Landrace Fowl

Just what are landrace Fowl? How are they different from standard breeds? 

Photo of an Icelandic

Landrace Fowl are populations of domesticated, or semi-domesticated poultry, that have developed, over time, in various geographic regions around the world. They differ from conventional breeds in that they were allowed to breed naturally with little interference from humans for selection of certain traits, or a certain look. The genetic material of such populations became spread throughout the flocks of small geographic regions and villages, as farm families bartered, sold, or exchanged poultry with each other. The genetic make-up, or genome, of such flocks can be quite extensive, with hidden traits showing up in individual birds within a flock, but not the entire population. 

A breed of poultry or livestock, on the other hand, has evolved from a multi-generational period of selective choices of parent stock, usually made by their human keepers, to meet a certain look, or have certain traits, and meet standards as to the way humans think the given breed should look or perform. While selective breeding for individual traits is definitely not a bad thing, the unfortunate reality exists that when breeding for a certain standard or look, the genetic pool is usually narrowed down, and many intrinsic, and sometimes valuable hidden traits are bred out and lost.

Photo of a Hedamora

Because landrace strains have developed through natural selection, with minimal human intrusion into their breeding for many generations, they are usually very hardy and adaptable to climate extremes. Landrace poultry often retains traits of broodiness and natural mothering. They have developed and adjusted to local weather conditions and climate extremes, including extreme heat, extreme cold, rain, snow, or even abnormally dry conditions.  They have often developed with minimal shelter and are apt foragers. Their metabolisms adapted to local sources of food which they foraged on their own. 

This does not mean that they were constantly left unattended in a wild state, or that human beings did not do some selective breeding. In most cases, fowl in colder climates were fed grain and other foods during winter and at times when they could not readily forage. On the whole, however, these flocks usually had to survive and forage on their own, at least during the summer months when natural feeds were available. Natural flock mating and reproduction, including incubation and brooding by mama hen, was the norm.  Shelter for these birds often varied, depending on local climates and seasons, and many strains learned to survive and evade predators while foraging and roosting outdoors. 

Photo of a Hedemora

When talking about landrace poultry, the first birds that often come to mind are chickens.  Other types of landrace poultry are also found throughout the world, however. These include numerous landrace strains of ducks, geese, and turkeys.  Landrace chickens include such groups or “breeds” as Icelandic Chickens, Swedish Flower Hens, and Swedish Hedemoras, all hailing from the colder regions of Scandinavia. Fowl such as Egyptian Fayoumis have a long and established history, going back several thousand years, in the hot and dry climate of the Nile Villages of Egypt. The nation of Hungary has seven landrace breeds that it considers national treasures, including Transylvania Naked Neck Fowl and Hungarian Yellow Chickens. Breeds like the Sumatra were originally brought to the United States in the 1840’s, from the warm, tropical setting of Sumatra and the Sundu Islands of Western Indonesia. Araucana chickens, in their native Chile, were a well-established landrace group when first brought to the United States in the 1930’s.  Another very hardy landrace strain that has made its way to the United States and Canada, in the past fifty years, is the Hmong Fowl from the tropical, upland mountain regions of Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Other types of non-chicken, landrace fowl include Danish Landrace Geese from Denmark, Scania Geese from Sweden, Bavarian Landrace Geese from Bayern, or Bavaria, Germany, Danish Landrace Ducks, and the original strains of Chocolate Turkeys from the Southern United States.

Landrace fowl are hardy.  Many strains have survived by developing various levels of immunity to local bacterial or viral infectants that could pose troublesome to non-native breeds. They are also often known to not only be hardy within their own geographic climate, but many can readily adapt to inclement weather conditions, different from those found in their native lands. One prime example of this is the Hmong Chicken.  These birds, while originating in the tropical uplands of Southeast Asia, have been found to be extremely hardy in the winter weather of New England, the damp and cold winter conditions of British Columbia’s Vancouver Island, and the harsh climate of the Canadian prairies. 

Photo of a Swedish Flower

In some cases, landrace groups of fowl such as geese and ducks may have a very homogenous look, with little outward diversity. In the case of chickens, however, many landrace strains from the same region may show a great deal of diversity in feather patterns, skin color, shank color, and traits such as occasional feather crests on the head, exhibited in individual birds. Cresting in individual birds is a trait that can randomly show up in a number of the strains from Northern Europe, including those from Scandinavia and Sweden. 

One of the problems faced in breeding smaller groups of landrace fowl is making sure a breeding project is broad enough, and well-planned enough, to maintain the wide array of valuable genetic material within the strains one is keeping and perpetuating.  It is very easy to lose valuable genetic components, unique to a landrace group, when breeding limited numbers of individuals, even if using flock mating systems.  This problem often self-exacerbates, when groups of poultry keepers become interested in a certain landrace type of fowl.  Excitement grows.  Sooner or later a breed club is formed. And in the natural course of human events, a select group of “knowledgeable” individuals forms a committee that decides what the breed should look like. Select traits are suddenly chosen and mandated as the “perfect” standard, and any other traits are eventually bred-out and lost.  Often these may include hidden genetic components such as hardiness, disease resistance, disease immunity, the ability to forage and metabolize naturally occurring feedstuffs, and propensities in the hens to brood and incubate their own eggs.  Many unique outward traits are also often lost from these fowl in this same process.

Landrace Fowl has many unique advantages, as well as a beautiful array of genetic diversity not always found in the more established true breeds. If nothing else, keeping a few unusual landrace fowl to your flock will very likely make you the envy of all your poultry-keeping friends! 

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Sugar Feather Farm owns the article, pictures, and information. They are copyrighted and cannot be used without permission from Sugar Feather Farm.

Doug Ottinger

Doug has an educational background in poultry and avian science, with an emphasis in avian genetics and breeding. He has been featured in Backyard Poultry Magazine, Countryside Magazine, Grit, Chickens Magazine and Hobby Farms.

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