This year more than 30 billion chickens will be raised worldwide, and virtually every single one will be a copy of the next.  Each is part of the global poultry monoculture that supports industrial agriculture.  And yet, if you look hard enough for long enough you can find chickens that rescue us from this vast crushing sameness; birds extraordinary, rare and dazzlingly unique.  At Greenfire Farms, our mission is to find and save these obscure breeds for an uncertain future when their genetic gifts are once again called into service.  This is nothing less than a revolution, and all revolutions start with a small group of people.  This is your revolution, too.

Greenfire Farms has scoured the globe, looking in isolated hamlets and small farmsteads, to find and bring you some of the world’s rarest and most beautiful chickens. In the past decade, Americans have rallied to conserve our threatened breeds and, through the efforts of excellent organizations like the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, are bringing back rare varieties of livestock from the brink of extinction. But we can do more.

In the last century more than half of Europe’s domestic breeds have become extinct. With two world wars, rapid urbanization, and heightened government regulation, maintaining viable populations of livestock breeds has become a daunting challenge. America can serve as a safe haven for some of these breeds. No domestic breed has become extinct in America in more than a quarter century. While this record is laudable, now is not the time for complacency.  We need your help.  You can play a critical role on a global stage by raising rare breeds of chickens from other countries.

Among the breeds we will be bringing to the United States are:

Double Laced Blue Barnevelder

Originating in Holland almost 200 years ago, Barnevelders are medium-sized fowl known for their striking coloration and production of dark eggs. The double laced pattern of markings on a Barnevelder hen is as precise and beautiful as the most intricate hand-sewn lace. The rarest color variety is the blue double laced, and none existed in America until Greenfire Farms was able to find and import this variety from the United Kingdom. This variety is tentatively scheduled for release in 2014.

Pavlovskaya Hen

The pavlovskaya hen is the most ancient breed of chicken in Russia. Its origins are lost in the murky depths of history, but by the time Russians began to take stock of their native chicken breeds in the late 1800s, pavlovskaya hens were already virtually extinct. Many centuries ago this breed emerged in the town of Pavlovo, a small enclave of peasants and craftsmen about 200 miles east of Moscow. The town was known for a number of unique agricultural specialties including the breeding of fighting geese, canaries and the cultivation of lemons. Some poultry historians believe that the pavlovkskaya hens are the foundational breed that gave rise to more recently developed crested breeds like the Polish, barthuhners, and brabanters. Pavlovskaya hens are known to be extremely cold hardy and have unique feathering on their feet that is similar to the feathering on wild grouse. A Russian myth describes the origin of the breed as an illicit tryst between a chicken and grouse. Despite their hardiness the breed all but perished in the Soviet era. At one time in the early 1990s the total global population of authentic pavlovskaya was reduced to two roosters, and one was infertile. By breeding the fertile rooster with somewhat similar hens, and then back-breeding to the father, the breed was reestablished. Today very few of these remarkable birds remain even in their native Russia, and they are virtually unknown outside that country. Nevertheless, in what was our most challenging import project, Greenfire Farms located a small breeding group and brought them to the United States.

Niederrheiner

These beautiful and productive fowl from the Lower Rhine area of Germany are known for their good temperaments and hardiness. There are a number of color varieties of niederrheiner and the breed is represented in both large fowl and bantam lines. Greenfire Farms will release a large fowl version of crele niederrheiners in the near future. These auto-sexing birds can weigh more than 8 lbs. and produce up to 200 eggs each year. Targeted for future releases by Greenfire Farms are also lemon cuckoo and black birchen varieties of this excellent and rare breed.