Part 4
“Firstly as to their history and origin--Unlike the pencilled Hamburghs, which are imported wholesale from Holland, the spangled birds are never so obtained, and although similar in some of their habits, they are infinitely more hardy than their pencilled rivals, suffer less from cold, lay better in winter, and are far less subject to roup; they also attain to a considerably greater weight and size. I am myself rather inclined to consider them, as they have for years undoubtedly been, natives of our northern counties, more especially Yorkshire and Lancashire, although they are said to be common in Russia and the northern countries of Europe. The Spangled Hamburghs, or Pheasant Fowls, as the north country breeders call them, are, in my judgment, the best and most regular layers I can recommend; but in this respect the gold and silver varieties somewhat differ. I have generally found that the pullets of the former variety commence laying at about six months old, and, if the season is moderately warm, they continue to lay about nine eggs a fortnight, until their moulting time the following year--I should say that on an average they lay about 200 eggs per annum. They are everlasting layers, in the strictest sense of the word, never sitting, and recommencing their labours of production about two months from the commencement of their moult. Their eggs are of a fair size, of a very light pinky brown colour, and excellent flavour. Indeed, in the latter quality the eggs of the Hamburgh fowls generally are not to be surpassed.
“It is the birds of silver variety, however, which I regard and recommend as perfect miracles of egg-producing constancy. They commence laying, if in good health and with a _good run_ (an essential to the well-doing of both the varieties), at _five_ months old, and generally lay at least six days out of the seven, until the moulting season arrives--in all probably some 250 eggs. They very quickly get their new plumage--and in six weeks recommence their labours with the same praiseworthy diligence, until another season passed warns them that moulting time is again at hand. After the second year I do not consider it advisable to keep them for laying purposes, although I think the best chicken are bred from them after that period with a young yearling cock.
“Like their golden relations they never sit, and rarely evince the slightest desire to undertake the task of incubation. I feel quite confident that no fowl produces so much _egg stuff_ with so _small an amount of food_. Give them a good run, a clean, dry, warm house at night, and one quarter of the food you bestow upon Cochins, and you will have no further trouble with them. They feather early and quickly, and may safely be hatched early in April.
“I must not, however, omit to state one drawback which there is to the keeping my spangled pets--they fly like pheasants, and know not bounds. They are great enemies to flowers, fruit, vegetables, indeed, anything they can lay hold of; and although capable of being made as tame as any other fowls, in their instincts they seem almost more like game than domesticated poultry. However, as a balance to this, there is no fowl so capable of taking care of itself, of finding its own food, of avoiding danger, and of repaying its owner handsomely for the slight care it demands at his or her hands. Indeed, I cannot recommend to a beginner in poultry-keeping a more beautiful and interesting, or a more profitable selection.
“There is much difference of opinion about the desired points of beauty in these birds. For the exact requirements in the north country shows I must refer my readers to the Rules of the Yorkshire Societies, and I will therefore confine myself to a brief and general description of what I consider requisite for perfection in these birds, and firstly as to the golden variety; although, with the exception of a few observations which I shall make about the cocks, the same points are almost requisite in both varieties.
“In the cocks, the comb should be flat, rose, stretching far back on the head, and ending in a pike--at least an inch and a quarter in width, and as square in shape as possible; the ear lobe white; the neck hackle in the golden variety, of which I am now speaking, black fringed with gold; the back, breast, and legs, regularly spangled, and the larger and brighter green black the spangles the better; the saddle feathers small and spangled; the tail long, full, and of a brilliant green black; the legs light grey blue; toe nails white. The same description applies to the hens, who should have a flat rose comb, not lopping, but upright; the ground colour of the plumage should be a rich red gold or burnt sienna colour. One great point of beauty also, both in the cocks and hens, is that the wing should be regularly laced, as in the spangled Polands. The great difficulty in breeding the cocks is the tendency they have to come with black breasts and red backs--and for show such birds are valueless, although it is said more likely to throw good pullets than the spangled breasted birds which are sometimes termed hen-feathered. The _silver_ spangled cock should not be hen-feathered, the hackle, and saddle feathers should be white, the latter very long, the tail spangled black and white, the breast regularly spangled up to the throat, and in colour the clearest white for the ground, and the brightest green black for the spangles is requisite. The lacing of the wing in this variety is quite a _sine quâ non_, both in the cocks and hens; and in the latter the tail should be clear white, with three or four large circular spangles upon it, but no other dark markings whatever. The neck, back, breast, rump, and legs, should be regularly spangled, and there should be a total absence of patchiness in the markings. In both varieties great distinctness of colour is requisite, and from the delicacy of the plumage the slightest approach to breeding _in and in_ is sure to make the produce utterly valueless. In conclusion, the carriage of the cocks should be lofty and upright with the breast thrown forward like the Polands; the weight of the male birds from 5lb. to 6lb., of the hens from 4lb. to 5lb., or a little more.”
