Former Rare Breed Society

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I am aiming to set up a network of people who are willing to increase the numbers of rare breeds so they are no longer rare breeds. My target chicken breed for 2012 is the Ixworth. The reason I would like to start with the Ixworth is that it is a dual purpose bird, so both sexes are useful.

When I first had the idea of the former rare breed society the definition of rare breed was a breed where there are less than 600 laying hens. It has now been increased to 1000, but I think it should be possible to achieve that.

Initially, I am looking for anyone who has bloodlines. Hopefully we can create a network of breeders and keepers. I envisage some sort of family tree of breeders to keep track of what stock is closely related. This requires breeders to be interested in the project. One problem is that this project could undermine the viability of rare breed hatching eggs businesses, so breeders could be less than pleased with my efforts! Breeders who base their price on quality, rather than simply the rarity of the breed will still find a market.

I will also be looking for smallholders who are willing to keep around 40-50 chickens. This is a manageable number of birds, and 20-25 people would get to the magic number of 1000 birds. There are other roles required (incubation, raising chicks and growing on table birds).

My idea is to have most of the layers (800) producing unfertilized eggs to be sold as eating eggs. Hopefully these would have a good market with people who support the idea of keeping rare breeds alive.

There would be a core breeding stock of 200 hens which would produce hatching eggs (although most of these will probably have to be sold as eating eggs too). Hatched eggs will be grown into table birds. These can also be used to replace laying stock and additional cockerels as required.

Housing Construction

The cost of housing needs to be addressed. I have a flock of hybrid hens at the moment which I am using to test my housing. I plan to publish the plans for housing (made with standard ply from DIY chains) under the Creative Commons license to reduce the cost of keeping birds. People can take these designs to construct low-cost housing themselves, or pay someone to do it for them.

Bulk Layers

800 laying hens. 16 to 20 people are required to keep 40-50 laying hens. These will produce eating eggs for sale from the farm gate or door-to-door. Support with marketing will be available.

Core Breeding Stock

200 laying hens. 5 people are required to keep breeding groups. These will be 40 or so hens with 6 or 7 cockerels. These will be as genetically diverse as possible. This will produce up to 200 eggs a day, so some will probably have to be sold as eating eggs.

Incubation Service

There will be a role for people to take hatching eggs and incubate them. The maximum capacity required is around 4000!

Growing Chicks on Heat

Day old chicks will need to be grown on to 4 weeks on heat.

Fattening

Most of the chickens produced will be for meat. Some hens will be used to replace layers. Cockerels could be used at any time with the bulk layers to increase production. 115 would be required for all the bulk layers.

Dispatch and Dressing

Birds will need to be prepared for sale. Support with marketing will be available.

Combining Roles

The roles described are the areas that need to be addressed, rather than job descriptions! I expect people taking part in this project would want to combine various roles depending on their expertise and interests.

VAT

Smallholders should take advice and make sure they understand the implications before registering for VAT.

Food, chickens and chicken hatching eggs are zero rated. Some of the equipment and inputs used to produce them have VAT added at 20%. Voluntary VAT registration may be appropriate for businesses that sell zero rated goods and services as they can claim back VAT that they pay. Please be aware that VAT returns are annoying and you might think it is worth paying the VAT to avoid the paperwork. Also, once registered, you will have to charge VAT on any standard rate items you supply, so if you combine smallholding with B&B or sell flowers for example, the picture becomes more complicated.