About our Muirfield Black Rock Chickens
Breed Origin: Scotland
Uses: Egg layer - Domestic & Commercial.
Weight: Hen: 1.85 - 2Kg.
Hen Colour: predominantly black with chestnut colouring around the neck.
Egg Colour: Tinted brown
Av egg weight: 62.5g
Egg Quantity: 280 per Annum
Temperament:
Hardy, great characters, very friendly and active foragers. They have a much longer life expectancy than most hybrids (up to 7/8 years). This is a great bird for beginners.
About our birds:
The Muirfield Black Rock is a hybrid hen that we hatch from the original parent stock brought in from the Crosslee Farm in Scotland. We are currently the only authorised producer in England of the original Black Rock. We raise these birds in exactly the same environment as our rare breeds. She begins to lay brown tinted eggs at around 20-22 weeks. Having been brought up outside and bred specifically for the outdoors they are fully hardened to our weather in the north of England are equally happy in a small coop or free ranging.
Interesting to know:
The Muirfield Black Rock hen is one of the most popular choices for free-range poultry keeping, both domestically and commercially. They are extremely hardy birds having been bred in Scotland specifically for outdoor free ranging. There is longevity and vigour bred into the parents stock, with great fertility. The original parent lines at Crosslee farm actually go back 150 years. Which in itself is a unique genetic legacy.
Peter Siddons was the original breeder of the Black Rock hen at his Muirfield farm, Kinross in the middle of the 20th century. This work was continued by Eddie Lovett at Crosslee Farm, Bridge of Weir on Peters retirement. The Black Rock name is often used to describe any cross between a Rhode Island Red and a Plymouth Barred Rock. This is incorrect and there is only one Muirfield Black Rock with over 70 years of specific breeding to give the vitality and breed characteristics that have made the Black Rock a household name in the UK chicken fraternity. Anything but the original blood lines is a poor imitation of these original birds.
Another interesting fact is there is no such thing as a Black Rock cockerel as any cockerel from the breeding of the original parent stock will not breed true.