There is, in addition to the gold and silver spangled, a third variety of these fowls, in which the whole plumage is of a glossy green black, the other characters being similar to those above described; these are termed Black Pheasant Fowls in the north of England.
The term pheasant fowl, as applied to the spangled Hamburgh, takes its origin from the crescentic moon shaped markings, which resemble those of that bird; and the term Moonies is also sometimes applied to them from the same cause.
_Pencilled Hamburghs._--This variety is also of two colours, golden and silver, the hens in both should have the feathers of the body distinctly pencilled or marked across with several separate bars of black, the hackle in both sexes should be perfectly free from dark marks, the comb a piked rose, the ear lobe white, and the legs blue as in the spangled Hamburghs, the tail should be very large and black or bronzed. The cocks do not show these pencillings, but are white or brown in the silver or golden birds respectively. The birds are of a compact form, and very graceful sprightly carriage. They do not sit, but lay exceedingly well, hence one of their common names, that of Dutch every day layers, they are also known in different parts of the country as Chitteprats, Creoles, or Corals; Bolton bays and grays; and in some parts of Yorkshire by the erroneous name of Corsican fowls. Large numbers are imported from Holland, but the birds bred in this country are much superior in size, retaining, however, their profitable characteristics.
POLAND FOWLS.--Poland fowls are characterized by the presence of a large top-knot, which, in the cocks, is composed of feathers resembling those of the hackle, and in the hens forms a dense globular tuft; a very small crescent shaped comb is usually present, rising like two small horns from the arched and dilated nostrils. Several varieties of colour exist; in the black birds there should be an entire absence of white except in the top-knot, in which the less black the better, the chest should be very prominent an fleshy, the legs dark, the wattles large and pendulous.
The spangled Polands, both gold and silver, are rather larger and less compact; and in addition to the crest, many possess a large tufted beard. Other varieties, as buff, white, &c., also exist, but they are less frequent. Polands are very good layers, but do not sit; as table birds they are not surpassed by any variety in quality and plumpness, although their small size is against them as a market fowl, and their delicacy as chicken is also a considerable drawback; from the latter circumstance, they will scarcely be found entitled to rank as profitable poultry, except on dry, sandy, or chalky soil, and in warm, sheltered situations.
MALAY FOWLS.--Malays are large leggy fowls, with a very upright carriage, small tail and clear legs, their heads and necks are long and snaky, and distinguished by a small warty comb; the hens are fair layers and remarkably good sitters and nurses. Malays are of almost every variety of colour, black, white, grey, &c., though the most common tint is a cinnamon brown. They are not as largely bred as formerly, for as egg producers they are not very profitable, and their large limbs are against their use as table fowls. What is termed the Pheasant Malay originates in a bad cross between the Malay and spangled Hamburgh, in which the good qualities of both breeds are sacrificed.
BANTAMS, SILK FOWLS, FRIZZLED AND RUMPLESS FOWLS, &c., &c., can hardly be regarded as profitable poultry, but come under the description of fancy fowls. As paying stock, my opinion is in favour of one or other of the following varieties:--
For market fowls for table use, the coloured Dorking is unequalled.
For the production of eggs, Hamburghs where there is a free range; Cochins and Spanish where there is less space; the first being the best winter layers, the latter yielding the largest eggs.
Many persons recommend cross breeding fowls for the purpose of improving upon certain varieties; it is difficult to see by what cross the qualities of Dorkings, as table fowls, can be improved; or the superior laying properties of Hamburghs, Spanish, and Cochins, increased.
To improve the hardihood of Dorkings some very experienced persons have recommended crossing a Malay cock with Dorking hens; in this case care must be taken to kill all the cross-bred chicken, as, if bred from again, a set of variable, worthless mongrels are the result. I have myself, however, never seen any cross-bred fowls equal for the table to the pure Dorking.
For home consumption, yielding numerous eggs, and large size chicken, Cochins are very valuable; their hardihood, docility, and matronly habits, enable a greater number to be reared from the same number of hens, than can be obtained from any other variety; but as poultry for the market they are of little value.
In conclusion, I would strongly recommend persons who are at present breeding from common fowls, not to attempt to improve them by the introduction of one or two good male birds into the yard, but to obtain a good stock either by the purchase of birds or eggs, and to breed from them alone, avoiding of course all intermarriage between blood relations.
DISEASES.
