Chickenosauurs_RexNo54
Songster
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!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.