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Our poultry breeds
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Heritage breeds
We decided to keep breeds which are heritage breeds and therefore not
common in Australia any longer. By keeping these birds we help to
ensure that they will continue to exist in Australia. |
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Welsummer
Welsummers are medium sized birds with a colouring that is a bit
similar to the jungle fowl, which is the ancestor of all domestic
chickens. We like the looks of the Welsummer roosters because they
remind us of the roosters that were common in Europe when we were
children. They will lay about 160 large brown eggs per year. They are
strong and robust birds that are excellent foragers. They are not
flighty and can be handled easily. Welsummer roosters will protect their flock against predators. When
our Welsummers were attacked by three wedge-tailed eagles the rooster
fought the eagles to the end and gave the rest of the flock time to
escape into the bushes. Welsummers originate from the Netherlands and
were developed around 1900. They were bred as a dual-purpose fowl. |
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Salmon Faverolles
Salmon Faverolles are a French breed and were developed in the 1860s
in the community of Faverolles. Faverolles are quite rare in Tasmania.
Faverolles come in different colours, but we
like the standard salmon coloured birds best. Faverolles were also
bred as a dual-purpose fowl. They are average egg layers and lay
around 150 creamy coloured eggs per year. Faverolles are the clowns of
the poultry world. They have owl-like feathers in their face,
feathered legs and five toes. Faverolles are very friendly. They are
quite inquisitive and always come running up to us. They are the only
breed we have that likes to be picked up from the ground. The hens
would make ideal companions for children. The roosters are
magnificently coloured birds. Another big advantage of Faverolles is
the heavy feathering. They are hardy birds and they are supposed to
adapt well to Tasmania’s cold and wet winters. Faverolles hens will
go broody and make very good mothers. |
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Minorca
We have a stall at Hobart’s Salamanca Market and are licensed to
sell eggs. We sell “heritage eggs”: eggs that come from
traditional breeds, not from commercial hybrids. We started looking for a heritage breed that is a very good
layer. We heard that Minorcas would be the ideal breed for this
purpose. They are
supposed to lay more than 200 large white eggs
per year. We got fertile eggs from a Minorca breeder in Armidale and
we bought a breeding trio and two pullets in Northern Tasmania. Our
Minorcas are growing into very impressive birds and we are very happy
with our decision. Minorcas are a Mediterranean breed. Other
Mediterranean breeds are Leghorns, Anconas and Andalusians.
Minorcas were first brought to England in the 1830s. They are
light birds and they were kept as egg layers rather than for their
meat. They are long legged and can be flighty and nervous. They are
not ideal birds to keep around children, because they are easily
scared and can panic. Minorcas will not go broody. They have
black-blue feathering, a big comb and large
white earlobes. They are more prone to suffering from the cold than
heavier breeds, but our birds come from the highlands of NSW and from
Tasmania and they are used to the cold winter weather. We really enjoy
the looks of these stately black birds that carry themselves
with such grace. We have not found our Minorcas to be overly flighty
or easily scared, but they always have a lot of room to move. We would
not suggest to keep them in a small confined area. Our Minorcas seem
to lay around the same number of eggs per year as the other heritage
breeds, that is around 160 eggs rather than the 200 we had hoped for,
but they are big white eggs and very well liked by our customers. |
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New Hampshire
New Hampshires are an American breed with reddish-brown
colouring. They were developed in the United States and first
officially recognised as a breed in 1935. We do not intend to breed
New Hampshires ourselves. They are readily available in Tasmania.
