BREEDING ANDALUSIANS. 



409 



picture of health ; that is, if fully matured and 

 in full plumage. 



" Proper mating is a very important ques- 

 tion : to be able to put two and two together 

 to produce our ideal specimen. Perhaps my 



experience may be of some use to 

 Breeding the readers of this book. There are 



Andaiusians. two ways in which the Andalusian 



can be successfully mated. Select 

 in the first place a tall, dark blue cockerel with 

 jet black hackles, black saddle, and sickles very 

 heavily laced, and put him with liglit blue, 

 evenly shaded hens, two years old. The hens 

 should, of course, have good head points, and be 

 well laced. From such a pen, if the whole pen 

 be the same strain (this is important), good 

 exhibition birds may be expected. 



" A second way to mate up is to take a 

 good, tall, light blue, two year old cock, well 

 laced ; then select five or six pullets twelve 

 months old, of the very dark shade of blue, well 

 and heavily laced, and good head points of 

 course. From this second mating also, really 

 good show birds will be produced, provided, as I 

 said before, the strain is the same. Of course, 

 the cock bird must not be too nearly related to 

 the hens, but a distant relative. The greatest 

 mistake young or amateur fanciers make is to 

 use cocks or cockerels unrelated. The first 

 cross is always disappointing in this or any 

 other coloured breed. What I have written I 

 practise. For example, I am just going in for 

 White Leghorns. I purchased a two year old 

 cock, one 1 liked much, so as to get the strain. 

 I also purchased at a big figure his daughter, 

 with three others, probably half cousins, and I 

 shall breed from above pen just as mentioned, 

 and confidently expect good results. Returning 

 to our text on Andaiusians, as a rule their eggs 

 are very fertile, and the chicks hatch out strong. 

 They are easy to rear and grow very fast ; 

 often the cocks are crowing at four months 

 of age. 



" There is one drawback to the breeding 

 of Andaiusians. The chickens come three 

 colours : blue, black, and white. To-day we 

 get upon an average from 70 to 75 per 

 cent, of blues. The question is often asked, 

 ' Can all blues be bred .' ' I answer this 



question by saying, Yes, but not to 

 Question advantage, for we cannot very well 



Off-colours. spare either the black or the white 



chicks. We want the white in the 

 breed to keep our ground colour clear ; and the 

 black for our grand black hackles and saddles. 

 So I for one am perfectly content to allow them 

 to remain. There is always a ready sale for 

 them to the egg producer ; and comparing 



them with other fowls, I am of opinion that 

 out of 50 Andalusian eggs set, as many show 

 specimens can be bred as from most other 

 coloured breeds." 



Very little indeed can be added to these 

 notes. It snould be remarked that the almond- 

 shaped ear-lobes are desired narrower than in 

 Minorcas, and it is to be hoped that the 

 distinction will be preserved : the special 

 alertness of the fowl is really bound up with 

 this and a moderate comb, and all real dis- 

 tinctive characters in a breed should be watched 

 over. The texture of the comb should also be 

 finer and smoother than in the Minorca, and the 

 edge of it thinner : it and the lobe must be 

 cared for as in the preceding varieties, but if the 

 lobe is not too large it will need little bleaching. 

 And there will then also be little trouble from 

 white in face. The thinness of comb and 

 wattles compared with those of Minorcas makes 

 the bird a little more subject to frost-bite in 

 winter : if this should occur, and has not been 

 remedied quickly, the bird should be dubbed at 

 once, or it will suffer much and be no use for 

 breeding. 



The chickens are very hardy, but differ 

 much in fledging ; some feathering quickly, 

 others very slowly. Their precocity has been 

 already remarked upon. Black and white ones 

 can be weeded out almost at once : two or three 

 months later birds absolutely too light, or dark 

 and smoky, can be selected, and a little later, 

 those with bad combs. Many writers, as hinted 

 already, have supposed that mis-colour comes 

 from crossing with black, and that by long 

 breeding together only blues, blue alone will be 

 achieved. As already pointed out, this can 

 never be the case. 



The Andalusian stands very high as a utility 

 fowl. In number of eggs it ranks as high as 

 any of the family to which it belongs ; and when 

 not bred to excess in comb or lobes, it will yield 

 its eggs on wide range, or under exposure, 

 where the Minorca fails in comparison. In con- 

 finement also it keeps up its character m this 

 respect ; many years ago, being applied to for 

 fowls to stock quite a small run at a children's 

 hospital, to supply the little patients with 

 eggs, after some thought we decided upon 

 Andaiusians ; and for the few years during 

 which we could watch the results and see to the 

 renewal of birds at the proper dates, they kept 

 up their character as most reliable layers. 

 These did not take to feather-eating, though 

 closely confined ; but we knew others which did, 

 and this point is perhaps the most doubtful 

 about them as regards confined runs. In flesh 

 they are the best of the Mediterranean family. 



