Norwegian Jaerhon

[Jake Levi]

Ref no SOP, I certainly hope that there wont be for this beautiful breed !! Its a small gene pool, with two types,, that should be more then enough to breed them as they are and should be.

 

[Roosterfry]

Quote:
I hope they too eventually become APA excepted. To become APA excepted would help them in the long run to stay pure.

 

[Jake Levi]

Being a member of the APA is a 2 edged sword,one big disadvantage is a lack of judges who are familiar with the breed enough to judge it, with or without a standard, read the Buckeye thread for examples of judges not knowing the standard and judging by what they think the birds should be.

Color me pretty cynical about showing and judges. I have a long history with RIRs, still way too many judges will judge a SC RIR instead of excusing it.

So, considering how many RIRs have been shown, wrongly, I am very skeptical of getting good judging on a new breed with small numbers.

 

[Roosterfry]

Quote:
I see your point. That being said I believe I need to keep digging up as much info as I can on these birds. To help this breed in the U.S. Today I figured out that we do NOT have the bantam variety of this breed thankfully . When I discovered that there was a bantam variety I was relieved to find out the ones we have in the US despite being small in size they are definitely NOT bantams. The bantam variety in Norway are much smaller and a lil different shades of colored feathers than standard but are still in Norway referred to as "dark" and "light" honestly I hope the bantam variety doesn't take off in the U.S. We have plenty of bantams to keep up with as it is. I just hope we breeders can get together on some common ground with these Jaerhons and produce a bunch of them! I strongly feel like I'm doing the U.S. a favor with this very versatile and prolific breed by promoting them.

Side NOTE: if you as a breeder ever produce a jaerhon with no color just cuckoo/ even barring from head to knee please cull it because some strains of this does exist in Norway but even that color pattern is not excepted. If it's not excepted there it shouldn't be here either.
Example:

 

[discoveregg]

I have one pullet that looks different than her sisters. Roosterfry, what do you think? Do I need to cull her?

See one of her sisters behind and to the left:

 

[Roosterfry]

Quote:
I wouldn't breed her with the darker colored ones in my opinion. I like the pullet you have on the left of the picture. Darker, jaerhons like that one are what I'm seeing labeled as the dark variety in Norway. I have found that slight color variations are acceptable in this breed (which has made this hard for us and I believe has caused some misinterpretation). An Interesting fact: in the light variety the males are supposed to be almost completey yellow as chicks females brown with a faded stripe. Also the light variety is rare in Norway. I have only seen one picture of a light rooster in my research, but I have seen chick pictures.. I have yet to see a true light hen that doesn't look like other similar looking hens that are labeled as "dark." I'm starting to believe what we have in the U.S. is the dark standard variety with variations.

 

[discoveregg]

Funny, I thought I had the light variety, but it appears they are the dark variety. Anyone else get hatching eggs from Alpine Farms? I took another look at the auction page I won these eggs on, and it simply said Norwegian Jaerhons

In that case, I have a few young dark NJ cockerals if anyone is interested

I'll keep the odd pullet for egg production purposes.

My St Bernard became very annoyed with all the flapping wings going on around him when the NJs were attempting to roost - they stay a couple of feet out of his way now...lol. Instead they roost on stacked firewood all huddled up together taking in the sites. We've had about 16" of snow the last two days. Temperatures have ranged from 28-32 degrees during the day according to my outdoor thermometer. Interesting that NJs don't want to be in the coop where it's warmer.

 

[aurissavannahs]

Discoveregg,

Lovely hens. I have PMed you about the roosters. Now that you have discovered they are the dark variety I want one.

 

[aurissavannahs]

Quote:
I see your point. That being said I believe I need to keep digging up as much info as I can on these birds. To help this breed in the U.S. Today I figured out that we do NOT have the bantam variety of this breed thankfully . When I discovered that there was a bantam variety I was relieved to find out the ones we have in the US despite being small in size they are definitely NOT bantams. The bantam variety in Norway are much smaller and a lil different shades of colored feathers than standard but are still in Norway referred to as "dark" and "light" honestly I hope the bantam variety doesn't take off in the U.S. We have plenty of bantams to keep up with as it is. I just hope we breeders can get together on some common ground with these Jaerhons and produce a bunch of them! I strongly feel like I'm doing the U.S. a favor with this very versatile and prolific breed by promoting them.

Side NOTE: if you as a breeder ever produce a jaerhon with no color just cuckoo/ even barring from head to knee please cull it because some strains of this does exist in Norway but even that color pattern is not excepted. If it's not excepted there it shouldn't be here either.
Example: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/72682_jaerhons_graa_flokk_2.jpg

I have read that there are breeders in Norway that are working on the grey (cuckoo) variety and trying to get them accepted into the standard. So some people here might want to work with the grey variety too. I personality prefer the dark variety and think it should be the first variety to be recognized by the APA, but as in other breeds that shouldn't discourage others from working on the other varieties at the same time or they might get lost. I am wondering are any of the light variety left in the US? I have heard some people say they didn't think so. Anybody out there have the light variety? Be sure check your hens as they are hard to tell apart. The light hens have cream fluff under their tails instead of grey like the darks and the roosters are almost all white. The differences in the chicks are described earlier in this list by roosterfry. I hope we have not already lost one variety here.

 

[Roosterfry]

Ok guys, I have almost exhausted myself and become VERY obsessive in my research. My wife is about fed up with me! Lol. I have been working on this for several hours and days. Conclusion: Only found two main varieties, they go by the names yellow-brown/light/Lys/ gul-brun and brown-yellow/dark/mork/brun-gul. There are some varieties out there that are different and some interesting bantams, but I have not found a Flame Jaerhon anywhere in Norway but maybe they exist I'm not sure... In my research I'm focusing on what we know as "dark" and "light" standard variety. it was so hard to find these pictures

I'm going to post some pictures I found of light ones for you all to see.. And the pictures of the chicks dark and light side by side and a picture of roosters side by side dark and light and solo hens. And light pairs. Stand by. Give me about 20 mins to compile the pictures.