CORNISH HISTORY
History
Indian Game birds are bred in Cornwall and have been since the 19th century. They are sometimes referred to as Cornish. They do prefer to live where the climate is mild. The bird descends from an Asil, an Indian breed of bird whose name means aristocratic. Although the bird looks fierce and stout it has never been used as a fighting bird. They were and still are very popular due to their very large proportion of breast meat. They are used for cross breeding purposes for their meat. Although called Indian Game they are not classed as game at exhibition standard. The shortness of the legs and the increased width of the bird is something that has been developed over this century. Earlier birds had longer legs. Crossbreeds of this bird are what we find in our supermarket shelves today.
Behaviour
The Indian Game is both sensible and tame and very confident in character. Their strange shape does make them vulnerable to lice and mite infestation as they find it hard to preen under their tails. As its purpose is mainly cross breeding for meat it does not lay that many eggs. It can become broody and protective. A full grown bird can become tricky to pick up due to its width. They do need to have low perches and large pop holes to get through.
Varieties
Standard colours for this bird are dark, jubilee and blue laced. The plumage on the females gives a very elegant look. The feathers are hard, close and double laced. The cock bird in dark colour does not have the lacing but a beetle green shine on his back feathers. The jubilee has white where the dark has black and the females again are well laced. The blue laced is the most attractive of the three. It has blue where the dark has black. Over the breastbone there usually is an area with no feathers. The eyes are pale red or pearl. The earlobes are red and the legs are orange or yellow.
Egg Colour: Light brown
OPEN RANGE VS CONFINED EGGS
Do you know the difference in open range eggs and confined eggs? Not many people do, it sounds good open range chickens running all over. Where do you think the chickens lay their eggs? How long do you think they lay out in the pasture before they are collected? I don’t much care for how they treat caged hens either, but most people have been buying caged eggs for years and they never complained about it. In confined layers they are not fertile eggs, in open range poultry they could be fertile. Open range eggs cost more because you have to hire twice the amount of people to collect the eggs. confined eggs roll down a line for a couple of people to collect.
All confined chicken are only confined to laying for one year. Open range poultry do have a better life to wonder and forage for bugs and grass but both confined and open range both get the same bagged feed. We confine our show poultry for one month prior to shows, they do lay inside. We do not like how confined poultry are treated but we do not think that open range eggs should be dollar or more than confined eggs.How do you now that they are truly open range poultry? We do not. We do know that either of the two are not as fresh as if you had your own egg layers. Their are too many people that want to make a profit from using words like open range or organic or lower cholesterol. Just something for you the people to think about. All we want is for you to think about things and ask yourself which is better for you and your family.
Filed under Blogroll, Family News, Indiana, Poultry News, Poultry Products, Shows, The Kids, Uncategorized | Comment (0)poultry washing
To get ready for a show you need to wash your birds, you will need 3 tubs and a 4th tub if you have white birds. Fill your tubs with warm water , in the first tub you need to add a show guality soap,seven (bug killer) and borax.
In the second tub filled with water you need to add vinagar.
Your third tub should be just plain water. If you have white bird you will need your 4th tub filled with water and add a small amount of bluing.
O.K. now that you have you tubs filled you are ready to wash. Now get your first bird and grab him with one hand under his body and the other over his wings.
Now slowly dip him into the water making sure his head is not below water level. You want to wet them down good and always rub with the feathers not against them.
Now making sure that you have washed legs, feet and all other part really well place your hand under him and over his wing and take him to your second tub wich has the vinegar in it.
The vinegar helps to gat the soap out of the feathers. Make sure to rinse the bird really well at this tub.You really do not have to rub just make sure the water reaches the skin.
Now to the 3 tub wich is just plain water, repeat the same thing as in the second tub.
If you have colured birds you are done get a towel and get as much moister off as you can. If you have birds that are fluffy like Cochins and Silkies they need to be dried with a hair drier. Now if you have all white birds they need to be taken to the 4th tub with bluing in it.
Repeat the same method as with rinsing. MAKE SURE NOT TO ADD TO MUCH BLUING AS THIS WILL TURN YOUR BIRDS BLUE, oNLY A FEW DROPS. Towel dry and keep your birds in a draft free room to dry. it takes about 2 days for your birds to dry all of the way. Now you are ready to so and good luck
Filed under Blogroll, Indiana, Our Birds, Poultry News, Poultry Products, Shows, The Kids | Comment (0)LF Silver Laced Wyandotte
This is our only SLW hen. This breed is known for their rolling bodie, notice the white feather lined with black this is what they call silver laced colouring
Filed under Blogroll, Indiana, Our Birds, Poultry News | Comment (0)Dark Cornish Rooster
This is our only game bird breed a Dark Cornish Bantam Rooster
