Dutch cheese, Dutch tulips, Dutch mills ... You can also add Dutch hens to this list of famous brands.
Their breeds, of course, are smaller than the varieties of tulips, but on the other hand, most of them hold their places of honor in farms and bird farms around the world for a long time.
Advantages of dutch chickens
Dutch white-crested hens Chicken breeds bred in Holland are distinguished by their multifunctionality and genetic resistance. They are purely meat-oriented, are egg-meat, are mainly with egg specialization. There are even highly ornamental birds. At the same time, they have retained their main useful qualities for many decades, for which they are valued by poultry farmers.
True, in recent times, when a lot of new highly productive breeds have appeared, the old Dutch varieties have been practically driven out of large poultry farms. However, the rich genetic heritage of the Dutch actively served breeders in creating many modern crosses. Well, in poultry houses on rural farmsteads and on summer cottages, Dutch chickens of different breeds are still in demand and loved for their many valuable qualities.
It is interesting to get acquainted with the selection of breeds of hens of egg, meat, ornamental directions.
Breeds of dutch chickens
Among Dutch chicken breeds that have gained popularity with many poultry farmers, most preferred:
- white-chilled Dutch;
- barnewelder;
- velzumer;
- delirium;
- shaver.
Dutch white and white
It is the most famous and ancient chicken breed of Dutch origin. The impressive exterior classifies this hen as a decorative breed, although it has quite decent egg production and meat of excellent taste standards.
A sharp contrast to the black or dark brown plumage of a bird creates a magnificent snow-white tuft on its head, for which this breed got its name. According to the degree of whiteness and splendor of the tuft, the purity of the white-chilled breed is determined. 
Black feathers, framing a snow-white tuft on the front, give this bird a special originality.
In addition, the appearance of this breed is characterized by:
- small, tightly knit torso;
- retracted tummy;
- elegant legs;
- small head;
- lack of scallop and the presence of a tuft instead of it;
- solid earrings;
- good plumage;
- flat and curved into a picturesque arc tail.
White-crested roosters gain weight up to 2.5 kg, chickens weigh half a kilo less. Layers annually carry 100-140 eggs 40-50 grams in weight. These are not bad indicators for decorative birds, but quite modest compared to other chicken breeds. This is explained by the fact that, while working to improve the breed, breeders focused on decorative qualities, without particularly worrying about other chicken conditions.
However, today the Dutch white-and-white still divorces in rural farmsteads, not only for its picturesque appearance, but also for its rather high gastronomic qualities of meat.
Check out the best breeds of Russian breeding chickens.
Barnevelder
In the Dutch town of Barneveld, it was once conceived to bring out a hen that would carry eggs with a chocolate-colored shell. 
Nothing came of this venture, except for eggs with a traditional light brown color, but the hens themselves came out in extremely elegant colors.
All chicken feathers got double edging on the background:
- red-brown;
- dark brown;
- black and silver;
- white different tonality;
- blue.
Learn more about the features and content of barnevelder chickens.
With such external data, the Barnevelder chickens became extremely popular decorative birds. 
Their characteristic appearance is easily recognized by the following features:
- large body with a low landing;
- fluffy plumage on the average length of the neck;
- wings closely pressed to the body;
- breast, different width and bulge;
- lush plumage on the tail;
- small ridge with clearly visible teeth;
- proportional earrings;
- yellow beak;
- red eyes with red splashes.
Roosters of this breed gain weight up to 3.5 kg, and chickens - 700 grams less, laying up to 180 eggs annually. The mass of eggs reaches 60-80 grams. So these birds, with their undoubted external beauty, also manifest themselves as a completely successful egg and meat breed.
Did you know? It is very easy to determine the egg's freshness: just dip it in cold water. A truly fresh egg immediately sinks and falls to the bottom. The lighter the egg, the older it is, because the liquid in it is replaced by air. Eggs that float to the surface are so stale that they cannot be eaten at all.
Welzumer
Unlike the two previous breeds, when breeding this, the breeders practically did not engage in its appearance, with an emphasis on the consumer qualities of the bird. 
The result was a purely meat-egg chicken, possessing:
- strong body;
- good shaped hips;
- radically red scallop;
- red eyes with orange splashes;
- the inconspicuous coloring of the plumage in laying hens with a red speck;
- belly and breasts of black color cocks with redhead on the back and neck.
