Poultry: A Practical Guide to the Choice, Breeding, Rearing, and Management of all Descriptions of Fowls, Turkeys, Guinea-fowls, Ducks, and Geese, for Profit and Exhibition.Piper, Hugh
Science
Poultry: A Practical Guide to the Choice, Breeding, Rearing, and Management of all Descriptions of Fowls, Turkeys, Guinea-fowls, Ducks, and Geese, for Profit and Exhibition.
Piper, Hugh
Poultry -- Breeding
Mr. F. H. Schroeder, of the National Poultry Company, considered that
this surpassed all the French breeds, combining the size, shape, and
quality of flesh of the Dorking with earlier maturity; prolific laying
of good-sized eggs, which are nearly always fertile, and on this point
the opposite of the Dorking; and early and rapid feathering in the
chickens, which are, notwithstanding, hardier than any breeds except the
Cochin and Brahma. They are very hardy, never sick, and will thrive in a
small space. They are smaller than the Creve-Coeur or La Fleche, but
well shaped and plump; and for combining size and quality of flesh with
quantity and size of eggs nothing can surpass them.
SCOTCH DUMPIES, GO LAIGHS, BAKIES, or CREEPERS, are almost extinct; but
they are profitable fowls, and ought to be more common, as they are very
hardy, productive layers of fine large eggs, and their flesh is white
and of excellent quality. They should have large, heavy bodies; short,
white, clean legs, not above an inch and a half or two inches in length.
The plumage is a mixture of black or brown, and white. They are good
layers of fine large eggs. They cannot be surpassed as sitters and
mothers, and are much valued by gamekeepers for hatching the eggs of
pheasants. The cocks should weigh six or seven and the hen five or six
pounds.
The SILKY fowl is so called from its plumage, which is snowy white,
being all discomposed and loose, and of a silky appearance, resembling
spun glass. The comb and wattles are purple; the bones and the
periosteum, or membrane covering the bones, black, and the skin blue or
purple; but the flesh, however, is white and tender, and superior to
that of most breeds. It is a good layer of small, round, and excellent
eggs. The cock generally weighs less than three, and the hen less than
two, pounds. It comes from Japan and China, and generally thrives in our
climate. The chickens are easily reared if not hatched before April nor
later than June. They are capital foster mothers for partridges, and
other small and tender game.
The RUMPKIN, or RUMPLESS fowl, a Persian breed, not only lacks the
tail-feathers but the tail itself. It is hardy, of moderate size, and
varies in colour, but is generally black or brown, and from the absence
of tail appears rounder than other fowls. The hens are good layers, but
the eggs are often unfertile. They are good sitters and mothers, and the
flesh is of fair quality.
The FRIESLAND, so named from confounding the term "frizzled" with
Friesland, is remarkable from having all the feathers, except those of
the wings and tail, frizzled, or curled up the wrong way. It is small,
very delicate, and a shower drenches it to the skin.
BARN-DOOR fowl are a mongrel race, compounded by chance, usually of the
Game, Dorking, and Polish breeds.
CHAPTER XX.
TURKEYS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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