Chicken breeds - the Australorp

The Australorp

Often overlooked by those who are looking for a more mainstream breed, even though it has a lot to offer. It is popular round the world due to its 'good looks' and its reputation as being regarded as a great all-round performer.

As its name suggests, this breed was originally developed in Australia.

Looks

The black plumage has a stunning beetle-green sheen when it catches the sunshine, and this contrasts wonderfully with the bright red single comb, face and wattles.

They generally adopt a very upright stance which gives them an active and graceful appearance. Their bodies are deep and broad, especially across the shoulders and saddle area. The tail is full yet compact, and the birds stand on strong, dark, featherless legs. The beak is also dark, as are the eyes.

Personality

Overall it is a docile, quiet breed. It is perfectly happy being handled and so is equally at home with domestic keepers and in the exhibition pen. The calm temperament also means that the Australorp has great qualities as a broody and a caring, attentive mother.

Eggs

There are some stories of fantastic laying achievements. One hen reportedly managed to produce 364 eggs in 365 days.

One a more practical level, young hens should happily produce 200 eggs in a season, which is a great return. The eggs themselves will be of  medium size and light brown in colour.

Day-to-day

The Australorp has a dual purpose nature. This means that as well as producing useful numbers of eggs, it is also a good table bird, white-skinned and generally well fleshed and tasty.

The breed is easy to keep. Their placid character means that the birds tolerate confinement well, but they will happily forage given the opportunity. In addition, they are economical eaters and mature relatively early; however, female birds can run to fat if they are not kept busy.

The Australorp is not generally known as a flier, so there is no need to build as especially secure run to keep them contained. Finally, their hardiness is impressive - they show good resistance to low temperatures and are generally long lived.

What do you think about this breed? Have you ever kept any of these?

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Chicken Breeds - the Rumpless Game

Rumpless Game

This particular chicken has often been described as a rather odd looking bird - you'll either love or hate it. Many find the lack of tail bizarre and unnatural, but other keepers believe that the birds have bags of charm and character.

Looks

These birds have a bold, upright carriage and are very similar to traditional game birds, apart from the complete lack of a tail. They are small and have a steeply sloping profile, with a full and prominent breast and large wings. The head is small, with quite a large beak, bold eyes and a thin, single comb.

Earlobes and wattles are small. The feathering all over is hard and close. These birds stand on strong legs with four toes on each foot.

The breed's plumage colouring is variable. In competition, colour is not an important factor; more emphasis is placed on the bird's head and overall appearance.

Personality

The breed shares typical game characteristics when it comes to personality, so they can be peppery little birds. However, many keepers say that they can be easily tamed and that they make excellent pets.

Eggs For their size, Rumpless Game hens can be surprisingly good layers of light-coloured eggs.

Day-to-day

In their bantam form these birds are happy to be confined, although they can be noisy. They are hardy too, although some owners do experience problems with the fertility of eggs.

It has been suggested that the feathering around the hen's rump plays a part in this and that its removal from the vent area can improve matters.

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Chicken Breeds - Old English Game

Old English Game

Looks

The Carlisle type is broad-shouldered with a full breast and a bold but graceful appearance. The head is

small and features what is known as a 'boxing' beak - that is, the upper mandible closes tightly over the lower one, rather like a hawk's beak.

The comb, wattles and earlobes are all small and fine. The eyes are large and the head sits on a long neck that is thick, particularly at the base.

The legs are strong and featherless.

The Oxford type shares many of the same characteristics, although it is more upright and certainly appears more confrontational.

Personality

The breed's fighting origins mean that it tends to be aggressive and self-contained. These birds are not suited to living in mixed flocks.

Eggs

The birds are reasonable layers of small, tinted eggs and owners can expect about 120 in a season.

Day-to-day

This breed is not an ideal first choice for a beginner. They need space, love to forage and tend to be noisy. They are hardy and do not like being confined.

The hens make protective mothers. Males can sometimes adopt the brood and assist in rearing the chicks. This habit it virtually unseen in any other poultry breed.

What do you think of the 'Old English Game' breed?

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Chicken breeds - Modern Game

Modern Game

The Modern Game has a look all of its own. The body is short with a flat back, and the whole thing should resemble the shape of an iron when viewed from above - tapering towards the tail.

Both the wings and the tail should be short; males have narrow, pointed and slightly curved sickle feathers.

The head is long an narrow with prominent eyes, which vary from red to black, a small single comb, wattles and earlobes and a relatively long beak.

The neck is long, slightly curved and covered with wiry feathering.

Standing on long legs, the Modern Game displays muscular thighs and rounded featherless shanks. Each foot has four toes and the leg and foot coloration includes yellow, willow green and black, according to overall colouring.

The combs and wattles can vary in colour too, ranging from red to dark purple and black, depending on the feather colour.

Personality

There are many opinions and they vary when it comes to the Modern Game's personality. Some keepers describe them as pleasant, friendly, easy-to-handle birds, but others suggest they are aggressive and noisy. The truth probably lies somewhere between, with much depending on how well the birds have been reared. Of course we should every chicken has its very own unique personality.

Eggs

This is not one of the world's great laying breeds. You should expect about 90 small, light-coloured eggs in a good season.

Day-to-Day

The Modern Game is a hardy breed, which loves to be active if given the space to do so. It is not generally as aggressive as other game breeds, so it can be kept with other breeds under careful supervision.