Males gain weight up to 3.5 kg, and females - less than a pound. Females take down annually about 170 eggs weighing up to 65 grams. 
Such productivity, coupled with resistance to cold weather, has made the breed velzumer quite popular in poultry farms throughout Europe.
We advise you to read more about the hens of the breed Welsumer.
Brad
Actually, this is not a purely Dutch, but a Dutch-Danish breed bred in the vicinity of the Dutch town of Breda. Once, for its productivity and original appearance, in which crested chickens contributed to the formation, it was very popular in European farms. But now it has become a rarity in the poultry farmstead, and is bred mainly because of its valuable gene pool when breeding new chicken crosses and thanks to its impressive decorative appearance. 
Although the productivity of these chickens is quite good. Roosters reach a body weight of 3.5 kg, and the hens weigh less than a kilogram, but they lay up to 170 eggs a year - very good quality and weighing up to 65 grams.
This breed is different:
- unpretentious content;
- peaceful temper;
- original appearance;
- the absence of a scallop and the presence instead of a small tuft;
- thick feathery legs;
- beautiful tail with long braids.
The disadvantages include the delayed weight gain by chickens and their later plumage.
Shaver
These chickens belong to the modern cross country, characterized by high egg production.
Externally, the bird stands out:
- a small, strong and compact body;
- round and wide breast;
- proud posture;
- bulky belly;
- red leaf comb;
- expressive eyes;
- a small yellow beak;
- developed earrings;
- plumage density;
- black, white or red-brown plumage coloring.
The bird is famous for its high egg production. Already after five months after the birth, females begin laying eggs, of which there may be about 350 units per year. Although the weight of eggs is modest, reaching a maximum of 65 grams, their quality is very high. In addition to good taste, they are saturated with valuable omega-6 fatty acids.
Learn more about cross-shaver chickens: white, black, brown.
The mass of the males is small - 1.8 kg, and in the hens it is still half a kilo less. 
Shaver breed chickens grow quickly and do not need, like their parents, special care.
The disadvantages of poultry include a sharp decline in egg production after 80 weeks of high productivity of chickens.
Did you know? Eggs with white and brown absolute shells are identical in taste, nutritional value, and shell strength. The factor determining the color of the shell is the color of the layer itself. White chickens, respectively, carry white eggs, and colored - terracotta color.
Where to buy a bird
Chickens can be purchased in three versions:
- hatching eggs;
- chickens;
- young mature birds.
Depending on the goals of breeding, the available conditions of housing and experience in caring for the bird, one or another acquisition option is chosen.
Summer residents, for example, often avoid the hassle of growing chickens and, moreover, to remove them from eggs, and prefer to acquire mature young. And this can be done either in the market or in the poultry farm. Differences in price here are not very significant, but differences in quality are striking. 
Bird Market At market pedigree chickens brought by farmers who specialize in their breeding. The advantage of purchasing goods from them is that they, as a rule, keep chickens in spacious poultry houses, providing them with full-fledged outdoor walking. As a result, the bird is healthy, with good immunity and high food conditions.
However, farmers often do not have guarantees that chickens belong to the claimed breed and that they are properly vaccinated against the most common chicken diseases.
All these guarantees can be provided on poultry farm. But, on the other hand, the bird is kept there in confined spaces, fed it with compound feed with synthetic additives and is not allowed to walk in the fresh air. Therefore, chickens from poultry farms have weak immunity, they are not adapted to life in cages and quickly lose their maximum level of egg production.
Experts advise buying a bird in the age 20-26 weeks. This applies especially to the hens of egg-bearing breeds, in which the maximum egg production occurs in the first year of life.
Further, this figure depends on the breed: some hens maintain stable performance for several years, like most Dutch chickens, and hybrids and crosses, reaching high productivity during the first year of life, then drastically reduce it, like, for example, Dutch chickens. 
In addition, acquiring layers in the market or in the poultry farm, you should pay attention to the appearance of the chicken.
Signs of health:
- grooming;
- lack of bald spots and bald patches;
- smoothness and shine of feathers;
- late molting;
- red color comb;
- shining and bulging eyes;
- soft and at the same time elastic abdominal cavity;
- wide chest and even keel;
- flat and wide back;
- strong and wide apart legs.
Important! A healthy chicken should certainly have a pale pink skin under its feathers. This is easily verified if you slide the feathers on the poultry breast with your fingers.
