Holland Chicken

[Pick-a-LilyFarm]

Do any of you know of someone who raises Holland chickens? They are on the ALBC Critical list and my husband would like to raise some....

 

[speckledhen]

Hmm, one of our members used to raise them, but doesn't anymore. His came from Sandhill Preservation and some didn't lay the white egg they are supposed to lay, but a creamy beige one. I've heard that from folks over the last couple of years, that the egg color was off in some hatchery stock. I asked him recently for someone else who wanted them if he knew who was currently raising them and sadly, he didn't know anyone.

 

[Pick-a-LilyFarm]

Cheese Whiz...that is too bad. I read in a recent magazine, not sure if it was Backyard Poultry or Countryside about a woman raising them...going to have to check out my old magazines!! By the way Cynthia...I am going to need to add some new blood to my Delawares in the spring...I will be getting in touch with you!! Thanks...Carol

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[fiftyfifty]

Try Duane Urch in the spring. He ships eggs and day-olds. He sells a lot of different breeds, but it isn't a typical hatchery at all. He breeds to the Standard. Some of his breeds are super high quality, some not quite as good but still better than you would get from a commercial hatchery. A search under "Urch" in the subject line will bring up a lot of info on him including contact info etc.

I think (but am not sure) that he is the supplier for some of the "show quality" breeds that you can order from Stromberg's hatchery. I guess that because his list and Stromberg's list are so similar that it could hardly be a coincidence. The reason I bring this up is that it can sometimes be a little "odd" to order from him personally. He is not tech saavy at all so e-mails are really slow to be answered and his phone hours are really limited. So ordering from a big hatchery like Strombergs might be more convenient, but the prices are higher.

Anyway, I have a Barred Holland pullet from him. It is calm and quiet and has a good personality. Just today it did the squat, so as soon as it lays I will report on egg color!

 

[Pick-a-LilyFarm]

Thanks fiftyfifty!! I appreciate the information!!!

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[speckledhen]

That's great to know! Thanks for that information. And Carol, we'll talk later about those Dels.

 

[Faverolle]

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I have to disagree with you on that one. I got a few different types of birds including Javas and Hollands from him to add additional lines to my flocks and all had major DQ's in relation to the standard. I ended up giving them away to someone that was going to use them just for eggs and the roosters were culled. Even more disappointing was when myself and another Java breeder politely emailed him regarding the birds and did not even get a response back.

 

[fiftyfifty]

I have to disagree with you on that one. I got a few different types of birds including Javas and Hollands from him to add additional lines to my flocks and all had major DQ's in relation to the standard.....Even more disappointing was when myself and another Java breeder politely emailed him regarding the birds and did not even get a response back.

Yeah, it's strange, feedback really is mixed. Some people on this forum describe getting the world's best service and awesome birds. Some quite the opposite. I'm not sure what to make of it.

He does well year after year in showing, so he must own quality stock...so why some birds are so bad, I am not sure. Of course even from the best lines in the world we can't expect that every bird will be a show quality bird. But you would think there would be few major DQs.

In my case, some of the birds I got clearly had DQs even as chicks. Examples include a black ameraucana with a deformed comb, and a silver ameraucana that was clean faced. But I had figured that the reason I got them was that I had made it very clear to him that they would be for pets only. (I figured perhaps that he had compensated by giving me more females, because for all of the sexable breeds...welsummers, barred holland etc..he gave me females).

Hmmmmm....it's a head scratcher. Did your hollands at least lay white eggs?​

 

[fiftyfifty]

Well, I'm hear to report on egg color........

She laid her first egg today and sadly it was brown. I had been prepared to be happy with "cream" since I heard that good egg color on the Barred Holland was hard to come by, but this wasn't even cream. The egg is medium brown.

Since white egg production was the reason the Barred Holland was created in the first place, this is seriously disappointing. And it is not a good Barred Rock either as it is too small and too skinny, and it is more cukoo than barred. Urch doesn't even list Barred Rocks as being one of the breeds he offers, so I don't think this was an inadvertant swap or something.

Basically, it looks like I paid $6 for a hatchery-quality "barred rock"! It's no big deal for me, a backyarder. But imagine if you had bought a whole shipment planning to breed. (Faverolle, I feel your pain !)

 

[speckledhen]

Well, crud! Sorry it turned out this way. Seems a decent quality Barred Holland is hard to come by, or any BH at all, really. This is a breed that needs to have some advocates, it seems.