Barred Holland breed of chickens

I have a small flock of Barred Holland chickens. I bought chicks from Ideal Poultry in the spring of 2009. I also bought eggs from a lady who purchased her birds from Ideal Poultry and hatched them out. The chicks do not seem as vibrant as other breeds and I lost many of them. I have checked and so far I have only found Ideal Poultry, Sand Hill Preservation and Duane Urch/ Turnland Poultry as the only breeders offering this breed.

I really like this breed and want to work with them to improve thier qualities. I have only one rooster, two hens and two pullets. They do lay a medium white egg. My hens are in thier first year of laying. The pullets I hatched this year and should start laying come early spring. The chicks are sexed link, lighter colors males while darker colors females. My hens are not excellent layers. They are good natured. I have small children who help out with the feeding and egg gathering and the birds are calm around them.

My goals are to increase egg size from medium to large. To increase the number of eggs layed per year. Of course early maturing would be good too. I need more genetic material to work with and I would like to keep in contact with folks who are raising this breed too.

shelleyb1969 has barred Hollands. You may want to get with her on that. Good project! They are very rare and highly endangered. And if you have some that lay actual white eggs, you're ahead of the game--so many don't lay a truly white egg anymore.

I have some chicks I hatched out from Shelleyb in the bedroom brooder right now. I have a cockerel and Pullet from the ideal line I got eggs from someone in Florida. I will be getting some of Urch's in the spring. The ideal birds are totally not up to standards in type or size. Shelley's are still babies. I have started a project to try to get them back to standard. In developing the hollands, don't forget the standard. I have purchased some heritage barred rock to breed in the barring and size, as mine are more cuckoo than barred. Then I expect to have to breed in some Austrolorp to get the right shape. Then probably the leghorns because by then I surely will have lost the white eggs. I figure a good 7 to 10 years will get it. Of course is Urch's or shelleyb's turn out to be much better that what I've seen so far, i can sideline my project and enjoy my hollands and my barred rocks! The biggest challange will be hatching and raising to laying age enough chickens to make a viable line.

I am glad to have discovered someone else who wants to see this breed not become history. You idea of cross breeding may be the way to go. Only time will tell. My plans lie along working with the breeding stock available. I hope there are enough variation in the existing stock to work with. Unfortuantely I have just a few birds now to work with. I too need to buy hatching eggs and chicks from other sources.

I would like to see a group form to preserve this breed and keep each other posted on what is happening with this breed. I would like to make a list of small breeders where hatching eggs, chicks or birds can be purchased.

I entered my pullet and cockerel in a show just to get some opinions. (These are out of ideal stock) I spoke with the judges as well as other knowledgeable chicken folks. Number one complaint was size. Number two was barring. The barring was more cuckoo than barred and they were way undersized. Spoke with Sam Brush and he said if that was all that was available, he doubted the genetics were there to recover. That is when I decided to start my breeding project. Shelleyb's chicks are looking good, they seem more robust than I remember the others, they look like they might get some size on them. Mr. Urch assures me his line are bred to standard. It will be fun to compare these different lines of hollands to see how they stack up. Mr Urch says he starts selling in January, so I will be ordering some as soon as they are available.

Any updates on the BHs? Pictures?

Shelleyb's chicks are coming along nicely, no weights on them yet. Chicks from Duane Urch are supposed to arrive sometime this month. I will try to get some pictures sometime soon.

The pullet from last year is laying now and her eggs are white. Here is one of her eggs on top of a dozen store bought white eggs.

I drove out to Oklahoma this spring and bought a flock of barred Hollands. They are ideal line. I was planning on improving by breeding back in with some of the foundation stock. I found out the ALBC was preparing to do a recovery project without breeding in other breeds. They invited me to join the project. They are asking anyone with Hollands to let them know, they are trying to get an idea of how many are out there.

Ny flock from Oklahoma:

I have a rooster and 2 hens. The hens lay about 1 egg in 3 days each. The eggs are medium in size. I am hatching out thier eggs to increase my numbers. I would like to find a strain that lays well.

I have this years youngsters about ready for selection. I will be taking some to the show at Shawnee. They are still very "leghorn-y" to me. We need a lot of people growing a bunch of these out and selecting for size and type to get them to where they need to be.I have a few from Duane Urch that I am waiting to see what color egg they lay before deciding whether to include them in my breeding program. I will hopefully be posting some pics here once I git them sorted out.