Norwegian Jaerhon

[Roosterfry]

I agree with Discoveregg lets all get ready to go to Stavanger! lol... And the roosters both light and dark have their similarities when the are full grown. But like you the picture of the chicks and being common knowledge in Norway that light jaerhon male chicks are yellow was an eye opener for me for sure and on the hen the differences is most noticeable on the breast and lower portion of her body.! Ya'll are welcome I'm relieved to find the pieces of the puzzle finally, it was eating at me!! Calling ALL Jaerhon owners! Let's post more pictures of your birds on here and like wise as mine develop I'll do the same!

 

[Jake Levi]

I have been reading this thread and find this beautiful breed very interesting.

How long has the NJ been here in the US and who imported the first ones?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I don't know but I really like them.
I have 2 hens but sold a rooster and hens to a friend. If my customers liked white eggs I would definitely have more or start breeding them. My hens are barely more than bantam size and lay a 60 gram egg. They sure love to fly and free range. They're also an all weather bird.

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
Jake, If there is a breed that potentially shares some recent ancestry with Icelandics, this would be the one. Would be interesting to look into this. The NJ though is likely in very bad shape genetically. The Icelandic on other hand is apparently in pretty good shape yet, maybe even relative to some of our heritage breeds in the U.S.

 

[Jake Levi]

I have been wondering about that, both breeds may well share ancestors as the Icelandic settlers came from Norway, and I see a few common colors. They may be long separated 'cousins' , I am intrigued whenever I see pictures of them. I have long been interested in the Scandinavian breeds because of their winter hardiness, and ranging ability.

That is why I am interested in who brought them here to America and how long that they have been here. It could be very interesting to hatch out a dozen and then rear them closely under same conditions and diets.

The Icelandic is in very good shape genetically.

In what ways do you think that the NJ is hurting genetically? A very small genetic base?

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
Extremely small genetic base. Some of what you are looking for is early in thread. Entire breed based on a small number of individuals and U.S. population based on only one or two importations of a small number of individuals.

 

[Roosterfry]

This is an article I found that had information and contact number for the so called "gene bank" in Norway. So I assume this is a good article. This translation again is ruff. Oh and to answer another question, I'm not sure about this answer but I believe they were imported into the U.S. in 1998 by some type of college professor in Washington State. But please don't quote me on that statement I'm not totally sure on that.

Here' s the article I found. See if you can find anything useful in there!

Jærhøna is the only Norwegian hen race and belonging to the Norwegian country chicken type, as it was before it began to import chicken breeds from other countries around 1850. Breeding jærhøns began in 1916 with the establishment of a control breeding in that area. When selective breeding began, there was considerable variation in the color of chickens. It was desired in keeping with the ideology of a clearly defined standard color. The work was long to find animals that gave the stable inheritance of color It is shown that jærhøna was established as a breed based on a single parents. Jærhøna has a high degree of inbreeding, and according to theory should give poorer health, fertility and production. This has not happened, and jærhøna considered a robust and vital race. Characteristics and properties Jærhøna is small in size compared with other laying breeds. Body weight of hens is about. 1.7 kg. Both the hen and rooster comb is simple, straight resulting in the cock and slightly inclined to side with the chicken. Beak and legs are light yellow color, and the tail is stiff and The cock has a white base color and gray or brownish-yellow color the tip of each feather. Tail Feather and the collar is light yellow to white. The hen is a cross-striped gray / black base color on dekkfjørene and neck feathers and collar with a yellow-brown color. Flying Feather and tail feathers are dark gray, without streaks or edge. Feather color may vary slightly in both hen and rooster. Jærhøna is active, energetic and skilled at finding food when it can move freely. It can not easily be stopped by fences, as it is good to fly - and incubates very rare. The eggs are white, and shell quality is good. Jærhøna has the very special property that the chickens can gender be sorted out from the colors and markings when they are day-oldThe situation for jærhøna today a tribe of 300-400 animals jærhøns maintained by Gene Bank for poultry in Birchington. In addition, there is an active environment for jærhøns of Breed Poultry Association and among the hobby breeders, which is very important to ensure the breed. Gene Bank will take up orders for hatching eggs, day-old chicks and sometimes finished laying hens. If you are interested in jærhøns please contact: Gene Bank for poultry, Hvam High School, 2150 Arnes. Phone: 63 91 21 00

 

[Roosterfry]

http://www.landbruksmuseet.no/forsiden/artikkel/jerhons that is the link where I found the article posted above. There is as well more contact information to the Gene Bank at the bottom of the paige. I sent them an email about a week ago, I sent in it in English and Norwegian i still haven't heard anything back yet.

 

[Roosterfry]

Ya'll I'm so excited!! I found the person who imported Jaerhons to the U.S. I got an opportunity to talk to him! FACT: you can quote me on this. They were first imported to the U.S. By Dr. Bjorn Netland. He imported 12 hatching egg in 1994 by his nephew who brought them with him on a trip to the US. His nephew lived near the "vice chair" of the gene bank/Jaerhon preserve and that is where his nephew got the 12 hatching egg from. 10 hatched and there were dark and light variety within the ten chicks 1 dark cockeral 2 light cockerals and mostly dark hens(exact number of dark hens unknown). .He split up the light and dark variety and bred them to increase their numbers. He sent some light and dark variety F2 generation to a man in Iowa and a lady in the Carolinas. He said that the most interesting and desirable traits of this breed is hard good quality shells and large egg to body size ratio as well as disease and pest resistance is very good.. He said they do lay between 170 and a little over 200 eggs per year. He said something that is very different about this breed is that inbreeding does NOT effect them in a negative way like with other breeds and in Norway genetics research is being done to study this trait. He as well corrected me not to say Jaerhon but say "Jaer" plural "jaers". Because "hon" just means hen. He said Jaers in Norway are often bred with other production breeds like white leghorns and this cross is a very good commercial cross. He said that he tried this and in his experience the product of the JaerXwhiteleghorn cross did lay better overall than the white leghorn did and was smaller in body than the white leghorn. He did say that he preferred the light jaer variety but doesn't know of anyone that has them for sure anymore because he has not kept up with them. As for his flock he had a terrible coyote disaster. He said he has jaers now but had to buy new stock from hatcheries.. We had about a 30 min conversation and he was a very friendly person to talk with. He said he would call me later in the week to talk about them some more.

Am I the only one excited about this?

 

[Jake Levi]

Thanks for finding this out !!

Where in Washington is he? I am also in Washington. I truly hope that there is not a lot of crossing with them but rather folks keeping them uncrossed, at least until a great deal more is known about the breed, it would be a disaster for the breed for folks to begin crossing them.

I am interested in getting some hatching eggs this spring, to try to raise some concurently with a hatch of Icelandics to compare. Looking at them they are slightly smaller then the Icelandics which arenot a large breed either, a bit larger then a Leghorn.

Where are folks getting hatching eggs from? I would like some in April or later.