The types of birds on this page only represent a few of the species kept, different varieties and colours

of birds are  available at different times of year give us a call or email us for available species at this time.

The Rhode Island Red

Is a breed of chicken  They are a utility bird, raised for meat and eggs, and also as show birds. They are a popular choice for backyard flocks because of their egg laying abilities and hardiness. Frequent layers, Rhode Island Reds are noted for their brown eggs.. Although they can sometimes be stubborn, they can end up producing up to 200 eggs in a season but a healthy one can lay more. When free ranged, their first year eggs can be too large to fit comfortably in standard or medium egg cartons. Nice hens can lay up to 6-7 eggs per week depending on their care and treatment. Rhode Island Red hens lay many more eggs than an average hen if provided plenty of quality poultry feed

Hi-Line, ISA Brown, Goldline or Warren

Basically these hybrid chickens are the result of the rising commercial demand for eggs (and meat) in the early 50's. In order to respond to the huge demand for eggs the birds needed to be able to reliably produce in the region of 300+ eggs a year,

Good layers were crossed using special genetic "recipes" to develop the hybrid chicken a "super layer" if you like! Most hybrids are actually derived from well-known utility egg laying breeds such as Rhode Island Red, Marans or Leghorns.

More recently there has been a rise in people wanting to just keep a few birds in the garden for their own eggs. This has stimulated a change in the traditional hybrid "warren" or brown chicken, to commercial breeders looking at developing chickens which are fundamentally hybrids but are more varied in colours so you will see hybrids with various names such as "Bluebelles" or "Speckedlys" or "Fenton Blue", with colours described as champagne, blue, black and silver - the choice is endless!

Light Sussex

The Sussex was bred to be a dual purpose bird and is one of the most productive breeds of poultry. They lay large eggs that are cream to light brown in colour. A person owning a hen of this breed should expect approximately 240 to 260 eggs a year, although the light and white varieties are the best choice for layers. Recently there has been an olive green coloured egg introduced to some Light Sussex breeds, although these green egg layers are very rare.

French Copper Black

Marans are generally quiet and docile; but they are quite active, taking well to free ranging in rough terrain and are also tough and disease-resistant. They were originally bred in the marshy areas of France and can cope with damper conditions.

Marans lay around 150 dark brown eggs each year. Marans are an historically dual-purpose bird, prized not only for their dark eggs but for their table qualities as well.

Daisy Belles

Daisy Belles are a hybrid breed of chicken developed from the Rhode Island Red and the Sussex. They are also known by other hybrid breeders as Pied Sussex, Merrydale Pied and etc. All of the above are basically the same hybrid, but with a different name from each breeder.

The breed lays 240 to 300 standard A grade eggs per year on average. It has a silvery white plumage around its neck and head and a black body. The chickens are relatively large, suiting free range conditions and to a lesser extent, battery conditions.

Black Rock

The Blackrock is a prolific layer of large to extra large brown eggs. They are docile birds and easy to handle so make wonderful pets. They are ideal for free ranging but can be just as happy kept in a run. They are also very hardy birds and can cope with most weather conditions and are disease resistant.

Black Rocks emanate from the Harco/Arbor Acres breeders of America. They are a true first-cross hybrid from supremely selected strains of Rhode Island Red (male line) and a Barred Plymouth Rock (female line). Probably the most successful hybrid for modern free range. It has dense feathering a highly developed immune system and good body weight. Production is 280+ brown eggs in the first year and persistently good throughout lay. Egg, shell quality and colour are continually good, which means more grade A eggs.

Welsummer

Welsummer chickens were created in the little Dutch village of Welsum, They are highly sought after as a production bird, laying a good amount (275 per year) of beautiful dark red/brown eggs. These beautiful birds are also well known from their role in American advertising. The Kellogg's Corn Flake Rooster, "Cornelius" is a Welsummer. Chicks are strong and are easily sexed as females have much darker head and back markings than males. They are friendly, easily handled birds which love to free range and forage for food but can also be kept in runs quite happily.

Silver Link /Amber Link

Ideally suited for the garden and has a friendly and inquisitive nature. A very calm bird that will produce up to 300 brown eggs for you during the year. A beautiful cream colour, a great pet as well as a prolific layer. Amber Stars are a Rhode Island White based hybrid with extremely soft feathering. They are a slightly bigger birds and full of character. Amber Stars and Silver Stars are both from the same breeding, but some hatch as Silver and some as Amber.

On the Amber hen the splashes of brown on white has a unique feather pattern, making each one immediately identifiable. They lay brown eggs and maintain an excellent shell quality.

White Star

The white star is a leghorn cross. they will lay around 300-320 pure white eggs a year. She is slghtly smaller than the other hybrids. She makes a good free range bird.

Also known as the little ballerina,  china white eggs She is neat and compact compared to some of the other breeds but what she loses in size she makes up for in personality. Of all the breeds this little hen can often be quite flighty.

 

Speckledy

The Speckledy is a docile, easily handled bird. They are excellent and reliable layers of dark chestnut brown eggs which are usually speckled. The eggshells are particularly strong and the yolks deep yellow. They are well suited to free ranging and enjoy foraging. Their feathers are silky soft and abundant. 300 eggs per year.

Speckledys are cuckoo coloured with the colouration ranging from very dark grey to silver.

