FANCY FOWLS
If you want to make the neighbour boys open their eyes, and the passers-by stand still to admire, try the experiment of raising fancy fowls. Growing them for exhibition purposes is such a separate and distinct department of the poultry business and demands familiarity with many "show standards," "tricks of the trade," and special practices in breeding and grooming to bring a fowl up to a high score, that it may be best not to undertake to compete with more experienced breeders.
A visit to a fancy poultry exhibition is like a trip to Wonderland. Just looking at the pictures of the prize winners, and studying the alluring advertisements arouses enthusiasm. But to read the accounts of the fanciers, or to hear them talk about the merits of their favourites makes a chicken lover fairly thrill with ardour. How to decide upon which variety to try is a hard problem. Take a lot of things into consideration. Discount what the enthusiasts say about the one they have for sale; they mean every word of it, but they are prejudiced. Don't be influenced to select one breed when you really prefer another. Here is a department where personal preference should cast the deciding vote; the one you like best is the best one for you.
It is not well known except by specialists that there are so many distinct varieties in breeds of fowls. For example take the Polish. There are blue Polish, plain white, golden, white-crested, black, buff-laced, and silver; of the Hamburgs there are black, silver-and gold-spangled, silver-and golden-penciled white, and so on through the list. The Polish and the Houdans are remarkable for their tremendous top knots, the Hamburgs, Lakenvelders, and many others for their wonderful plumage and colour combinations, while the most astonishing creatures in the whole chicken tribe are the Yokahamas whose snow-white tail feathers trail gracefully behind them like a bride's gown and veil at a fashionable wedding. These must be the originals of the extraordinary fowls represented on Japanese and Filipino pottery and embroidery.
It is not much wonder that fancy breeds are growing more popular in our country. Although as a rule they are non-sitters, they are all described by their advocates as prize layers, some hens even reaching the remarkable record of two hundred eggs a year.
The Hamburgs, for example, are called "Dutch Everlasting Layers." Their eggs are smooth and "satiny white"; Polish eggs are very large and snow-white, but they are not winter layers; Houdans lay white eggs of great size and almost certain fertility, and are, besides, excellent table fowls; the Lakenvelders rank with Leghorns as layers and their eggs are also "of a porcelain whiteness" which insures a fancy market in New York where the preference is for white eggs.
Do not think that you can just as well house your fancy breeds in with your ordinary chickens. It is a mistake. They should be kept apart from the beginning. Light hens of commoner breeds are successfully employed as foster-mothers for the fancy fowls, but it is important to provide separate pens even for the young. If young chicks are kept in the same run with those somewhat older, they are crowded away from the feeding dishes; chicks with top knots should never be raised with other sorts. The crest interferes with their sight, and they are not fighters and will allow themselves to be driven away from the food. Crested chicks should be treated with a grease lice-destroyer at least once a fortnight. A little of the lard or sweet oil is enough but it should be worked into the feathers to be effectual. Use powder on the hens, but not while the chicks are oily.
Making the neighbours gape in open-eyed astonishment is not all there is to raising fancy chickens. With a few years' experience in chicken raising back of you, it would not be risky to raise them for commercial purposes. The popularity of fancy chickens is just beginning in this country. There is a fine market for eggs for hatching, but as it is extremely important to keep the breeds pure your fancy birds should be kept by themselves practically the year round. Most of the breeds mentioned are quite hardy, and the same care required for ordinary poultry as to housing, food, prevention of disease, cleanliness, and records will insure a good measure of success with fancy fowls.