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. Now you can play a critical role on a global stage by raising rare breeds of chickens from other countries.
After the successful introduction of coronation Sussex and silver Sussex to America, Greenfire Farms has shifted its focus from Australia and is now in the process of locating flocks of rare chickens throughout Europe and arranging for their export to the United States. In the months ahead we hope to finalize shipment of these birds to our shores. In some cases, these chickens are so rare that you could count the surviving members of these breeds on two hands. (Okay, and maybe your feet.) We will be giving you updates on these breeds as we establish breeding colonies in the United States. Check back often. Among the breeds we have targeted for introduction to this country are:
Hedemora
A rare breed from northern Sweden, hedemora are possibly the most cold hardy chickens in the world. Hedemora evolved over half a millennium in some of the most frigid areas of Sweden, and during that time developed traits that make them uniquely suited to endure long bouts of cold weather. Their combs and wattles have been greatly reduced in size to limit the ravages of frostbite to their extremities, and the skin that is visible is often black to absorb the weak rays of the northern sun. But, their most striking adaptation is the underlayer of soft down that acts as insulation beneath their outer layer of hard feathers. Experts in Sweden have told us that these chickens can routinely survive 15 degree nights without artificial heat in coops that are dry and draft free.
Hedemora are a land race that over time split into three distinct varieties: a “wooly” version that has puffy feathering similar to a silkie chicken, a feather legged variety, and a clean legged variety. Swedish hobbyists believe it is important to the genetic viability of the breed to keep all versions of the breed, and so Greenfire Farms is obtaining the three varieties. Because of the extraordinary volume of their underlayer of feathers, the birds appear larger than their weight would suggest. An average hen weights about 4 lbs. and a rooster about 5 lbs. About 30% to 40% of the hens will become broody if given the chance to sit on eggs, and they are known to be superior at all aspects of incubation and rearing. Their pillow of soft down gives them the ability to incubate a very large clutch of eggs, and they are known as fierce protectors of their chicks.
Cream Legbar
This extraordinary fowl has a fascinating history. It was developed by R.C. Punnett in England, the pioneer geneticist who intentionally developed the first auto-sexing breeds based on the first preliminary understanding of the operation of genes. (Auto-sexing breeds produce female chicks that have different color patterns than males, so even someone of modest training can immediately identify the gender of a chick after it hatches.) The cambar was the first auto-sexing chicken breed, closely followed in the 1930s by the cream legbar. The legbar is not only auto-sexing but also lays very large sky-blue eggs. If these traits aren’t sufficiently enticing, this breed possesses one more interesting characteristic: The hens frequently have a feathered head crest that makes them look vaguely like Sid Vicious.
East Frisian Gull
With their ermine-white hackles and their black speckled bodies, these are birds that reflect a purity of purpose in their breeding that has yielded a breath-taking presence in the chicken yard. They are native to the northern coastal regions of Germany, and take their name from the feather quality of the chicks that resembles sea gulls. These chickens are severely endangered, limited to a few remaining flocks on small farms. One German expert on this breed told us that flocks other than his own produced a national total of 14 chicks in 2009. Think about that: 14 chicks in the entire world. These priceless genetic treasures teeter on the brink of extinction.
Chocolate Orpington
The “chocolate” gene, so called because it imparts a rich brown hue to the color of chicken feathers, is the Holy Grail of color traits among the dedicated chicken hobbyists. Existing only in seramas in the United States, it has been successfully cultivated in Orpingtons in several European countries. The gene was originally described in 1994 by the late British geneticist, Dr. Clive Carefoot, when he observed the unusual color mutation in a single Orpington hen. He discovered that the chocolate gene is sex-linked: hens with the gene always display chocolate color while roosters with the recessive gene hide the chocolate color. Dr. Carefoot chose not to widely distribute the gene, instead working until his death to breed the gene into several varieties of chickens. The quality of the color varies considerably among chocolate Orpingtons, so Greenfire Farms has been diligent in seeking out the deepest and richest chocolate coloring as a basis for bringing the chocolate gene to America. We have now located that stock and are in the process of finalizing the details of importation.
