Gaeltacht Poultry

White Barnevelder

The Barnevelder is a medium heavy breed of chicken named after the Dutch town of Barneveld. Nowdays, Barnevelders are bred both as a utility breed and a show breed. They are medium heavy dual-purpose chickens laying a good number of eggs but also an ok bird for the table. I got my breeding stock imported from Holland in 2009.

Golden Brahma 

The Golden Brahma originated in India, with their name taken from the river Brahmaputra. These gentle giants are a delight to keep, have magnificent markings and make ideal pets for children as they are tame and easily handled. The eggs they lay are not as big as the other breeds I keep, but still bigger than the bantam eggs! My Brahmas make excellent mothers, with one of my hens adopting 13 chicks and raising them successfully in 2010.

I have got two new beautiful Golden Brahma pullets to put with the rooster as the current hens are getting older and are not laying as frequently. The parents of the birds have won at ISPF shows.

Golden Brahma cock.

Buff Orpington

Buff Orps are a beautiful large breed of hen to keep, and make ideal garden pets due to their friendly nature. They lay lovely large creamy coloured eggs. Due to there large size they are not prone to jumping so are a fairly easy breed to fence in and they also like to have a low roost for night. They make very good mothers, all my breeding hens went broody once in 2011 and hatched out 11+ chicks each.I highly recommend these for someone starting with hens.

Lavender Orpington

The Lavender Orps are one of my favourite colours I keep, I also have blue Orps but prefer the lighter lavender colour. I got my stock from hatching eggs which I got from breeders in England. My lavenders are extremely friendly and love being picked up and given treats!

 White pekin

Pekins originated from China in the 19th century. The Pekin is recognised as a different bantam breed, rather than being called bantam Cochin. They look like a ball of feathers, and frequently go broody. They are calm, docile and are very easily handled and lay white/cream eggs.

 White Pekin hen with chicks

White Silkie 

You can either love the look of this breed or hate it! This breed originated in China in the 13th century, and is also available in large fowl. It can sometimes be annoying the amount of times the hens will go broody in a year, The hen in the picture sat 3 times in 2010!! 

I no longer will have silkies for sale, I am using them to hatch eggs in order to cut down on artificial hatching!

Gold Dutch

Dutch are true bantams which mean they have no large counterpart. I find these very flighty and very friendly, and most only weigh about 400g.

One of my hens came third in the 2011 ISPF National Show in her class with 7 other Gold Dutch.

Silver Dutch 

As the name suggests, they originated in the Netherlands, they are also reasonable good layers for a bantam. The hens make good broodies with 2/3 silver hens going broody for me once in 2010. These were the first bantam breed I got, and my favourite.

The hens I have are show quality, taking first and second in the Silver Dutch class at the ISPF national show 2011 and one of the hens also taking Reserve Best Of Breed. one of the hens also took reserve show champion at Clonakilty show in June 2011.

Silver Dutch hen, she followes me all around the garden!

Lavender Sablepoot (booted bantam)

The sablepoot is a friendly breed that does very little damage to the garden because their feet are feathered, but do require dry weather to keep their feathering clean. Young Sablepoots often look taller than adult birds and it is not until the first moult that the look "right". My lavenders are great layers (when they are not broody!).

Buff Wyandotte

These Buff Wyandottes (pronounced Why-an-dot) are a miniature breed and not a true bantam, as the have large counter part. Legs are yellow as are the beaks, with a rose comb. I find that these lay a large egg compared to their size and also have a large apatite.

One of the hens got third place in the Midleton show in a large class of birds.

Buff hen who hatched 8 chicks.

White Frizzle

Frizzles are considered an exhibition breed, with a unique feather type, its frizzled! Each feather curls back towards the birds head. I find these birds suprisingly hardy although rain dosnt run of them easily and I don't let them out of their coop when it is raining.

When breeding frizzles there is a chance that their plumage could be frizzled, over frizzled, and flat-coated. It is best to breed frizzled with flat-coated birds in order to greatly reduce the chance of over frizzled birds.