The diseases of poultry may perhaps be more conveniently arranged under the heads of the different parts that are affected than in any more strictly scientific order. We may therefore describe them as affecting the Skin, Lungs and Air Passages, Digestive System, Egg Organs, Brain, and the Organs of Motion.
SKIN DISEASES.--When fowls are kept on unnatural food, and in closely confined, dirty situations, they are very liable to lose the feathers of the head and neck from a chronic disease of the skin. This complaint may be constantly seen in the fowls in the mews and stableyards in London, where it arises from the dirty, dark roosting places, and absence of fresh vegetable and insect food. Of course a radical cure is out of the question, unless the unnatural circumstances producing the disease are removed; if this is done, and a five-grain Plummer’s pill given on two or three occasions, at intervals of three days, the disease is speedily removed, but the feathers will not be replaced until the next moulting season.
In Cochins which have been highly fed, particularly if peas and greaves have formed part of their food, a somewhat similar disease is often seen; and, as it commences with whiteness of the comb, it is frequently termed “white comb.” The treatment in severe cases is similar to that previously described; but mild attacks are said to yield to the application of turmeric mixed with cocoa-nut oil in the proportion of one part of the former to eight of the latter.
Moulting, being a natural action, cannot be regarded as a disease, but it frequently is much delayed, and the birds evidently suffer in such cases; it is therefore desirable, when fowls are not moulting favourably, to treat them as invalids, giving them food which is more nourishing than usual, such as a little chopped meat, either raw or cooked, keeping them in a warm and sheltered habitation, &c.
Lice often infest fowls to an extreme degree, and cause a great amount of irritation; this inconvenience may be prevented by giving them dry ashes to scuffle in, and keeping the houses clean and well lime-washed. When they are very abundant, flour of brimstone dusted under the feathers will be found a certain remedy; it is conveniently used if tied up in a piece of coarse muslin, or powdered from a flour dredger, or if more convenient, a pound or two may be added to the dust bath.
DISEASES OF THE LUNGS AND AIR PASSAGES.--Roup is the most serious disease occurring in the poultry yard, not only on account of its affecting large numbers at one time, but also from the fact that it is not easily subdued by medical treatment; great confusion and difference of opinion have occurred from several distinct diseases having been confounded under this name. True roup commences with a sticky discharge from the nostrils, at first clear, but afterwards thick and of a very peculiar and offensive smell, the nostrils become partially or entirely closed, and there is consequently some slight difficulty of breathing, and a distention of the loose skin of the under jaw may be noticed; froth frequently appears at the inner corner of the eye, the lids swell, and in severe cases the sides of the face swell greatly, the fowl becoming blind; from the discharge being wiped on the feathers of the side and under the wing, they become matted together; and in addition to these symptoms there is extreme thirst. Roup is essentially a disease of the membrane lining the nose, similar in this respect to glanders in horses; I believe it to be highly contagious, and unless a roupy fowl is very valuable would recommend its being at once killed. I think the disease is often communicated by the discharge from the nostrils running into the water out of which the fowls drink. As to treatment, a roupy fowl should at once be removed from the yard, placed in a warm dry room, the nostrils and eyes sponged with warm water, and a solution of ten grains of blue vitriol to an ounce of water dropped into the nostrils, either from the front or through the slit in the roof of the mouth, warm stimulating food, as meal or bread and ale, and a little pepper should be given. Remedies given internally seem to have but very little effect on the disease, but I think I have seen more benefit from half a grain of blue vitriol given once a day in meal than from any other medicine.
Croup, from the similarity of its name is often confounded with Roup, from which, however, it is perfectly distinct, being inflammation of the wind-pipe, the symptoms are a difficulty of breathing and a rattling or peculiar noise in the throat, this, in some cases, is even musical; sometimes thick glairy mucus is coughed up, but there is never any swelling of the face or discharge from the nostrils, the disease is most frequent in damp weather, and yields readily to warm dry housing, and one-twelfth of a grain of tartar emetic.
Inflammation of the lungs is known by a difficulty of breathing, but without the noise of croup, the same treatment with tartar emetic is advisable.
Consumption, arising from the presence of scrofulous matter in the lungs, is produced by cold, damp, bad food, and is also inherited from parents; this disease being hereditary, it is worse than useless to attempt to cure fowls that are affected, as the chicken are certain to be tainted with the disease.
Pip is the name given to a dry horny scale which appears on the tongue, in all those diseases in which the fowl becomes feverish; it is only a symptom of internal fever and not a disease itself, the remedy is to remove the real disease causing it.
