How common are they really....

SIMPleChick

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11 Years
Mar 10, 2011
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Utah
I went to buy a bag of chicken food today and my 16 year old son decided he HAD to spend his money on getting himself chickens!!! LOL He got ones that, online, say they are rare breeds...but how "rare" are they really...Do they just post these as rare so people buy them? LOL!?

Sicilian ButterCup
Gold Lakenvelder
Silver Lakenvelder
Old English Bantam Game Bird..which IS a breed of chicken?
 
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Old English Game Bantams are not rare at all, pretty much all I have and my favorite breed of bird. Cant answer for the others, there is one guy in my area that has lakenvelders, dont know on buttercups...
 
Well, here is the list from ALBC... but you have to take it as you will. I believe their census is scewed. Also --- very few hatchery birds meet the breed standard, so it's hard to tell what he got. If he's interested in preserving rare or endangered heritage poultry, have him look up the breeds & see what he's interested in. We liked using Henderson's Breed Chart even though it's not perfect -- still a handy tool & has links to pics from Feathersite.

Some rare breeds are much more rare than their ALBC status claims. Looking for certain colors of Dorkings, like white or cuckoo is unbelievably difficult. Even the "common" colors like Silver Grey & Red are not easy to find. Some hatcheries that have them have decent stock -- others not so much. Part of it depends on where you live & if you have local breeders with rare breeds.

Critical

Campine Chantecler Crevecoeur

Holland Modern Game Nankin (Bantam)

Redcap Russian Orloff Spanish

Sultan Sumatra Yokohama

Threatened

Andalusian Buckeye Buttercup

Cubalaya Delaware Dorking

Faverolles Java Lakenvelder

Langshan Malay Phoenix

Watch

Ancona Aseel Brahma

Catalana Cochin Cornish

Dominique Hamburg Houdan

Jersey Giant La Fleche Minorca

New Hampshire Old English Game Polish

Rhode Island White Sebright Shamo

RECOVERING

Australorp Leghorn- Non-industrial

Orpington Plymouth Rock Rhode Island Red - Non industrial

Sussex Wyandotte

STUDY

Araucana Iowa Blue Lamona

Manx Rumpy (aka Persian Rumpless)

Naked Neck (aka Turken)
 
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The thing is, there's a difference between rare in hatchery quality and rare in good/"show" quality.



Old English Games are not rare at all, whether they be show quality, hatchery quality, whatever. They're very common.

Silver and Gold Lakenvelders are somewhat rare in hatchery quality, pretty darn rare in good quality.

Sicilian Buttercups are pretty rare in hatchery quality, practically unheard of in good quality.


By quality I am referring to the standard for the breed. Hatcheries breed only for production, thus dragging down weight, color, size, shape, behavior, etc. It still leaves a worthy hen, but only for a backyard egg laying pet.
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Some breeds out there like Rhode Island Reds and New Hampshires are as common as crows in their production layer type, found from hatchery stock, and as rare as hen's teeth in the original Heritage/"show" type strains.
 

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