In Germany htey have recorded Krupers since the 16th Century - its one of their oldest breeds. This brings up all the questions of Viking movements and the considerable trading; fighting and living in the Hebrides- did the Germans come from the Highlands????. They are certainly better birds than many I have seen so far here

Now isn't that a great looking bird - really looks like it would move like a ship. If you click on the picture it will take you to the site in German. It would be great to get birds like that.

In Germany they do not allow short to short matings but previous to this being laid done breeders were getting - 25 percent long, 25 percent dead in shell and 50 percent short. Now they get very few shortlegged birds. There was a time when all breeding of Kruepers was threatened because of the percieved animal welfare problems but a long fight by their chairman salvaged the situation as long as they breed long to short.

Their Rare Breeds Survival organisation is so much better than ours. It is a private organisation trying to preserve old domestic breeds that are endangered. They think the Dumpies are important because of their hardiness, longevity, high fertility, low susceptibility to diseases, climatic influences etc etc, so show aspects are the least they care for. Would not htis be refreshing to see in the United Kingdom. The GEH has more than 1000 members, farmers, breeders, biologists, vets, etc, all kinds of interested people, and they publish a paper "Arche Nova" quarterly. They try to find out where animals of old breeds still live, keep their own breeding records, coordinate breeders, publish informations and do lots of other things. Their own 'red list' now names 84 breeds of different animals - cattle, horses, sheep, dogs...

The URL of their web site is http://www.genres.de/tgr/geh-allg/geh.htm lots of text, all in German!

The Black Kreuper is the original type over there but there are other colourings - as in the UK bred by crossing with other breeds. The Schlotterkaemme is just the long-legged form of the Krueper.

It is obvious that breeders in Germany are much more aware of utility features - they have a minimum egg size for incubating for most breeds. FOR THE DUMPY IT IS 55 GRAMMES.
And give up to date numbers for productivity - it seems that 180 is a good average for their Dumpies

The breeder my firend spoke to said his birds never got broody - but I odn;t know if that is general or his strain

Another site on Kruepers is here
and I think this is the German breed club - some one will let me know I am sure

click here for a translated article on Kruepers from a very old book POULTRY BOOK SHOP and related topics