POLISH HISTORY

History
Known in England as the Poland, this is the most popular of the crested breeds. It is also one of the oldest. The origin of this bird and its name is still not clear. Crested birds have been described all over Europe, not just in Poland. It has been known as a pure breed as early as the 16th century. They appeared and received classification at the first poultry show in London in 1845. Then available in four colours.
Behaviour
The Poland is an unusual and beautiful bird. They do look rather strange with their big hair do! They lay a good number of white eggs. Generally classed as a non-sitting bird, they can occasionally become broody. Breeders tend to tie the crest up to keep it clean and allow the bird to see well. The Poland has a thin skull and can suffer from hypothermia quite quickly in the cold. Mites need to be looked out for, as they cannot preen themselves very easily to remove them.
Varieties
Colours of the Poland are very varied. The best known being the white crested black with its black body and white crest. The other two similarly patterned colours are white crested blue and white-crested cuckoo. These three colours do not have a beard and have wattles; all the other colours have a beard with no wattles. They have white earlobes. The crest of the female should be very round with the males being spikier. The eyes are red in all colours and beaks and legs are dark blue in all except the white crested cuckoo, which has a paler beak and legs. The chamois, gold and silver are all laced.
Egg Colour: White

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

FAVEROLLES HISTORY

History
Faverolles originate from the village of Faverolles in Northern France and were created from a mix of several different breeds of hen, Dorking, Brahma, Crvecoeur, Houdan, Coucou de Rennes and possibly the Cochin! The first true description of the breed came in 1893 and the salmon variation appeared later in 1895. They were bred specifically for meat production but they also produce a good number of eggs so are true dual-purpose birds. They have a broad, square body with small wings, a single upright comb, short neck, a striking beard and muffling. The head is broad and round and the eyes are reddish bay. The pinkish legs are sparsely feathered with the feathering concentrated on the outer toe. They have five toes, the fifth one points upwards.
Behaviour
They are quiet, friendly, gentle birds that can actually become very affectionate towards their keepers and are an ideal breed for children. They are alert, active birds and the hens make very good broodies and mothers. The hens will actually lay prolifically over winter. Chicks grow quickly and develop fast on high quality food and will forage happily from an early age. They thrive in a run and are not good fliers so the fencing doesn’t have to be very high. They are able to cope with damp grass better than chickens with more heavily feathered legs and feet but do suffer badly from Scaly Leg mite which causes terrible irritation to the birds. They require high quality feed to maximise meat production. The cocks can weigh in at around 11lb which makes them very good table birds. The small comb and thick feathering make them ideal for cold conditions. Like many other large breeds of hen, they are prone to being bullied by other hens if kept together with other varieties. They live for around 5-7 years.
Varieties
The breed actually comes in three different types - the original French Faverolles, The German Faverolles and The British type with the following colours - Black, blue (laced), buff, cuckoo, ermine, salmon, white.
Egg Colour: Tinted pinkish brown

COCHIN HISTORY

History
Cochins originated from China in the early 1850s where it was known as the Shanghai or the Cochin-China. The original birds were received by Queen Victoria which led to great popularity for the breed. It was believed that the Chinese bred them with such profuse feathering for filling duvets. The Cochin has no sharp angles and is very rounded in appearance. They are the largest of the heavy breeds and cockerels can weigh in at 12lbs! They are broad birds too and this is enhanced by the enormous amount of feathers that they have. The plumage is soft with short broad feathers.
Behaviour
The Cochins rounded appearance unfortunately affects its health as the birds tend to suffer from metabolism and heart problems which is compounded by their rather lazy lifestyle. They like to be kept on short grass and will not venture onto longer vegetation as this damages the feathers on their feet. They take up remarkably little room and like to be contained with fencing but avoid putting them onto cold, wet grass as youngsters. The profuse leg and foot feathering means that it is best to confine Cochins on wet days when mud becomes a problem and can cause balls of mud to collect under their feet. They do not fly and a 2 foot fence is sufficient to keep them contained. They make excellent broodies because of their calm, maternal nature. They lay quite large eggs but don’t produce many over the year. The chicks are strong when they hatch but take 22 days rather than the usual 21 to emerge. Cochins are friendly, docile chickens and tend to be submissive when kept with more aggressive breeds. They require good quality feed and mature in two years. They make remarkably good pets and a pet Cochin should live between 8-10 years.
Varieties
Black, blue, buff, cuckoo, partridge, grouse and white. The legs are yellow and the ear lobes are red while the eyes are a reddish bay.
Egg Colour: Light brown

THE DUTCH ARE COMING

History
The Dutch bantam or De Hollandse Krielan has been in existence for a long time and first appeared in Britain in the late 1960s. They are upright little birds with short backs, and a high full breast. The wings are fairly large and long and are carried close to the body. The tail is full and well spread with well developed sickles. The comb is single with five serrations and the beak is short, strong and slightly curved. Ear lobes are small and oval shaped while the wattles are short and round. They have four toes and the legs are unfeathered.
Behaviour
Egg production is limited to the summer months and eggs take only 20 days to hatch instead of the usual 21 days for other breeds. They are good layers, good setters, and good broodies. Because of their small size, Dutch females are only capable of covering a small clutch of eggs. The chicks are very active indeed and need good quality chick crumbs to keep up with their appetites. They usually need these for longer than the usual 8 weeks and also require shallow drinkers to prevent them from drowning if they happen to fall in. Dutch bantams are jaunty little birds and need to be protected from the winter weather. They also need good fencing as they are good fliers.
Varieties
Gold partridge, silver partridge or duckwing, yellow partridge or duckwing, blue silver partridge or duckwing, blue yellow partridge or duckwing, blue partridge (blue-red), red shouldered white (pyle), cuckoo partridge (crele), cuckoo, black, white, blue and lavender (pearl grey)
Egg Colour: Tinted

STARTING OUT IN SHOW POULTRY

A common question beginners ask is advice on what breeds to keep. The best way to answer this would be to visit shows and make your own choice. When inspecting the exhibits it would
be wise to ask breeders, showman & judges the advantages and difficulties of varieties that please your eye. It is best to avoid the rarer breeds/varieties when starting off as stock is harder to obtain, and is likely to be of doubtful quality. They will also receive little competition in shows and judges
may be unfamiliar with them thus not assessing them properly.

I would recommend a breed that lays well and make good mothers. This way you don’t have to get a separate breed to hatch the eggs or buy an expensive incubator. Despite this the beginner is most likely to do best with a variety that he/she most admires, so long as they obtain good stock and are
not easily disheartened by early set-backs.

A common mistake made by most beginner’s is to keep too many kinds. Concentrate on one or two breeds at first and don’t add another until you have gained experience on the first. This is the best advice in the world, but seldom followed.

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.

Delaware

Who new that a four month old bird could out eat every other fully grown bird? They where the cornish cross of the 1950’s. They are a very meaty bird and love to watch you work, very good people bird. The roosters are a little more aggressive and very pretty for a white bird with black markings. We do have these birds for sale

New Birds

We now have 3 new breeds called Dutch Bantams , Dark Cornish Bantams, Partridge Cochin and hope to have their eggs for sell in about 6 months “HOPE TO” anyway and hope to win at lest a couple of shows but if not we are happy with what ever we take home and at the end of the day we hope to learn something and carry it to the next show.

Ohio Nationals

Ohio Nationals will be coming up in November and is a great place to go and visit with other poultry folk. We will be going to try and add to our own flock, this is a great place to buy and sell poultry. hope to see you their.