March 2022 – Safeguarding biodiversity: our partnership with Rare Breeds Survival Trust


Eggciting news! As well as conserving rare breeds and promoting the work of Rare Breeds Survival Trust, Incredible Eggs is delighted to officially partner with this invaluable organisation again for 2022.

Rare Breeds Survival Trust is a conservation charity whose purpose is to secure the continued existence and viability of native farm animals of the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1973 and since then, no UK-native breed has become extinct. Amongst many other things, the RBST maintains a watch list of rare native breeds of cattle, sheep, pigs, horses, goats and poultry. Partnerships such as ours provide essential funding to enable them to continue their mission.

As small scale poultry breeders, an important part of our work is conserving 24 of the UK rare breeds of poultry on the RBST Watchlist. These wonderful old heritage breeds are at risk of becoming extinct without conservation efforts such as this – their fascinating histories, personalities, characteristics and quirks would be lost forever. We are helping to safeguard and secure the biodiversity they provide for future generations to come.

The photographs contained in this blog were all taken at our branch farms and show just a few of our beautiful rare breed birds.

We include rare breed eggs in our hatching kits whenever possible, alongside other non-rare pure breeds and utility strains. However, please note we cannot accommodate requests for particular breeds. The eggs included in our hatching kits depends on the branch farm and which breed happens to be laying – egg combinations are pot luck and left to mother nature!

The breeds we conserve are listed below, with a link to a RBST fact sheet about each one.

Chickens

Cream Legbar

 

Buff Sussex

 

Orpington chick

Of the 40 UK rare chicken breeds, we currently keep, breed and conserve 11:

We are hoping to add Campines and Andalusians soon – watch this space!

Ducks

Welsh Harlequin

 

Silver Appleyard

 

Khaki Campbell duckling

Of the 16 UK rare duck breeds, we currently keep, breed and conserve 8:

Geese

Please note: goose eggs are NOT included in our hatching kits.

Pilgrim

 

Sebastopol

 

Embden

Of the 10 UK rare geese breeds, we currently keep, breed and conserve 5:

It’s thanks to all those who book our hatching kits that it’s possible for us to both continue our work conserving these breeds and to support the work of this invaluable organisation through sponsorship, so thank you for helping us to help them!