Rare Breed Livestock

Rare Breed Livestock
Rare Breed Sheep, Chickens and Turkeys provide compost material and pest management.

Bronze Turkey

    The Bronze Turkey has been the most popular turkey variety in the United States historically. Its exact origin is obscure though it does include a cross between the eastern species of North American wild turkey and the domestic turkeys brought by colonists from Europe; these turkeys had originated in Mexico. This cross seems to have been advantageous and resulted in a Bronze bird much improved over the original British imports.
    The Bronze variety is stately and imposing in appearance. Bronze turkeys stand four feet tall, with a fifteen to eighteen inch tail and a six foot wing span. The color is copper bronze, with a background of brown and black, and white bars on the tail. The Bronze has straight, strong legs set well apart.Its back is broad, sloping from the neck and flat between the wings. The wings are carried well up on the sides. The tail is long with broad feathers. The keel is deep. The head is long, deep, and broad with prominent eyes. Both toms and hens have a large wattle pendant and gracefully curved necks. The beard is black, and the shanks and toes are smoky pink. Toms weigh up to 36 pounds and hens up to twenty pounds.

    The status of this variety has changed dramatically during the past century. In the early 1900s, Bronze turkeys with broader breasts were introduced from England into Canada and then into the northwestern United States. They were crossed with improved U.S. stocks, and the resulting Broad-breasted Bronze became the dominant commercial variety. Selection improved its meat production, especially the production of breast meat, growth rate, and other performance qualities. At the same time, changes in conformation (especially the shorter legs and the broader breast) nearly eliminated the ability to mate naturally. For this reason, most Broad-breasted Bronze turkeys have been artificially inseminated since the 1960s. The Broad-breasted Bronze was replaced by the Large White (or Broad-breasted White) turkey beginning in the 1960s. Processors favored the white feathered variety because it produced a cleaner-looking carcass. Today, the Broad-breasted Bronze is no longer used by the turkey industry ,but it is promoted for seasonal, small-scale production.
    The unimproved, naturally-mating strains of Bronze turkeys have been left far behind. There is only one known strain of naturally-mating, range-selected Bronze turkeys; this is the Wishard strain from Wish
Hatchery in Oregon. This strain is a high conservation priority. Exhibition-selected "Standard Bronze" turkeys are sometime seen at poultry shows, and these also need to be conserved.

Status: Naturally-mating Bronze turkeys – Critical. The Wishard strain is available from Wish Poultry and from Sand Hill.
Broad-breasted Bronze turkeys – Watch. The Broad-breasted Bronze turkey is not rare, as its estimated population is over 7,000 hens and it is available from almost all of the hatcheries listed below. At the same
time, because there are relatively few breeding flocks, this variety is considered to be in the watch category.

Reprinted with permission from the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC).
Their email address is: albc@albc-usa.org,
Web page: http://www.albc-usa.org.
Or, for more information, contact :
American Livestock Breeds Conservancy
PO Box 477, Pittsboro, NC 27312
(919) 542-5704.

For information on hatcheries in Canada, contact :
Rare Breeds Canada
c/o Dr. Tom Hutchinson
Trent University, Program in Environment and Resources Studies
Box 4800, Peterboro, Ontario K95 7B8
(705) 748-1634
or
Dan Price-Jones
RR #5
Madoc, ON K0K 2K0

The White Wyandotte chicken. Their plumage is snow white from the clean, outer feathers clear to the fluff next to their yellow skin. These, with the deep, well rounded bodies, make an ideal bird for dressing. The cockerels acquire a plumpness and finish earlier than many heavy birds. With their rose combs they can stand cold weather very well, and flocks of this variety are excellent for northern climates. The hens lay a high quality, brown shelled egg and lots of them. The White Wyandottes are a wonderful dual purpose fowl for the production of both meat and eggs.
(Source: Murray McMurray Hatchery catalog, 1997)

The Dominique chicken was one of the first livestock breeds developed in America. Its origins were never documented, and as result, many theories have been put forth. The best guess is that the breed descended from imports in the late 1600’s of the same European Stocks that were ancestral to the modern Dorking and Hamburd breeds. Whatever its derivation, however, the Dominique was well known before 1750. It was standardized as a breed by 1850, and it was almost extinct by 1950. During the early years of the United States, poultry was held in low regard, and birds were usually omitted from farm stock listings. They were given no special housing and were often driven to roost in orchards or stands of timber. Dominique chickens were well suited to this habitat, as they were medium to small in size with a very hardy constitution. Heavy plumage protected the birds from the weather. Their dark and light irregular barring made them practically invisible when perched in brush or trees. Those with rose combs rarely suffered from freezing winter temperatures. Chickens were used to provide meat and eggs for the table, and Dominiques were fast growing despite having to forage for most of their food. Developing early, Dominique hens were often first to lay fall and winter eggs and continued without interruption through the winter. Feathers were valued for pillows, comforters, and mattresses. The utility of the Dominique did not go unnoticed by the farm wives of some many years ago, who were responsibly for the small stock around the homestead. They readily took possession of the Dominique and had more influence on the breed than anyone since.

Source:
The Dominique: An American Heritage Breed, by M. Fields, 1996 ALBC Newsletter July-Aug. 1996, vol. 13, issue 4.

The Barbados Blackbelly is a hair sheep breed that evolved on the island of Barbados in the Caribbean. The breed descend from hair sheep in the West Africa and European wooled breeds that were brought to the Caribbean Island beginning in the mid-1600’s. The Barbados is part of the family of Caribbean Hair sheep breeds attracting attention for their value in a variety of agricultural systems. Barbados Blackbellies thrive in the hot, humid environments that are challenging for most sheep. Barbados breed and lamb year-round, and the ewes maintain pregnancies through the heat of the summer. The ewes are prolific, producing twins or triplets. Barbados are excellent foragers and highly resistant to parasites and diseases. The breed is reddish brown or tan on the body, with black on the belly and legs and black bars on the head. Rams have a mane of thick hair which extends down the neck and brisket and may cover the shoulder. Ears point forward from the side without drooping. Ewes weigh 100-150 pounds, and rams 175-200 pounds. This relatively small body size has been favored by both natural and human selection in the Caribbean. Smaller sheep tolerate heat more easily, and the smaller carcasses are desirable from the farmers’ point of view, especially when refrigeration is lacking. The first documented importation of Barbados sheep into the United States occurred in 1904. The sheep attracted the most interest in Texas, where they have been loosely managed, often crossed with Mouflons (a feral horned sheep) and selected as game animals with large sets of horns. Though this practice has dramatically increased the number of Barbados-type sheep in the United States, it has also made the population genetically variable. For example, most of the Texas sheep are now horned and smaller in size than the original island type. Prospects for the Barbados breed in the United States are improving. The strong market for hair sheep, both here and in other countries, has given encouragement to those who want to maintain the island type of Barbados. Interest in an association and registry for the breed has also increased. The Barbados clearly deserves such attention. Its African origin (unusual in the Americas) and adaptation to tropical climates (usually for sheep) gives the breed significant genetic value and production importance.

(Source: A Rare Breeds Album of American Livestock by C. J. Christman, et. al. 1997).