CG's are white, Hollands are red. IDK how hard that would be to get them to red. If you had CG's and sold them as Hollands (not suggesting you do this), I doubt most people would ever detect the difference.
 
If I wanted to bring back the Hollands, that is exactly what I would do. Then cross the F1's together and raise a LOT of chicks, selecting for ear lobe color first, then whiter eggs (Hollands lay a tinted egg, despite the old descriptions). The F2 generation usually has the greatest diversity of phenotypes, that is where hard culling gets you results fast. And the "culls" are still going to be great layers to keep for eggs or sell as pullets.
It would not be an easy project, but I would expect you'd see real progress in 2 or 3 years.
I don't have time for this, and I know Sand Hill does not. I know of no one doing it, possibly since you might get disparaged by other breeders, going against the "conventional wisdom" and all.
If you did this would the CGs and the Hollands merge into one breed?
 
Glen Drowns, the owner, grew up in Idaho. When you order, tell him you want to help preserve the breed, that might make you more of a priority, as he is wanting to get more people breeding the stuff he is the only (or close to only) source of.
The first BH I found were from a local breeder, but most sources trace their lineage back to Sand Hill or Ideal, and I think Ideal got their original breeders from Sand Hill. Ideal no longer breeds them, they cut way back on their rare breeds, I suppose the demand was too low, and they have to make a profit. Glen doesn't even try to make a profit, his main motivation is to preserve the breeds.
There is another breeder. https://www.swfva.com/poultry this here is the link.
 

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