Holland Chicken Breed
Reading Time: 5 minutes
Learn about the Holland chicken breed and its breeding history to make the barred Holland chicken. Critical is the most severe in the endangered category on the conservation list, so preserving this breed is imperative.
It may be hard to believe, but in the early 1930s brown was the dominant egg color, and was often produced by dual-purpose breeds. However, according to The Livestock Conservancy, white eggs brought premium prices at market due to the belief that white eggs had a finer, more delicate flavor. To fill the niche, Rutgers University started a breeding project. They wanted to create a sizeable bird that laid large white eggs.
Barred Holland Chicken History
“Rutgers imported Dutch poultry and bred them to Leghorns, Rhode Island Reds, New Hampshires, and Lamona chickens to develop the White Holland,” Robin Bruins says. “The problem with this bird was that predators could easily spot it and enjoy a lovely dinner. Further research at Rutgers was done with Dutch stock bred to White Leghorns, Barred Plymouth Rocks, Australorp, and Brown Leghorns—and the Barred Holland was born.”
Bruins, the owner of the Roodehaan Farm in New Jersey, has been raising Holland chickens since 2017. Her Holland flock started with chicks from Sand Hill Preservation Center in Iowa and a breeder in Louisiana. A 4-H leader for over 50 years, one of her former 4-Hers is now a poultry researcher at Rutgers, who also started a flock of Holland chickens at the same time. Bruins background in livestock and agriculture didn’t start in 2017. It spans back nearly seven decades. She says she’s been raising livestock since she could toddle.
“In researching the breed, I feel that the Noord Holandse Blauwe (North Holland Blue) is probably the breed that was imported from the Netherlands as the foundation of the Holland. Since I lived near Purmerend, North Holland (where the breed originated), in 1976 as a 4-H exchange student, I knew of this breed, which was first bred in the area in 1900,” Bruins says.
“According to the Dutch Rare Breeds Survival Trust, August 2014, the breed is a heavy, barred chicken that’s endangered. Purmerend isn’t far from Amsterdam, and, in the early 1900s, it supplied a delicate white meat to the Jewish population there. The North Holland Blue was developed from the Belgian Malines, which didn’t like the rainy climate of the Netherlands but did provide the foundation for the Blue, which flourished. The last commercial North Holland Blue farm closed in 1977, according to the Dutch Rare Breeds Survival Trust, as the Dutch imported more quick-growing American breeds.”
New Jersey has deep roots with the Netherlands. Many towns and rivers bear Dutch names, spreading even to New York, where New York City was first known as New Amsterdam. The Dutch are also known as great agriculturalists and innovators, so it was natural to look across the ocean for answers.
A Netherlands Novella
Bruins visited the Netherlands (informally referred to as Holland) for four months and stayed with four different families during her International 4-H Youth Exchange program. On the 4th of July 1976 — the Bicentennial — she visited her last family. They were expecting a boy, due to her name being Robin, which is often a male name in Great Britain.
“When I arrived, I think panic set in, but it all worked out,” Robin recalls. The boy she stayed with during that exchange is now her husband!
Holland Chicken Characteristics
The Hollands were developed to lay lots of white eggs and to produce an 8-pound dinner. Their yellow skin produces a beautiful carcass. Bruins says that some of the fancier chicken breeds can’t take the heat, or the cold, but Holland chickens can handle both. They can also easily forage for their own food. Bruins says her two roosters hardly eat commercial chicken food.
“I’m too old to put up with mean roosters,” Bruins says. “Five-year-old Jerry is our stud and he’s a pleasure to work around, protecting his flock from predators and respectful of my efforts to take care of him and his girls. My chickens aren’t pets, but they’re calm and quiet — other than young cockerels who love to show off their new skills in the early morning.”
The Barred Holland has barred feathers, with crisp black stripes at right angles to the feather shaft, alternating with white stripes that aren’t usually as wide. This is similar to the Cuckoo pattern, but the barred feather lines are sharper, not smudged, like the Cuckoo.
| Status | Use | Egg Color | Egg Size | Weight | Temperament | Characteristics |
| Critical | Egg, Meat, Pets | White | Medium to Large | Male 6 lbs./ Female 4 lbs. | Calm | Good forager, winter hardy, likes to range |
Holland Conservation Status
Today Holland chickens are listed as “Critical” on the Livestock Conservancy conservation priority list, which is the most severe in the endangered category.
“Growing up in Sussex County, Delaware, where the broiler industry was born, I believe that their challenging situation is because of the quick-growing Cornish, and similar crosses,” Bruins explains. “If the Holland goes to the dinner table at seven weeks, some dinner guests are going to leave the table hungry. The birds just can’t finish that quickly.”
Why the Holland?
Bruins and her husband, a recently retired food engineer at Rutgers University, didn’t realize that Holland chickens would be such a good selection for their practical, small homestead.
“We sell eggs, give eggs to the local food pantry, and raise some chicks for the grandchildren and for my 4-Hers to show,” Bruins says.
Extra cockerels end up in the freezer and make a marvelous coq au vin.
Over the last eight or so years, Bruins has produced about 100 Holland chicks and adult birds. At the time of the interview, she received about four inquiries in a week about fertilized Holland eggs. She adds that there’s lots of interest in preserving this endangered breed, mostly thanks to her presence on the Livestock Conservancy’s registry.
Currently, she’s trying to get the numbers up and then she’ll be able to focus on breeding to the standard. Her original birds weren’t up to the APA standard, with some browning of the feathers, egg, and leg colors and number of points on the comb being off. But it’s hard to reach the standard when there isn’t enough stock to choose from.
“We’re trying to get closer to the standard, and it did improve, but to be honest with you, I’d rather have a hardy chicken, that’s not going to attack me, and will be great around kids.”
Bruins says she and her husband are proud to be one of the few breeders of Holland chickens in the United States.
“Our birds are treated like farm animals, free to roam and forage, and not pampered. The Holland may not lay blue eggs or be ready to harvest at six weeks, but they’re a thrifty, no-nonsense breed that will raise a batch of chicks on their own, find the juiciest worms, and make you laugh every day.”
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Kenny Coogan lives on a permaculture landscape and runs a carnivorous plant nursery. His educational TV series “Florida’s Flora and Fauna with Conservationist Kenny Coogan” will come out summer of 2025. Listen to him co-host the “Mother Earth News and Friends” podcast.
Originally published in the June/July 2025 issue of Backyard Poultry and regularly vetted for accuracy.