Blue Bell / Blue Ranger

blue Ranger lays around 260/280 brown eggs a year. they are very placid,

The Bluebell is a blue French Maran hybrid. They have a beautiful blue haze plumage making them an attractive addition to a flock. Some Bluebells may have slight copper colour flecks in their neck feathering.

They are docile and friendly and are ideal for most set ups, especially, free range, back garden, allotments and smallholdings. Egg Colour is plum brown coloured with an average quantity of up to 240 eggs per year

Orpington

The Orpington is a breed of chicken named after the town Orpington, England, it was bred to be an excellent layer with good meat quality. Their large size and soft appearance together with their rich color and gentle contours make them very attractive. Being rather heavy, they are unable to fly, so they work well as backyard birds. Due to their build they do well in very cold climates.

Orpingtons lay about 200 medium to large  light-brown eggs a year. They do not stop laying in the winter.

White Leghorns

White Leghorns are among the most popular commercial strains of layer chickens worldwide. Leghorns are excellent layers of white eggs (around 280 per year) with a superior feed-to-egg conversion ratio. Leghorns rarely exhibit broodiness and are thus well suited for uninterrupted egg laying.

Cream Legbar

The Cream Legbar is a cross between the Brown Leghorn, Araucana and Barred Plymouth Rock. It is an autosexing breed which means young chicks can be sexed by the colour of their down shortly after hatching. The 'barring' pattern that is found on Cream Legbars are sex-linked, i.e. the males have two chromosomes for barring and the females only one. The Cream Legbar lays a blue coloured egg that is ever so slightly lighter than an Araucana. A few Cream Legbars will lay an olive coloured egg. The photo shows the difference between an Araucana and a Cream Legbar egg, as you can see from the photo, there is very little in it.150+ eggs per year.

Silkies

Silkies lay a fair number of cream-colored eggs, but production is often interrupted due to their extreme tendency to go broody; a hen will produce 100 eggs in an ideal year. Their capacity for incubation, which has been selectively bred out of most egg-laying fowl, is often exploited by poultry keepers by allowing Silkies to raise the offspring of other birds. In addition to being good mothers, Silkies are universally renowned for their calm, friendly temperament. They do well in confinement, and interact very well with children.

Marans

Marans are generally quiet and docile; but they are quite active, taking well to free ranging in rough terrain and are also tough and disease-resistant. They were originally bred in the marshy areas of France and can cope with damper conditions.

Marans lay around 150 dark brown eggs each year. Marans are an historically dual-purpose bird, prized not only for their dark eggs but for their table qualities as well.

Plymouth Rock

Plymouth Rocks are large, long-lived chickens. Some varieties are good layers while others are bred principally for meat. They possess a long, broad back; a moderately deep, full breast; and yellow skin and legs. The hens have a deep, full abdomen, which is a sign of a good layer. The face of a Plymouth Rock is red with red ear lobes, a bright yellow beak, bay-colored eyes, and a single comb of moderate size. Their feathers are fairly loosely held but not so long as to easily tangle.

Generally, Plymouth Rocks are not aggressive, and tame quite easily. They are docile and may show broodiness. The hens usually make good mothers.

The Plymouth Rock is a dual-purpose, cold-hardy bird and therefore makes a great breed for the small farm or backyard flock owner. These chickens are often called Plymouth Rocks, but this title correctly belongs to the entire breed, not just the Barred variety. There are seven varieties of Plymouth Rock chickens: barred, blue, buff, Columbian, partridge, silver-penciled and white.

The Silver Dorking

Is described as a heavy, soft feather chicken. Their origins can be traced back to Roman times as they have been recorded as being present in the South of England by Roman writers. Their most distinctive feature is an extra toe, giving them 5 toes instead of the usual 4 on a chicken. This hen’s five toes can be seen clearly in the picture.

They were highly prized for their meat for a very long time, dating back to the Romans, but their popularity as a table bird declined at the beginning of the 20th Century. Breeders concentrated instead on the look of the bird for showing and they were selectively bred for their colour and feather texture.

White Cochin

Cochins originated from China in the early 1850s.  The Cochin  is very rounded in appearance. They are the largest of the heavy breeds and cockerels can weigh in at 12lbs! They are broad birds too and this is enhanced by the enormous amount of feathers that they have. The plumage is soft with short broad feathers. They like to be kept on short grass They take up remarkably little room and like to be contained with fencing but avoid putting them onto cold, wet grass as youngsters. The profuse leg and foot feathering means that it is best to confine Cochins on wet days when mud becomes a problem and can cause balls of mud to collect under their feet. They do not fly and a 2 foot fence is sufficient to keep them contained. They make excellent broodies because of their calm, maternal nature. They lay quite large eggs but don't produce many over the year. Cochins are friendly, docile chickens and tend to be submissive when kept with more aggressive breeds. They require good quality feed and mature in two years. They make remarkably good pets and a pet Cochin should live between 8-10 years.

Speckled Sussex

The feathers of the Speckled variety all have a mix of mahogany and black with white tips. Sometimes the amount of white increases as the bird moults each year. This is the most common variety in the US. However, the Light is far more common in the UK.

The Speckledy is a modern hybrid and comes from a Rhode Island Red crossed with a Maran. The feathering closely resembles that of a Maran but it is a far more prolific egg layer. They are large yet elegant birds with a deep breast, upward pointing tail and pale legs. The comb is medium, red and serrated and the face is smooth. The earlobes and wattles are small and smooth and the beak curved and mottled. They have pale bay eyes.Their feathers are silky soft and abundant. 300 eggs per year.