They were developed as a dual-purpose breed and lay light brown
eggs. They will go broody. They have a good reputation as meat
chickens in the USA, but the New Hampshires we usually see in Tasmania
seem to be smaller and more suited to be kept as egg layers. Our New
Hampshires are very friendly and inquisitive birds. We keep New
Hampshires as part of our heritage egg laying flock but do not breed
them. |
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Light Sussex
Another breed that is readily available in Tasmania and is gentle and
docile are the Light Sussex. They are well adapted to Tasmania’s
cold climate and are heavy fowl. Because of their size they need more
food per bird. They are good egg layers. We choose to keep a few Light
Sussex hens because of their reputation as very good mothers. Rather
than rely solely on our incubators we let the Light Sussex hens
look after fertile eggs from our Welsummers and Minorcas. Light Sussex
are quiet birds and easily contained. We do not breed Light
Sussex ourselves. |
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White Leghorns
White Leghorn crossbreds are the most populous chooks on Earth, but
pure bred White Leghorns are very rare in Australia. White Leghorns
are a Mediterranean breed. They are light, can be flighty and are not
a dual purpose breed but are kept as layers. We got our White Leghorns
from a local breeder as day old hatchlings. We do not intend to breed
them but keep them for their -hopefully- excellent laying qualities.
We currently have six pullets. They hatched in early October, started
laying in April and in May lay between two and four eggs each day. It
will be interesting to see if they continue laying through winter! Our
White Leghorns seem to be the best layers we currently have. |
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Rhode Island Red
Rhode Island Reds are large chooks that
were developed in Massachusetts and Rhode Island in the 19th
and early 20th century. They are a classic barnyard breed and are
readily available in Tasmania. They are a dual purpose breed and they
are supposed to be very good egg layers. We bought four pullets and a
cockerel in April 2010 and don't know as yet how well they will lay.
Our Rhode Island Reds are impressive large birds that are good natured
and not nervous or afraid of us. They are the heaviest birds we have
and are not suited for small gardens as they are very good scratchers
and can do a lot of digging in a short time. But this is exactly what
we want them to do in our orchards! |
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Lavender Araucana
Araucanas are quite different from all
other breeds of chooks. They originate from South America and they lay
blue eggs. Araucanas are a light breed. They can be quite flighty and
nervous and are not the ideal backyard chook. We got eggs from two
different bloodlines of Lavender Araucanas. As soon as the chicks
started to live outside we realized how different they were from all
the other chicks! They kept their distance, could fly much better than
the others and they didn't go back to their roost in the evening. They
roosted in bushes and trees instead. The main reason we got them are
the blue eggs! They add colour to the variety of eggs we sell at
Salamanca Market. And we got used to our Lavender Araucanas, so much
in fact, that we now plan to breed them! They are proud little chooks
that are much closer to their wild ancestors than any other breed we
keep. |
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Plymouth
Rock
We also keep a few Plymouth Rock hens. Plymouth Rocks are an American
breed and were first exhibited there in 1869. Plymouth Rocks became
extremely popular in the United States because of their hardiness and
excellent qualities as egg layers and meat birds. They are a lot less
common these days. Plymouth
Rocks are gentle giants that lay large pinkish-brown eggs. They make
good broody hens and mothers. They are long-lived with a very hearty
appetite. Plymouth Rocks are quiet and make
very good companions. We had a special reason for keeping a few
Plymouth Rock hens. We wanted to cross them with a Welsummer rooster to
breed table birds. An autosexing breed named “Welbar” was
developed in the 1940s in the UK by using Welsummer roosters and
Plymouth Rock hens. Autosexing breeds are not hybrids. To breed a
hybrid a pure rooster and a pure hen need to be crossed. The traits of
hybrids are not stable and as in the case of the ISA Brown one needs
the original parent stock to breed more birds with the same traits.
Welbars -like other autosexing breeds- are a stable breed with fixed
traits such as any other breed. The autosexing breeds became
recognized breeds in the UK in the 1940s. Welbars combine the best
traits of Welsummers and Plymouth Rocks and autosexing allowed us
to tell the gender of day-old chickens. This
worked very well and it is indeed easy to tell females and males apart
from day one. We did however not continue the development of Welbars.
The reason is that to do so we would need to keep quite a few
roosters. Imagine keeping only one rooster of a second a third
generation line that is geared towards creating the Welbar and then
loosing that rooster. One would need to start all over again and two
or three years of development would be lost. Realistically the theory
is good, but we do not have the room to keep the spare roosters. |
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