What are the rarest breeds of poultry? How many are there? And how can we save them?

[Florida Bullfrog]

All breeds were mutts at some point, and the notion of keeping the mutts we now call breeds pure to themselves for centuries with no outcrossing is a relatively new concept in animal breeding that hasn’t yet passed the test of time. In fact, every time we see animals both wild and domestic forced to remain pure to tight lines for more than a few decades, bad things happen.

The bulldog is an excellent example. They evolved a lot between the Renaissance and the end of the 1700s, starting out like a large mastiff and ending up small but healthy and tough by the early 1800s. We know from records they were outcrossed at various times to other breeds, constantly changing some traits but keeping them healthy.

By the mid and late 1800s they were bred pure to themselves for many decades and for a long time they were athletic and healthy.

Then they got too inbred and unhealthy, with breeders being unwilling to add new blood into the second century of keeping them “pure.”

 

[NagemTX]

All breeds were mutts at some point, and the notion of keeping the mutts we now call breeds pure to themselves for centuries with no outcrossing is a relatively new concept in animal breeding that hasn’t yet passed the test of time. In fact, every time we see animals both wild and domestic forced to remain pure to tight lines for more than a few decades, bad things happen.

The bulldog is an excellent example. They evolved a lot between the Renaissance and the end of the 1700s, starting out like a large mastiff and ending up small but healthy and tough by the early 1800s. We know from records they were outcrossed at various times to other breeds, constantly changing some traits but keeping them healthy.

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By the mid and late 1800s they were bred pure to themselves for many decades and for a long time they were athletic and healthy.

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Then they got too inbred and unhealthy, with breeders being unwilling to add new blood into the second century of keeping them “pure.”

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This right here is why I'm so on the fence on keeping pure lines. I really wish the breed standards had a class for type where color doesn't count. Basically a party color class for each breed.

Or utility classes. Categories being egg laying, dual and meat.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Behold, bulldog mutts, which are way more legitimate bulldogs than the pure thing.

So it can also sometimes be with chickens. They’re a lot more tolerant of inbreeding that mammals, but the sort of inbreeding I’m decrying is not a few years worth, but several human lifetime’s worth. That’s not natural or healthy no matter how carefully individuals are selected.

The aseels might be the only domestic livestock on earth that have been kept pure to themselves for centuries. And I love them to death. But they have major issues because of their constant inbreeding. When I’ve bred pure ones, 1 in 3 have serious defects at hatching. To me, that’s an unacceptable consequence of keeping them pure. It would be better to outcross them to something similar, then breed them back to what they ought to be.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

This right here is why I'm so on the fence on keeping pure lines. I really wish the breed standards had a class for type where color doesn't count. Basically a party color class for each breed.

Or utility classes. Categories being egg laying, dual and meat.

Isn't all other Varieties that?

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

This right here is why I'm so on the fence on keeping pure lines. I really wish the breed standards had a class for type where color doesn't count. Basically a party color class for each breed.

Or utility classes. Categories being egg laying, dual and meat.

My solution is to pick breeds that value builds that have performance implications. That’s one reason I like the American game bantam standards. The bird the SOP calls for in AGBs is still athletic and agile, as contrasted to the OEGB, where the show winners today are the ones that are the most toy-like.

Something else that really helps is taking advantage of the fact that the SOP doesn’t take pedigree into account. All that matters that you shape a bird that meets the SOP, which opens up options for outcrossing. That blew me away when I started breeding to SOPs a few years ago. That would be blasphemy in the dog world. But its a powerful tool to keep poultry breeds healthy that we don’t take advantage of enough.

 

[Dinoroar]

My solution is to pick breeds that value builds that have performance implications. That’s one reason I like the American game bantam standards. The bird the SOP calls for in AGBs is still athletic and agile, as contrasted to the OEGB, where the show winners today are the ones that are the most toy-like.

Something else that really helps is taking advantage of the fact that the SOP doesn’t take pedigree into account. All that matters that you shape a bird that meets the SOP, which opens up options for outcrossing. That blew me away when I started breeding to SOPs a few years ago. That would be blasphemy in the dog world. But its a powerful tool to keep poultry breeds healthy that we don’t take advantage of enough.

I always think about this when I see listings for eggs or chickens saying they’re ‘pure bred’ such n such. In chickens it doesn’t matter who the parents were just what traits a bird shows.

 

[Amer]

Also, purebred could be hatchery stock. “Standard Bred” is the mark of quality.

 

[Somewhere_In_The_Clouds]

This thread is really interesting!
The one time I asked a breeder about a rare breed I was basically told they are best suited to experienced breeders as they are really prone to things like slipped tendons. Can't help but wonder if that's because they're being kept "too pure", it's a very limited gene pool here in Australia.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

This thread is really interesting!
The one time I asked a breeder about a rare breed I was basically told they are best suited to experienced breeders as they are really prone to things like slipped tendons. Can't help but wonder if that's because they're being kept "too pure", it's a very limited gene pool here in Australia.

I'd imagine so. Kinda like guppies

 

[Ms Biddy]

Although I most certainly believe that selective and strict line breeding and single pairings are important and necessary tools for preserving or improving a breed, I can also attest that it can cause or reinforce problems that cannot be foreseen even with the most careful of selection.

For example, I accidentally infused a predisposition to coccidiosis into my Cracker gamefowl by culling my home flock down to what appeared to be the best individuals by conformation to the physical builds and temperaments that I wanted, but not having a way to predict that the subsequent breedings of those superficially ideal individuals would produce weakened offspring. It took two years for the error to become apparent and where I had culled the “uglier” but hardier individuals away, the genetic drift I had created backed me into a corner.

One piece of advice I would give to someone interested in preserving a breed is to pick one breed and stick with it. It requires a lot of space and likely several coops to keep enough flocks going for diversity. I’m up to 13 coops and pens now, with 11 being occupied at the moment, juggling 4 different project breeds. Its a lot. I would be better off only working on one breed and using the various coops to hold separate lines within that breed.

I strongly agree with picking one breed and sticking with it, which few seem to do. It takes a lot of pen space to really work with a line over many generations and as some have mentioned, genetic diversity is valuable, so one or two small breeding groups just isn't enough.

Continuously hopping from one breed to the next also doesn't help a breed's survival. If you really put time into understanding and working with one breed and then share it with enough other people that it gets into the hands of someone else who wants to do the same thing and so on - in your lifetime you will have made an impact and helped preserve a breed.