The female birds do get broody and can make good, protective mothers, although their hard, short feathering and long legs do not really provide the best brooding combination.

We hope you have enjoyed this article. Next week we will look at another breed.

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Chicken Breeds - Indian Game

Indian Game

This particular breed is reported to have been created in Cornwall in the 19th century.

The Indian game is widely recognised as being one of the best table birds that there is, and for this reason it has been used over the years to cross with other established table birds.

Looks

This is a striking-looking bird. It has a purposeful muscular body, hard feathering and domineering stance. The wide-breasted body is particularly broad at the shoulder.

The medium-sized head has bold eyes and a stubby, powerful beak.

The comb, if left undubbed, is pea-type, with three ridges running from front to back, (the central one being the highest).

The bird stands on strong, thick widely spaced, orange-yellow legs, which dominate its appearance.

Personality

This breed is sometimes docile and friendly, but sometimes aggressive - even the females.

Eggs

Not known for its laying ability the Indian Game will typically produce only 08 (roughly), small, light brown eggs a year.

Day to Day

The Indian Game's 'strength' makes these chickens, rugged, robust birds, although they are not particularly active. They will cope well with low temperatures and are easy to contain. The hens can make attentive mothers, but they may be aggressive. In addition, some strains exhibit hatching problems. Fertility can be a major problem because of the width of the birds - they find it difficult to mate properly.

This breed is not ideal for inexperienced keepers.

Well, that is our first of many as we work through the different breeds of chicken.

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Pig breeding - keeping healthy

Perfect Pigs - pig breeding - keeping healthy

Do you keep pigs? Are you thinking about keeping pigs?

As you may or may not know the maintenance of maintaining the body weights of breeding sows and boars correctly is extremely important.

It is not hard to keep on top of this, it will just require attention to detail and a good knowledge of pigs. The secret is being able to notice trends in weight variation, and to act accordingly to correct any changes that may be occurring.

Have you ever heard the different body scoring scale terms? Here they are explained:

Emaciated - Shoulders, individual ribs, hips and backbone are visually apparent.

Thin - Shoulders, ribs, hips and backbone are quite easily felt when gentle pressure is applied with the palm of the hand.

Acceptable/optimal - Shoulders, ribs, hips and backbone can be felt when gentle to moderate pressure is applied.

Fat - Shoulders, ribs, hips and backbone cannot be felt, even when moderate pressure is applied.

Grossly fat - Fat deposits are clearly visible

Helpful hints and tips

• Avoid variation and extremes in pig body weights within the breeding herd
• Ideally, sows should enter farrowing with a body condition score of 3 or 3.5 (half scores may be used for mid-ranges)
• Sows should complete a four-week lactation scoring 3 to 2.5 as a minimum. Most traditional breeds stay on mum for 6 if not 8 weeks but same rules BS3 apply
• Very thin sows may not come into oestrus promptly post-weaning, or be able to maintain the pregnancy, support adequate foetal development or be able to consume enough feed for a good lactational yield.
• Excessively fat sows may show farrowing and leg problems, produce small litters, have low feed intakes during lactation and wean lighter litters.
• If there is a wide range of body conditions within the breeding herd, or significant numbers of sows in either of the extreme categories, a whole-herd review of nutrition, management and health programmes will be required.

Bird Brains

Bird Brain? Meaning what?

Most would not regard the chicken as a particularly intelligent creature. However, this is just not the case. The term 'bird brain' cannot be referring to these loveable and delightful creatures.

How clever is clever?

Measuring intelligence can be difficult, even for the smartest of individuals. Like Einstein said, 'If you measure a fish and its intelligence, by its ability to climb a tree, it will be stupid.'

There is no single measure of human intelligence and the same applies to animals.

For instance, animals can appear to be great at problem solving. Only on closer examination would you see that they are simply using 'rules of thumb'. For example, if you see A, do behaviour X.

Even the more complex of sequences can arise by stringing together a number of very simple components.

Chickens really come into their own when the demonstration their behavioural flexibility. This flexibility can be demonstrated when a simple rule of thumb is applied to increasingly specific and unique circumstances.

Chickens can quickly adapt to these 'rules'. Another example of this is when a cockerel will increase its courtship vocalisations in the presence of a hen, but reduce calling in the presence of another cockerel. This shows that the male bird monitors its environment carefully, and makes subtle adjustments to his behaviour accordingly.

Adjusting with age

When there are growing chicks, bot the male and female will adjust their alarm-calling in order to protect their chicks When the chicks are young, if a small hawk is flying overhead, they will sound the warning. However, as the chicks grow, alarm calls are given only in response to larger, predatory birds.

Learn faster than babies

A baby will not realise until around 12 months of age, that if an object is moved out of view, it still exists. However, chicks that are just a few days old seem to appreciate that objects are permanent, and move readily towards hidden prey items or social partners.

Look and Learn

Chicks also demonstrate their brain power by their ability to 'look and learn'. This is even true if the chicks are shown videos of other chickens behaving a certain way when carrying out a particular task.

Was Mr Tweedy right?

It is actually quite well known that chickens can plot and form plans. They will even execute a level of self control to gain future rewards. It is a sign of intelligence to live and act not only in the present, but to consider options and act for gain int he long run.

So there you have it. As you can see, Chickens are actually very intelligent little characters. We have found this information from various sources and studies and have been impressed by their sometimes funny behaviour. We hope you have enjoyed it too.

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