Olandsk Dwarf

[PotatoChicken]

Just wondering about the breed. What is its conservational status in the US? What are its varieties and colors? Climate, Behavior, History ect.


-Potato

 

[PotatoChicken]

Anyone?

 

[Chooklet]

Hi PotatoChicken,

I just started raising the Olandsk dwarfs this year, from a couple of breeding trios that came from birds originally imported by Greenfire. Not sure if you have seen the discussion thread on this breed:https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/533977/olandsk-dwarf-chickens. I am not aware of a flock in the US that did not come from Greenfire's birds, but if there is one I would love to know about it in order to increase the diversity in my flock!

I have been setting tons of eggs. Fertility has been amazing, but virility in the egg is not as good as with may of my other bantam breeds (I also breed black mottled Japanese bantams and a few color projects (calico and crele) of bantam cochins). I haven't compiled stats yet (on my to do list), but am finding that about 20-25% of the eggs stop developing after about a week, and another 20-25% stop developing at or during lock down. I am not sure if this is due to the fact that my birds are all under one year of age - won't know that for another few months - or if this is "normal" for the breed. I have heard from a few others with similar experience with their results - I would love to hear from more Olandsk breeders to see what their results are.

They have done quite well in the summer heat, though I live in an area where it rarely hits triple digits and on those handful of 100+ days I make sure that they have plenty of water. Coming from Sweden I imagine they are fairly cold hardy. Again, my area is quite temperate, with occasional winter nights in the high twenties but only rarely does it go lower than that. My experience with their personality is that they are inquisitive, curious, friendly, particularly those that I have raised in a brooder and handled often, and LOVE their dust baths.

As to history, I have done a lot of searching in the internet, and with the help of Google Translate have been able to find some interesting Swedish web sites with information about the breed. It is a land race, with no set SOP and with variability in leg color (yellow or white), comb (straight or rose), and some variance in color from locale to locale. My cockerels are similar, but one has yellow legs and the other has white. I have 2 different colors of pullets - one is a much darker base with the black, white & buff pattern and the other three are a much lighter base with the same pattern. Here are a few pictures of my breeding flock, along with some of the juveniles:

Here you can see the two different color forms of my pullets. This picture is outdated - the girls have much bigger combs now.




One of my cockerels - the other is a bit more orange in hackles/saddle.


some sleepy babies - about 2 weeks old in this picture:


little boy, at about 6 weeks old (with JB and Cochin friends)

I had one girl get broody this summer - gave her some eggs to sit on . She did great, and is now raising 3 little babies.
Here she is with the first 2 that hatched:




I'll copy this over to the other thread that I referenced above so that we don't have 2 different threads going on such a tiny breed. I am really excited about the breed - I think they are just adorable, and am excited at the prospect of helping to increase numbers and spread the breed in the US.

 

[PotatoChicken]

Thanks. that was quite a help!

 

[HappyChickInn]

https://m.facebook.com/groups/220227911454748?view=permalink&id=834479106696289

Saw this today and thought you might be interested

 

[dexter546]

Does anyone have some OLandsk Dwarf eggs or chicks for sale?
Dexterdarnekk
[email protected]

 

[BlueGold]

We will be selling them in a couple months. How much would you be willing to buy them for? They are all purebreds.