There was some positive news in the Scots Grey Club’s Winter 2007/08 newsletter, which came in the post this morning.
The Scots Grey has moved off the Rare Breeds Survival Trust’s Category 1 High Risk Register as large fowl Scots Grey females have passed the 100 mark for the first time in many years.
Now, the naysayers will undoubtedly leap in to moan about the RBST’s approach, its methods for measuring numbers, and assorted discrepancies that crop up from time to time (the Scots Grey Club, for instance, has given the number of large fowl as more than 200 for two years now).
But the fact is that there is no other benchmark that covers all species and breeds of Britain’s traditional livestock. Nor is there another body that aims to preserve those traditional and rare breeds.
Anyway, back to the Scots Grey.
While I welcome the Scots Grey moving to the RBST’s endangered list as a positive sign for this lovely and adaptable breed, it’s still very much in danger and could find itself out of fashion as quickly as it has crept back in.
What’s to be done?
I think more attention has to be paid to redeveloping the original dual-purpose qualities of the Scots Grey, breeding for egg numbers and meat quality instead of as an ideal show bird.
Many people like the idea of keeping poultry for a few eggs and the occasional free-range meal so there is an opportunity there for the breeders of traditional, dual-purpose breeds if they can get past the idea of breeding the perfect show bird.
I’m not suggesting for a minute that we should abandon the basic breed standard, but I do think a shift in emphasis from perfect-looking but poor-performing Scots Greys towards good-looking and good-performing Scots Greys would do a lot to increase breed numbers.
We’ve started down this track ourselves, although noise laws mean we can’t keep the number of cockerels from different lines that we really need. (And that’s despite living well away from town, with few neighbours and quite a distance between them and the cockerel housing.)
We’ve built our numbers up to 22 hens and two cockerels (plus two to be eaten shortly), so we’d like to start trap-nesting this year to find out which hens are laying which eggs and in what numbers.
It won’t have an impact of this year’s breeding programme, which will focus on numbers and looks to bring us up to 30 good hens, but it will feed through to following years.
The aim will be to identify hens that meet the breed standard, lay four or more eggs per week (to the standard), whose hen chicks breed true, and whose cock chicks reach a good size by 18 weeks (sexual maturity is usually around 20 weeks).
I know it will be a long haul, but the Scots Grey is a fine breed that deserves to be seen around crofts and farms again.
And now, some of our less than co-operative birds caught on camera…
Those are the only useable photos after 30 minutes photography and repeated deletions.
A couple of notes.
We don’t selling hatching eggs at the moment. Fertility is mixed so we can’t guarantee at least a 50% hatch rate, not all of our hens are breeding true (and we need the eggs from those that do), and not all the eggs are to the standard (and we need the eggs that are right).
Scots Grey eggs are available on ebay or from Kintaline Farm. We’ve had good results with ebay eggs from Island_Poultry and MaggiesPlants. I had a really dismal result (rubbery legs and congenital deformities) from one ebay seller, but she refunded the money and was very pleasant.
Good luck with the breeding, it’s great to see you raising rare breeds. We’d like to do that eventually.
The Scot’s Grey look similar to my Silver laced Wynadottes, are the Scots an original parent?
Good luck with the breeding programme. I for one am very worried by the commercial farming route of only one cloned breed being kept. It will be up to individuals such as us to keep future breeding stock alive for when the inevitable catastrophe of a breed specific illness wipes out the commercial herds.
Ooh aren’t I doom and gloom today? Must be the weather - time for some retail therapy.
They certainly are one of the most beautiful breeds I ever saw
Updated to include the photos I took this afternoon.
Beautiful birds stonehead. Are they related to Plymouth Rocks at all as they look a bit similar to my untrained eye.
Totally agree with the rare breed and practical application of a dual purpose breed. I have seen the problem over the years with fantastic looking birds that are not very user friendly or low performing (which in my opinion makes them more likely to become extinct). The Cornish Game (Indian Game) are an example in Australia. The roosters often are bred with too short a leg and can’t mount naturally. Ridiculous.
Deborah - not really doom and gloom but a high likelihood I think if things keep going the same way.
Last year I obtained various batches of hatching eggs, with less than consistent results. These have now grown on to a whole range of sizes. The eggs range from dark brown to off white. So I am trying to select those that appear as near to the breed standard and will wait to see the outcome of this years breeding. So I fully understand your experiences and it is good to know I am not alone!
I have also reared some Ixworth, which have turned out to be very fine and are excellent for the table. I will have to wait until later this year to see if they breed true.
Dark brown eggs would be from cuckoo Marans. Scots Grey eggs should be white, although we’ve found quite range of whites. Some are chalky white, some off-white, some creamy white, and a couple are a very pale tan. The latter look acceptable until you put them next to a white egg or put them on a piece of white paper.
Most of the eggs are fairly conical without being too extreme, but two hens lay a more rounded egg.
Scots Grey meat is delicious and there is a lot of it on a good cockerel, but it’s on the sides and thighs—not the breast where most people expect it to be these days.
Thanks for that info on egg colour. I totally agree. It is just very irritating when you spend good money obtaining hatching eggs from ‘good’ sources that look correct, the hens hatch and grow looking correct and then lay ‘duff’ eggs. Clearly something else has got into their past breeding. Anyway, the eggs have their great uses just not for breeding purposes.
I will be testing the meat this coming weekend so I hope you are right!
[...] on from the discussion about Scots Greys and their eggs, I collected six eggs from six different hens to show the [...]
Are you aware of any Scots Greys being breed in the United States or Canada? I keep a few hens here in Michigan, the greys sound like they may be good match to our climate.
We’ve got just the one Scots Grey hen at the moment but I’d love to get some more of them. I had no idea they were so rare :S