BREEDING BUFF COCHINS. 



24s 



matter of fact my buff Cochins have never been 

 subject to any such treatment, and I am quite 

 certain I shall never allow it in my yards. 



" In mating up a breeding pen, I select a 

 cockerel that has not been exhibited, if possible, 

 and do not mind if rather late hatched. He 

 must have a neat, well-serrated comb, short, 

 heavily feathered shanks and feet, especially the 

 middle toe, together with a broad back, full 

 breast, and plenty of fluff He must be perfectly 

 sound in colour, with a small, clear buff tail. 

 The flights and fluff buff to the skin ; if just a 

 shade darker on the wing I do not object, but 

 at the same time I strongly object to a red 

 backed or tri-coloured bird, many of which 

 have been awarded prizes and used for breeding 

 by the inexperienced breeder, much to the detri- 

 ment of the colour of the offspring, more espe- 

 cially of the pullets bred from such, as they 

 come mottled, and show unsoundness on wings 

 and streaky breasts. It is a mistake to think a 

 dark-winged cock mated with light hens will 

 breed sound, medium-coloured chickens. This 

 mistake, I notice, is being made in other buff" 

 varieties, and so long as these dark cocks are 

 allowed to win prizes, we will see faulty-coloured 

 hens and pullets. 



" When I am satisfied with the selection of 

 the cockerel, for choice I should say put with 

 him five two-year-old hens, large, roomy birds 

 with neat heads and plenty of feather and shape, 

 and of the same strain if possible. I do not 

 mind if a bit pale in colour or mottled, so long 

 as the colour runs down to the skin, and they 

 are not chalky in their fluff They should be 

 as free as possible from black in tail. I con- 

 sider the cock is mostly answerable for the 

 colour and feathering, and the hen for size and 

 shape, of the offspring. 



" My old birds are fed twice a day, in the 

 morning on sharps or middlings, mixed with a 

 little scalded cut bone, or any of the patent 

 poultry foods, given warm, and about 3 p.m. a 

 good feed of sound wheat, a few acres of which 

 I grow for the purpose every year, and find this 

 suits my birds best. The chickens are fed every 

 two or three hours for the first few weeks, mostly 

 upon oatmeal, mixed with a little scalded meal 

 and some chopped bone and hard boiled egg, 

 but I soon begin to substitute sharps or mid- 

 dlings, mixed with some of the patent poultry 

 foods. I get chickens on to small wheat for 

 a change, and find nothing brings them on 

 quicker than a judicious use of this grain." 



The Buff Cochin being, as already intimated, 

 the real progenitor of a whole tribe of buff 

 poultry, it will be convenient to enter here 

 fully, once for all, into the essential principles 



of breeding all-self-coloured buff fowls, ignorance 

 of which has led to much failure and disap- 

 pointment, the more so since a certain change 

 of fashion already generally indicated 

 Breeding above. Formerly some difference in 

 Buffs. colours on various parts of the body 



was recognised, the silver-cinnamons, 

 for instance, having very light under parts, with 

 much darker colour in the hackle and cock's 

 upper parts, and in the tails. Such colours 

 have now quite disappeared in favour of 

 a self-colour, as uniform as possible all 

 over. It may range from cinnamon to pale 

 lemon in tint, but the tint is desired the same 

 all over, with only the difference in shade or 

 richness which the difference of hackles in tex- 

 ture of feather necessarily makes. This stand- 

 ard of colour has brought the natural tendency 

 to black in tail into stronger relief; and nothing 

 has been more common than for purchasers to 

 insist, above all other points, upon any bird Gent 

 them having no black in tail. It cannot be too 

 well understood that while a buff or bronzed 

 tail is the ideal for a perfect bird, a cockerel 

 with dark tail may be a valuable breeder, while 

 one with no black in tail may be absolutely 

 worthless. 



The great essential in breeding self-coloured 

 buffs, is freedom from any " meal " in the buff, or 

 white anywhere in the plumage so far as growing 

 stock is concerned (there may be some come in 

 good old birds, as indicated by Mr. Procter 

 above), and good buff under-colour. The latter 

 means that the fluff at the base of the feather 

 is to be buff, not white, or " buff to the skin," as 

 it is termed, and the shaft of the feather also 

 buff, not white. The web of the feather and 

 surface of the bird may be buff, but if the under- 

 colour be white or nearly so, good chickens will 

 be very few. Many birds in any new strain 

 may be very pale buff in the under-fluff at first, 

 almost white ; but as selection proceeds darker 

 and darker should be chosen, until fairly rich 

 colour is obtained. After that the breeder will 

 have less trouble. 



Mealiness in colour does not mean mottling, 

 as when feathers bleach in the sun ; it means a 

 most minute speckle of white among the buff, 

 like specks of flour, so fine as almost to need a 

 magnifying glass to see it, and leaving the bird 

 apparently quite a nice even buff, looked at 

 carelessly. Such a bird will never breed good- 

 coloured stock ; but it is just such as are most 

 generally free from black in tail, and often get 

 chosen on that account ; while on the other hand 

 a cockerel with black in his tail, of the proper 

 sound colour, and " buff to the skin," may breed 

 most successfully, and be a very valuable bird. 



