Barred Holland breed of chickens

[msladyhawke]

MHollow, I too live in southwestern ny. Im on my second season with BHs. Would be interested in maybe exchanging some birds and or info. I trapnested this spring and culled all hens that didn,t lay white eggs. I,ve got two small hatches from these white eggs. I love these hens, they are really good layers and do well ranging, but the cocks are kind of ornery. Are your roos mean towards people? I think as far as enthusiasm for the breed, most people are not going to stick with a breed for very long, the grass is greener thing. I will stay with  them for a few generations at least until I can tell if I am improving them at all. BHs are the only chickens I have. My roos are on the small side for a dual purpose bird, so trying for more size. mrquacker

MrQ where did you get your original birds?

 

[mhollow]

Mrquacker, I am right on the PA border near Bradford. My birds that are 20 wks came from a breeder near Jamestown. I believe them to be from the Gracie Mae line of birds as stated by the breeder. The month old chicks came from Pocketfarmer. You can check out some of her posts on this thread but my recollection is that they are Ideal stock and a Gracie Mae Roo. Out of my older birds I have 4 roos of assorted sizes and one appears to be much larger than the others. I've raised chickens for a long time now and I expect him to be quite large. I have not noticed any aggression but all my roos are together in a 4 by 8 "hoop house" that I made. Maybe that makes a difference. I am thinking about putting him in with the poults but I don't want him to tear them up either so we'll see. I'm going to cull two of the other roos soon ( I'll either offer them up for sale or eat them)and maybe a poult or two also. From everything I've gathered, lack of size is an issue and is first on my priority list. Where did your birds come from? I would welcome someone to work with and exchange information with and the bonus is that it sounds like we are near each other. Lets work something out via PM.

 

[mrquacker]

My original birds came from AJ farms/Domini Ranch near senaca falls ny. I have no idea where they got there stock from. I started with 11 cocks and 14 hens, culled down to 2 cocks and 4 hens.I culled all birds that layed an offwhite egg, and tried to save the largest birds,MHollow I am an hour and 15 east on 86.

 

[hollandchicks]

Hi
I am helping my daughter work with her flock. This is a long term commitment for her. We have set up our chicken housing for breeding and culling to get this breed up to standard. We are happy and willing to work with everyone working toward the same goal. Advice and information sharing is key in this big project.
Suzanne Holland

 

[mhollow]

I've been in touch with Alison at the ALBC and compiling a list of BH breeders. Some people from this forum have asked to have their info added to the spreadsheet. If I don't have your name and you would like to be included please let me know. The ALBC would like your name, city, state, contact information, number of breeding age poults and breeding age cocks. Also, source of flock would be helpful. I will be glad to add it to my spreadsheet and submit additions to Alison. This is the first step for the ALBC when they take on a new breeding project. Probably best if you PM me with your personal information. I will not share the info with anyone else except the folks at the ALBC but if you'd rather forward it to Alison directly PM me and I'll give you her email.

 

[smoothmule]

mhollow,
Thanks for organizing this.
I may have a quad of mine going to another breeder and I'll let her know about it too. I don't think she's on BYC but not sure.

I was noticing most of the darker yellow legged Holland photo's here show some white in the ear lobes. Wondering if those lay tinted eggs and if Barred Rocks have been used in the breed? Mine have very pale yellow legs, I want them to be darker yellow but not sure which way to turn to improve it. I'm still waiting on mine to lay their first eggs, I think one has laid her first egg and it was faintly tinted. Could have been from one of the Sumatra hens but it was smaller than their eggs. I put one of my spare Araucana hens in with the 2 cockerels for them to learn from an older hen. I should know if they're fertile (they still look immature to me) if I hatch any barred cockerels from her eggs.

About 4 of my pullets have very red combs now, Surely they will lay soon! Lol

 

[mhollow]

I must admit that I am a little confused on the leg color for the barred Holland variety. The standard lists leg color for the white Holland as yellow. For the barred Holland it says nothing about leg color. I'm not sure what that means or doesn't mean.

 

[Desert Springs]

Hello all!!

I'm new to this thread but have found it fascinating!!! Started reading from the beginning, but have jumped back here to the end, to post my experience with my flock.

I purchased chicks from a feed store up in Idaho while driving back home to Utah, last fall. They were very cheap and the feed store claimed they were Barred Rocks. They also claimed they were Privett hatchery stock. When they started laying this past spring, the eggs were bright white. Obviously not Barred Rocks, plus their size and carriage weren't Barred Rockish at all!!! I had to place pics on BYC for me to figure out just what they were. They have the bright yellow legs, cockerel was much lighter in color than the pullets and they had white on the ear lobes. California Greys were considered but deemed incorrect.

My hens are now laying huge white eggs!!!!!! They are bright white!! They lay almost daily and my one roo has been great with my five hens with an almost 100% fertility rate. My roo and the hens however are on the smallish side which I wish to improve upon.

I would be interested in obtaining some other quality hatching eggs which show the standards of perfection for this breed.

Thanks!!

 

[smoothmule]

Hello all!!

I'm new to this thread but have found it fascinating!!! Started reading from the beginning, but have jumped back here to the end, to post my experience with my flock.

I purchased chicks from a feed store up in Idaho while driving back home to Utah, last fall. They were very cheap and the feed store claimed they were Barred Rocks. They also claimed they were Privett hatchery stock. When they started laying this past spring, the eggs were bright white. Obviously not Barred Rocks, plus there size and carriage weren't Barred Rockish at all!!! I had to place pics on BYC for me to figure out just what they were. They have the bright yellow legs, cockerel was much lighter in color than the pullets and they had white on the ear lobes. California Greys were considered but deemed incorrect.

My hens are now laying huge white eggs!!!!!! They are bright white!! They lay almost daily and my one roo has been great with my five hens with an almost 100% fertility rate. My roo and the hens however are on the smallish side which I wish to improve upon.

I would be interested in obtaining some other quality hatching eggs which show the standards of perfection for this breed.

Thanks!!

The white ear lobes are a fault in the Barred Hollands, they are one of the few breeds that have red ear lobes and lay white eggs. I wonder if they are Barred Rock/Leghorn crosses? My friend made this cross for a barred color project and they were just as you described but laid big white eggs?
Can you post photo's? Are they a large size?

 

[Desert Springs]

The white ear lobes are a fault in the Barred Hollands, they are one of the few breeds that have red ear lobes and lay white eggs. I wonder if they are Barred Rock/Leghorn crosses? My friend made this cross for a barred color project and they were just as you described but laid big white eggs?
Can you post photo's? Are they a large size?

This is the pic I already had of my roo and one of the hens. I'll get better pics tomorrow, close up.

No, they aren't large...I would consider them to be a medium sized bird. Next to my heavies they look smallish.

I had read about the ear lobe color discrepancy in an article, but couldn't find a whole lot about it other than it was considered to be a disqualification whether it was half white or whole white in cockerels (can't quite remember the details).