Gapes in chicken is caused by peculiar parasitic worms adhering to the inside of the windpipe; they are readily removed by stripping a small quill of its side feather, except an inch of the end, dipping it in spirits of turpentine, and inserting it in the wind-pipe; but as this remedy often excites fatal inflammation, I have suggested fumigation with the vapour of turpentine, by shutting the chicken up in a box, with some shavings moistened with the spirit, as long as they can withstand the action of the vapour, and the remedy has been found very successful.
DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS are simple in their treatment. A fowl sometimes becomes crop-bound from overdistending that organ; warm water poured down the throat frequently loosens the mass; but, if necessary, a perpendicular incision may be made at the upper part of the swelling sufficiently large to extract the swollen food, and it will be found to close again without the slightest difficulty; the fowl should, however, be kept on soft food for several days afterwards. Inflammation of the stomach, which is situated between the crop and the gizzard, is a very frequent cause of death in highly fed fowls--they mope, refuse to eat, pine away, and die; there is no cure for the disease, but it is readily prevented by the use of natural food--peas, greaves, hemp seed, being rigorously excluded.
In Diarrhœa, five grains of chalk, two grains of cayenne, and five grains of powdered rhubarb may be given, and if the discharge is not speedily checked, a grain of opium and the same quantity of ipecacuanha may be administered every four or six hours.
DISEASES OF THE EGG ORGANS.--The most important disease of these organs is inflammation of the egg passage, shewn by the laying of soft or imperfect eggs; this complaint is readily remedied by giving one grain of calomel and one-twelfth of a grain of tartar emetic, made into a pill with meal; sometimes soft eggs arise from a deficiency of lime, in which case, a little old mortar rubbish remedies the defect.
The calomel and tartar emetic, which I first recommended for this disease in the _Cottage Gardener_, has been frequently given in other diseases, such as inflammation of the stomach, &c., and I need scarcely say with the effect of aggravating the evil very materially; there is no universal poultry medicine.
Disease of the ovary, or organ in which the yolks are formed, is not unfrequent, when the comb and wattles become like those of the cock, and the hen crows frequently; such birds are generally but erroneously termed hen-cocks, they must not be confounded with the hen-feathered cocks spoken of in the article on Hamburghs.
DISEASES OF THE LIMBS.--Cramp in young chicken from exposure to cold and damp is very fatal to early hatches, it can be prevented only by warmth and dryness.
Leg weakness, which is most frequent in rapidly growing chicken and young birds, particularly Cochins, arises from a disproportion between the weight and strength of the animal, the bird in consequence, sinks down upon its hocks; I have found four or five grains of citrate of iron given daily in meal successful in every case in which I have employed it.
Inflammation of the feet, closely resembling gout, I have seen in many cases, particularly in Cochins; the feet become very hot and swell. One grain of calomel at night and three drops of colchicum wine twice a day, I have found afford considerable relief.
The bumble foot of Dorkings, is a swelling occurring in the ball of the foot, not attended with heat, but followed by ulceration and a diseased growth. I have found that it may, to a great degree, be prevented by having the perches broad and low, not above four feet in height, as the disease is evidently set up in many cases, and increased in all, by the violence with which the heavy birds descend to the ground; from the low vitality of the parts affected, I have found that no treatment is attended with any beneficial results.
Broken wings are best treated by tying the points of the quill feathers together in a natural position and keeping the bird in an empty place, where there is no perch to tempt it to fly. Broken legs may be bandaged round by strips of stout brown paper soaked in white of egg well beaten up with a fork, the leg should be kept steady by two splints of wood until the paper has become dry, when it will be found sufficiently firm to remain secure if wound round with a turn or two of thread.
DISEASES OF THE BRAIN are not unfrequent in overfed fowls, apoplexy being the most frequent. The birds affected fall suddenly from their perches and are found dead. Little can be done in the way of cure; much in the way of prevention, by abstaining from unnatural food; in an actual attack, if the bird is seen before death, it may be bled by opening the vein on the under side of the wing, but the chances of recovery are but small. Paralysis also arises from the same cause. In vertigo, which depends on an undue determination of blood to the brain, the fowls run round and round or stagger about; letting a stream of cold water on the head immediately relieves, this should be followed by a grain of calomel or ten of jalap, in severe cases it may be necessary to open a vein.
In most of the older poultry books certain nostrums, as rue and butter, are constantly recommended; rue is a violent irritating stimulant, and I am not aware of any disease affecting fowls in which its use is at all likely to be productive of good effects.
King, Printer, 63, Queen Street, Cheapside.
Transcriber’s Note:
Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like this_. Inconsistent hyphenation was not changed. Two misspelled words were corrected. One excess comma was removed. One final stop missing at the end of an abbreviation was added. A column key was added to the table beginning on line 411.