• A study of all core British poultry breeds, including chickens, ducks and geese
  • Key characteristics of each breed
  • Breed history
  • Breeding and management requirements
  • The modern uses of each breed

Available at:
www.crowood.com, Amazon.co.uk, Waterstones


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To sponsor the work of Britannic Rare Breeds, help in the preservation and promotion of British breeds and their breeders via this free website and via publications please make a donation.

Britannic Rare Breeds aims to further promote every native livestock breed, to accurately and fairly include all breeds developed in Great Britain and promote their modern uses and applications for todays' hobbyist and farmer.

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Promoting British breeds
This website aims to promote all British breeds including rare breeds and where possible make them easily obtainable via the breeder directories, classified ads and local produce pages on this site. Very few traditional breeds are commercially viable but many continue to have value to domestic hobbyists or keen smallholders. A great array of attributes can be found among native breeds and there is likely to be a breed to suit your precise circumstances and management requirements.

For example, many native primitive sheep breeds maintain some natural moulting ability negating the necessity for shearing; they also have higher resistance to internal parasites than lowland sheep and are self reliant, unselective grazers suitable for outside conservation grazing all year round. Making them ideal for low maintenance rearing in harsh environments.

Some native breeds have suffered from the effects of their increased rarity and inbreeding others are excessively mollycoddled by keepers, but fortunately due to the dedication of farmers and hobbyists there remains a great variety of hardy traditional breeds that could be utilised for all manner aesthetical or practical purposes and to help you live a more self sufficient lifestyle.