Hens content
Containing Dutch chickens of various breeds, several important factors should be considered.
For example, the temperature in a chicken coop where a white-crested Dutch dweller does not tolerate cold should not be below 18 ° C, and the house should be heated in winter, of course. 
In addition, these chickens do not tolerate the neighborhood of birds of other breeds, so only they should be in the hen house.
Yes, and the weak immunity of white-crested prescribes a particularly strict sanitary standards.
We recommend reading about the independent production and improvement of the chicken coop, as well as the installation of ventilation, lighting, bedding.
But the Dutch hens of the Welsumer breed, on the contrary, are not afraid of the cold, willingly dig in the snow, and the hens can be carried even in frosty weather. Accordingly, the heating of the chicken coop for them should not be so active.
And yet for the maintenance of birds of all breeds, there are general rules:
- The chicken coops should be spacious and clean.
- Poultry houses must be equipped with feeders and drinkers accessible to all birds.
- In the coop should be roost and nests.
- The house should be equipped with a heating system.
- On the floor must be a bed of hay, straw or sawdust.
- The coop must be ventilated, but without creating drafts.
- It is advisable to sow the soil of chicken enclosures with herbs such as nettle and clover.
Important! The pens for walking birds should be fenced with fences of such a height that the hens of this breed are not able to overcome.
Feeding birds
The diets of Dutch chickens of different breeds differ mainly in the number of ingredients, and are similar in quality.
The most capricious Dutch white-crested chicken eats a little, but the quality of food is very sensitive. The diet made for her is 100% suitable for all other Dutch hens. 
On the farmsteads for them usually prepare a grain mixture with herbs and kitchen waste.
In addition to this are given supplementssubmitted by:
- cottage cheese;
- yogurt;
- peas and beans;
- crushed melons;
- potato scraps.
Cereals usually take 60% of the chicken ration. Make them mixturesincluding:
- oats;
- millet;
- sorghum;
- bran;
- corn;
- wheat;
- barley.
You can not do without of vegetables as:
- beets;
- cabbage;
- potatoes;
- grated carrots;
- tops;
- grass flour and pine needles.
And, of course, the bird is extremely necessary mineral supplementssubmitted by:
- limestone;
- chalk;
- seashells;
- food salt;
- phosphates for feed.
Read also about the organization of feeding of laying hens: compilation of feed, the rate of feed for a day.
Breeding chickens
Chickens of different breeds relate differently to the incubation of eggs. Some do not want to do this at all, while others are extremely responsible mothers who care for their offspring at all stages of its development.
Dutch white-crested just belongs to the second category. She willingly sits on eggs, leaving the nest for feeding or walking only for a short time, after which she again takes up her duties of incubating offspring.
Chickens hatch from eggs after 21-24 days. They are taken from their mother, kept warm at a temperature of 26-28 ° C, and the first two days of their lives are fed every two hours with chopped boiled egg mixed with finely chopped corn grain.
Then, increasing the intervals between feedings and gradually adjusting the diet to adult chickens, add:
- millet;
- cottage cheese;
- grass meal;
- crushed feed chalk.
Later they are released to adult chickens, where the mother takes care of them. 
Disease prevention
Most diseases of chickens associated with improper maintenance and feeding. Therefore, the best prevention in this regard is the strict observance of the rules of feeding birds and caring for them.
In addition, it is very useful to periodically disinfect the chicken coop and equipment used in the care of chickens. To do this, most often used fairly simple, but effective means in the form of:
- Solar exposure, which should as often as possible to expose the equipment and inventory.
- High temperature as boiling water, which, again, handled inventory.
- Freshly Lime, which in the form of milk of lime whitewash the house, equipment and inventory.
- Potassium permanganate, a weak solution of which (0.5 grams of substance in a bucket of water) is given to chickens and chickens.
- Formalinused for wet disinfection of inventory and equipment.
- Creolinadisinfecting coop, equipment and inventory.
- Sand and Sand Bathsprotecting from feathers and puffs.
Video: Dutch white-cooled breed of chickens
Reviews of poultry farmers on the breed Dutch white-crested
Chickens of Dutch breeds, which have been faithfully serving for more than a decade both as decoration and full-fledged food products in the poultry farms of all of Europe, are now being replaced by more productive chicken breeds. However, in the blood of many of the best modern crosses there are very often the genes of the good old Dutchies that have been tested for centuries. So their breeding is fully justified.
