Making Breeds From Scratch!

cluckcluckluke

Crowing
12 Years
Jul 10, 2012
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The Foothills Of Chickendom
The 'formula' seems to be lost for many breeds of chicken we have today, but are there any that we really know, what creates them?

For instance: Australian Langshans are made from Croads and Australorps....but what make Croads and Australorp's?
 
The 'formula' seems to be lost for many breeds of chicken we have today, but are there any that we really know, what creates them?

For instance: Australian Langshans are made from Croads and Australorps....but what make Croads and Australorp's?

Australorps were selectively bred from Orpingtons, more of an emphasis on egg laying and tighter feathers. The Langshan (Croad Langshan if you're not in the US) is a foundation breed. Which means either they just...are...or they were made so long ago history doesn't record it and it is lost to time in this case. In some cases a breed is a "foundation" breed because the breeds used to make it are extinct.
 
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That is so cool!
Yeah I am in Australia and although we do have Croads, the Australian Langshans are more predominant.

Do you know any other foundation breeds?

So Australian Langshans where created using Lorps and Langshans and Lorps are created using Orpingtons and ?
What are Orpingtons made from then?

Other foundation breeds (99% sure): Malay, White Faced Black Spanish, Hamburg, Japanese bantam, Silkie, Sumatra, Buttercup, Dorking, (Croad) Langshan, and probably some others I'm forgetting.

Australorps were just selectively bred from Orpingtons is my understanding, I am not as well versed on that class of poultry. But similar to how the New Hampshire was selectively bred from the Rhode Island Red with no other breeds added.

The Orpington was created from the Minorca, Langshan and Plymouth Rock in it's original Black coloration. Buff Cochins were used to introduce the Buff which is now of course the msot well known variety.

Edit: Turns out I was wrong on the Australorp. It was primarily Orpingtons but also Rhode Island Red, White Leghorn, Minorca, Langshan again and possibly some Plymouth Rock.
 
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What about Nankins, Jungle Fowl ( of course ). Then you have all of your really old Asian breeds like, Ongadori, Yokohama etc.
What breed do Silkies help in the creation of?

I can not see Minorca in so of today's Orpingtons.lol.
Told ya it wasn't a complete list, just off the top of my head. You're probably right on those breeds. Although I thought the yokohama and sumatra were related some how, I'd have to look it up. There's so much poultry history out there. If you go too far back you get "breeds" of landraces which becomes a huge issue. Changes your definition of breed. Onagadori to the best of my knowledge had nothing in common except long tails, they could be all sorts of shapes and colors and comb types. A more modern example is the Swedish Flower Hen, it's not a breed, its a landrace. It doesn't breed true.

Anyway, poultry history can be a huge subject and a fascinating one to look into. There's so much (and far enough back so many conflicts) that I doubt there's anyone that knows it all. I know the history of the Asiatics fairly well because that's my favorite class, and right now am working on researching everything that the Langshan was used to create, which is fascinating to me to see how many other breeds owe their existence to them.
 
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hahha, yeah. I was juts adding one.
They probably are, most of those Longtailed fowl are.
Landraces????

Sorry, now that you say that about Onagadori, that does sound familiar. There is no 'standard' for them anywhere in the world and as you said they have many variety's.

I did not know that about Swedish Flower Hens, there seems to quite a bit on BYC about them that I thought they where a breeding of their own. So how do you continue them on if they don't breed true?

It is, I once looked into making our own Jersey Giants over here in Australia and the amount of breeds that I would need to even start getting close was going to be very hard.
Langshans where used to create Jersey Giants as well. There's a start for you.lol.
 

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