Talk:Danish hen

Only Landrace in Europe

@RhinoMind: While I certainly agree with the statement that not all such breeds could be considered "true" landraces, with the name being applied to breeds that were partially derived from non-extant former landraces, I'm not sure that a website devoted to promoting the Dansk landhøne could be considered a reliable source for such a broad claim, as they'd have a conflict of interest, and there's no guarantee any such claim would be subject to factual oversight. I said "patently false" as in the unusual case of Iceland. I guess it depends on whether one considers Iceland a part of Europe proper... As it is an island that wasn't in contact with the continent for centuries. Nearly every breed of animal there has existed (at least, as portions that were bred back into the general stock) at some time or another in a semi-feral state, which is why they're so well-adapted to the environment. Even in the case of the Icelandic chicken. But Iceland is a bit of a special case. As for the other breeds, as with most of these, it probably depends on the scope of the term "landrace". I'm not necessarily disputing the claim, but we'd likely need an academic source, but I know from prior experience even those vary depending on that aforementioned scope in terminology. Quinto Simmaco (talk) 12:45, 1 July 2016 (UTC)

For some reason I have missed this comment. Maybe because it doesn't change anything, but I thought I might post an answer anyway.

First of all, you are greatly exaggerating what you term "conflict of interest". This species has close to zero economical value. The organisation is also recognised by several official breeding organisations, including this. It would however be great if more sources to this issue could be provided, but with the word "perhaps" nothing is overstated as is.

Secondly, Iceland was never isolated from Europe. There were regular transports and trade with Scandinavia since the islands settlement. On top of that, I doubt very much that there were chickens in the wild in Iceland prior to the medieval settlements (from Norway primarily), so the Icelandic Chicken most certainly was imported from Scandinavia in the first place. This is also what the Wiki article says. Talking about this, it might be necessary to elaborate a bit on that in the Icelandic Chicken article, ie that the "landrace" aspect is a bit misguided.

Third, it would be great if other pages dealing with landraces are cleaned up and presented in a more realistic and truthful way.

RhinoMind (talk) 20:07, 27 June 2017 (UTC)

References

I might try to do some work on this page – add some more independent reliable sources, expand the text and so on. If I were to do so I would change the reference format to the list-defined system – references defined in the reference section, not in the text – and to hand-written refs (without cite templates), both changes for the sake of clarity and simplicity. I'll probably do that in a day or two if no-one minds, but will of course leave well alone if there's any objection. Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 23:34, 25 February 2026 (UTC)