The Countryfile effect

Typical Ixworths

There's no doubting the power of TV.  Normally the page on Ixworth poultry and hatching eggs has a few reads a month but in the last two weeks there have been over fifty. I can only put this down to Ixworths featuring on Countryfile two weeks ago in a piece on rare breeds.  During the programme one of the exhibitors of rare breed poultry said that there were only 750 Ixworths left.

One of the problems with rare breeds is the small breeding population and the resulting lack of genetic variation which tens to lower fertility, like inbreeding in the aristocracy. This has happened with mine so in 2012 I got hatching eggs from four other breeders spread out around the country and I now have nine birds including a superb cockerel and two very good pullets that are not related to him. This winter I'll put the three together to produce a new generation with more genetic variation but at the same time all of the characteristics of the breed.