THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



one pen — e.g. the Crystal Palace Show of 1900, 

 where the ist prize Black-red cockerel and ist 

 prize pullet of Mr. Hugo Ainscough were from 

 the same (pullet-breeding) pen. Such a mating 

 is not a wise proceeding, and this is strongly 

 borne out in the fact that the nice soft even 

 shade of colour so much in evidence fifteen to 

 twenty years ago has been lost, and nine out of 

 every ten breeders of Black-red Game Ban- 

 tams will tell you the same. We have certainly 

 brightened the colour in cockerels, but at the 

 expense of the loss of that beautiful soft shade 

 in pullets. 



The cockerel pen should contain as bright- 

 coloured a male, cockerel preferred, as it is 

 possible to command, with all exhibition points 

 of shape and style, and especially neither duck- 

 footed nor slip-winged, the latter being a rather 

 common weakness. Place with him three tall 

 reachy pullets or hens, extra stylish if pos- 

 sible, pullets preferred, prominent in shoulders 

 and light in hackle to the crown of the head. 

 Those foxy-coloured on wings, and a nice 

 golden edge round the feathers of back and 

 wings, are to be preferred. Some breeders 

 use Wheatens to secure bright top-colour, 

 which acts satisfactorily. Only, let the breeder 

 beware that he never by any chance lets the 

 produce get mixed up with that of the pullet- 

 breeding pen, or there will be ruin, which 

 years of care will hardly suffice to eradicate. 

 If the chicks have to run together, see that 

 they are marked from the first with dye, and 

 afterwards, when old enough, rung. Person- 

 ally, I prefer to use Black-reds only, finding 

 that the produce is quite as satisfactory, and 

 no irremediable result occurs should one or twcj 

 break out of bounds and get mixed. The next 

 year the best pullets from this pen could be 

 mated to the sire, giving the older hens to the 

 most suitable cockerel. In this way you main- 

 tain much more vigour than from mating 

 brother and sister, and are gradually breeding 

 back to the parents on both sides, whilst mak- 

 ing a selection of the best each time from a 

 show point of view. A strain may thus be 

 built up and carried on for years without re- 

 course to new blood. At any time the two 

 lines are crossed the produce will contain 

 exactly half and half of the blood of the 

 original birds, as shown in detail in Chapter 

 VI. Should the vigour of your stock decline 

 from any reason, then it would be well to 

 introduce a dash of fresh blood by going to 

 some breeder who had originally the same 

 strain as you started from. Otherwise you 

 may find yourself at a point of delicacy beyond 

 which it is impossible successfully to go. The 



one great and onl\- drawback to breeding 

 Black-reds is that they are so difficult to rear. 

 The breeding of them as far as the very best 

 goes has fallen to one breeder, who has in-bred 

 so much that it is only with the utmost care that 

 Black-red chicks can be reared. This experi- 

 ence is borne out b\' nearly every breeder of 

 Black-reds. 



The pullet-breeding pen should be put to- 

 gether on quite different lines. Each pullet or 

 hen should be sound in colour, free from the 

 objectionable coarseness on wing, deep in 

 breast colour, and really as perfect types of 

 show birds as it is possible to get. As a mate 

 to these seek out a tall, stylish cockerel, but of 

 a brickish top-colour, and of one even shade 

 throughout from hackle to tail. He should be 

 of a pure pullet strain, otherwise he is no good, 

 and should possess all the requisites of a first- 

 class show bird save colour. Both cockerel and 

 pullets should be short in back, good in neck 

 and limb, fine in tail, with good shoulder 

 points, and a raven black wing-bar in the 

 cockerel, free from any trace of lacing. The 

 breast in cocks may show a little lacing, and 

 such birds arc often a little short in their bays, 

 i.e. the bay does not go quite through to the 

 end of the feather, a good sign if the bird be 

 from true pullet-breeding blood. Do not put 

 more than three or four pullets to an adult, 

 especially earl)- in the season, say February, or 

 clear eggs will probably result. A cockerel may 

 safely be trusted with twice that number. 



Though it is advisable for a young be- 

 ginner, if he can, to have two pens, it is proved 

 by actual experience to be easily possible to 

 breed winners, both cockerels and pullets, from 

 the same pen, though perhaps not so large a 

 percentage as from two different pens. I have 

 done it again and again. ]My plan is to select 

 a cockerel as near to an ideal pullet-breeder 

 as possible, only, in this case, of a brighter 

 top-colour, and mate with him two first-class 

 cockerel-breeding pullets and two good show 

 pullets. Such a pen will yield capital results, 

 and answer the purpose well for those who are 

 cramped for accommodation. 



Piles are treated of next because of their 

 striking appearance, though amateurs will find 

 them more difficult to breed than Black-reds 



or Duckwings. The Piles are also 

 Pile the counterpart of Black-reds, if we 



Bantams. substitute white in the cockerels for 



black in the Black-reds, and a clear 

 white in pullets for the partridge-brown of the 

 Black-red pullets. They can for a certain 

 length of time be bred solely from Piles ; but it 



