Barred Holland breed of chickens

[smoothmule]

Today was the first day I turned my BH's out to free range. I'm always a little nervous about just letting them young ones out but they were so funny. The cockerel did Not want to go out. I finally convinced him, lol. The girls were just relaxed and hung out close to their pen all day, enjoying the green grass and the bushes and flowers along the privacy fence. They didn't scratch around like I figured they would, that will probably happen at some point. They were very good, they went in and out of their pen at will all day and put themselves to bed on their roost, all of them, on their own and I only had to close the pen door. They will get to free range every other day, to alternate with my black Araucana pen.

Here are a couple candid pictures I snapped while they were out enjoying freedom.





Peek a Boo.... I see you!


There you are!
This pullet looked like she was trying out the spot to lay an egg so I let her alone but checked back later and there was no egg. Still waiting for these girls to lay but they won't be fertile, their cockerel (as tall as he is and growing everyday) is still very immature. His behavior is like a shy teen, gawky and awkward. He hasn't got much confidence yet but I sold the other cockerel with 2 of the pullets and got another breeder started so this fella will have 4 pullets all to himself plus a couple of my older hens that needed a place to be and they have a nice calm affect and know how to free range so they're excellent for these youngsters to learn habits from.

I have had slow maturing cockerels before and it's amazing how one day the switch turns on and their confidence soars but there is usually a moment when they seem to have gone crazy, lol. Wild and silly acting, scared of everything and then the hormones kick in. These pullets have feathered in lovely, they have maturing to do and filling out more but they are nice solid pullets. Free ranging is the best way I know to build them into nice fat hens.

 

[mhollow]

Your flock looks great. Are you getting any eggs yet?

 

[smoothmule]

Not a single egg yet..... they're sure taking their time growing up.

 

[mhollow]

How many weeks old are they know? If my recollection is correct, our birds came from the same breeder in NY and yours are a couple of weeks older than mine. I was hoping to see some egg laying before autumn. I find that if no egg laying occurs before autumn my birds in the past will not lay until spring. I'd like to hatch some eggs In early spring if the girls will cooperate.

 

[msladyhawke]

No laying from mine yet either.

 

[smoothmule]

Got my first pullet egg today. It was white, not blinding white but not tinted and it was smallish as you should expect from a pullet. The shell had that sort of translucent look, not see through but not a thick shell, again, it's a pullet egg so it was better than being a soft shell. Hoping this is the beginning of a nice steady stream of eggs. Of course, these may be eaten, the cockerel is still very immature. I took a couple of pictures of this first egg.

 

[msladyhawke]

Got my first pullet egg today. It was white, not blinding white but not tinted and it was smallish as you should expect from a pullet. The shell had that sort of translucent look, not see through but not a thick shell, again, it's a pullet egg so it was better than being a soft shell. Hoping this is the beginning of a nice steady stream of eggs. Of course, these may be eaten, the cockerel is still very immature. I took a couple of pictures of this first egg.

Yay!!! Congrats!! Can't wait for the first egg from mine! Speaking of which, when everyone's start laying we should swap eggs!

 

[Penny Hen]

Well, my great-uncle explained the difference to me as this: Barred had mostly even bands from feather to feather. The black and white bands matched up with the black and white bands of the feathers along side of it. A Cuckoo's feathers were offset giving and imperfect checkerboard appearance. Now the hens have straighter bands on their feathers while the roos tend to have chevrons (V's) so a female could look very barred and the corresponding roo not so much.

Cuckoo is the British term for barring, which they also use for P;ymouth Rock type barring.. There are different types of barring for different breeds. Because we have learned cuckoo from the Marans, which brought the term from France "Coucou" we have perceived it as a different color. Dominiques and barred Hollands have this type of barring where the bars are "coarse and irregular light and dark bars that are short of positive black and white" according to the Standard of Perfection..

So, according to my research, it is just two different names for the same thing.

Okay, got one more pic of my boy, this time with one of his ladies. Really, any input, I'd like. Especially if it's, 'hey silly, that bird is a Domonique! Not a BH'. Since they could have strapped a beak on a cocker spaniel, called it a Barred Holland, and I would have said, 'thank you, pleasure doing business with you.'

Despite the zigzag caused by the chevrons the roo here has distinct bands. So does the hen though hers are so thick that they sometimes break up the white.



This hen he would have called cuckoo because the barring breaks up.


This girl he would have named barred for the nice even lines.



This roo he would have called barred. The Danvers roo he would have named cuckoo. Now genetically they are probably the same although their is probably something making one roo's barring crisp and the other fuzzy. So unless there are genes that specifically arrange the feathers to line the bars up mostly even then there is no genetic difference just a phenotype one.

 

[smoothmule]

You have to have the slow feathering gene and columbian to get the fine barring that a good Barred Rock has. Cuckoo is just a term used to describe the not so perfect barring. Barring is barring, it's the same gene for both barred and cuckoo but with the addition of the slow feathering gene and columbian, the barring becomes cleaner

 

[Penny Hen]

You have to have the slow feathering gene and columbian to get the fine barring that a good Barred Rock has. Cuckoo is just a term used to describe the not so perfect barring. Barring is barring, it's the same gene for both barred and cuckoo but with the addition of the slow feathering gene and columbian, the barring becomes cleaner

So let's see if I understand this correctly:

Barred gene= Cuckoo appearance

Barred gene + Slow Feather gene + Colombian= crisp barring