Norwegian Jaerhon

[Hangtown Farms]

I think Sandhill is out for awhile but if you send in your order than at least you will be on the list and probably have them by fall.
I am waiting on some Black Penedesenca's from them myself

 

[discoveregg]

I have a breeding pair of Norwegian Jaerhons for sale, 4 months old. Willing to ship, nothing is wrong with them, they just don't fit into my breeding project. Also 3 cockerels from the same hatch.
I will be incubating more eggs next month (when I finally have some space available!). PM me if your interested

 

[GaryDean26]

Does anyone know the genetics of the Jaer's? The possibilities I came up with from the few photos I have seen are the following. Can anyone confirm?

Dark Variety
eb/eb partridge Brown
B/B+ Sex-linked Barring
Cb/Cb Dominate Champagne (or possibly recessive cream ig/ig, or a single factor Cb/cb if both varieties are eb/eb).

Light Variety
e+/e+ duck-wing light brown (or possibly eb/eb, do the light variety have salmon color breast on the females?)
B/B+ Sex-linked Barring
Cb/Cb Dominate Champagne (or possibly recessive cream ig/ig).

Any other genes? I noticed the Flame variety show white blotches would this be a cb/cb with some other molting type gene? If so what?

Really curious.

GaryDean26

 

[cjwaldon]

I got my first NJ egg today - 20 weeks.

 

[Amyable]

Anybody have answers for GaryDean??

 

[GaryDean26]

I got on the Norwegian web-page that Amyable sent me and noticed that CelticMoon posted my question there last week. Thanks! CelticMoon. I also have been doing some digging in a few other places. A thread on the The Coop's suggested that the Jaerhon may have a unique primary color pattern in the E locus (that being that is is neither the eb/eb, e+/e+, or any other identified color).

What I have confirmed is that the barring is defiantly sex-linked (B/B) and not autosomal. The sexlinked barring is what gives the Jaerhons chicks the white spots on the head. Since it is a sexlinked gene the females only get one copy of the barring gene and the males that are homozygous get two copies. The two copies, or double factor is why the males chicks have a larger spot and why the males have a lighter down color.

I discovered that another member of the BYC is already working on a project with the the Jaerhons that will uncoved some of the genetic. As the project develops we will let you know what we find, and of course ask a lot more questions.

 

[Amyable]

Very interesting, thanks for the info GaryDean, keep it coming.

 

[aurissavannahs]

Actually i just found out from Tim Shelton, author of The Genetics of the Old English Game Bantam, that Jaerhons are both autosomal (Pattern gene Pg + Dark brown Db) barred and sexlink barred(B/B). The combination of both barring genes causes the soft irregualsr barring on the Jaerhons. The sexlinked barring (B/B) works like Gary Dean stated and the gold gene (s/s) makes the difference in the down color even greater so it is easy to tell the sexes apart at hatch. It all stands out well on the dark down from the e locus what ever it is. I had been thinking the dark Jaers were eb and the light Jaers ebc? maybe not. Will be interested in finding out any new information. Keep up the good work Gary Dean. I would love to work with you if I can help in anyway.
Kat

 

[GaryDean26]

Wow...so the Jaerhons have both barring. That is really cool. This is great information.

Yes, I was was looking at the ebc color of the Sicilian Buttercups for the possible color pattern too. I was also looking at the ey color patter of the Spanish Murciana. The Jaerhon seems to be closer to the ebc, but somewhere in the middle of them both.

Thanks for the offer. I will welcome any help on this breeds genetics. And thanks again for sharing this information.

 

[Nyowpotopop]

So I'm looking for some info on this breed. It was suggested to me by aurissavannahs.

I'm looking for temperment info hardiness and egg production numbers.

For example I have heard these are quiet birds but I have also heard they are very flighty and hard to handle? Are these things true?

Also how cold-hardy are they? we often get 2 feet of snow and down to 10 degrees in the dead of winter... Sometimes (rarely) lower. My understanding is the big combs often get frostbitten? (A little odd for a norweigian breed IMO.) Is this true?

And lastly I am having trouble nailing down any real egg production numbers. Could I expect 200-300 eggs per year from these guys? I'm hoping for a bird to produce somewhere around 20 eggs a month... Which is 240/yr.