BREEDING PILE BANTAMS. 



S13 



is found in practice that the colour " breeds 

 out " after some five or six seasons, and it is 

 necessary to resort to Black-red blood after a 

 time. The exhibition standard is met in 

 cockerels by a top-colour identical with that of 

 the best coloured exhibition Black-red cock- 

 erels. Some judges prefer a deep claret back 

 and saddle shading down to a golden orange ; 

 but I much prefer the former. The breast and 

 bays are two very important features in the 

 cockerels. There should be no lacing, or tick- 

 ing, or smokiness in the former ; whilst the 

 bays should run right through the secondaries 

 to the end, leaving no white or paleness, but 

 one deep, rich chestnut. The eye should be 

 kept as bright a red as possible — a more diffi- 

 cult task than in Black-reds. The pullets re- 

 quire to be free from foxiness on the wing, but, 

 at the same time, the breast should be a rich 

 salmon, and to get the two points in conjunc- 

 tion tries the utmost resources of the breeder. 

 With the deep breast, as a rule, you get more or 

 less rosmess or foxiness on wings, and with ? 

 paler breast you are more likely to secure clear 

 colour on wing. Still, in these days of keen 

 competition, a high-class bird, to be successful 

 at our best shows, must excel in both points, 

 and they can be obtained by patience and 

 careful mating of pure pullet strains. Legs 

 other than a rich orange are a most serious 

 blemish. Years ago willow-legged Piles were 

 successful in the prize lists, but those days are 

 over, however good the bird may be in all 

 other points. A rich deep orange leg is some- 

 what difficult to obtain, especially in certain 

 parts of the country. x\fter repeated experi- 

 ments, I have fully satisfied myself that the 

 maintenance of rich leg colour, when once 

 obtained in a chick, is dependent in no small 

 measure on the nature of the soil. Clay, good 

 loam, and sand arc helpful ; limestone seems to 

 fade and bleach the colouring matter consider- 

 ably. A good, rich leg colour is indicative of a 

 recent cross of Black-red blood, and when leg 

 colouring begins to fail in any young chicks it 

 is a sure proof that a cross is required. 



Now let us see what can be bred respectively 

 from the pure Piles, and also by a cross. In 

 pure Pile breeding — i.e. where both parents are 

 Piles — I will take cockerel produc- 

 tion first. Your male bird must be 

 A I, of the bright orange top-colour 

 type. He will have some weakness, 

 no doubt, but, above and beyond all else, do 

 not let it be weakness of bays, or wing-ends, as 

 they are sometimes termed. If these are faulty, 

 pale in colour, and not carried one sound, rich 

 chestnut from wing-bar to end of wing, you 



Breeding 



Pile 



Bantams. 



will never breed a good one ; and, indeed, the 

 bird may be considered almost a waster, both 

 for exhibition and stock purposes, as he will 

 not do for pullet-breeding either. Have no 

 lacing or smokiness on breast or wing-bar if 

 you can possibly avoid it, and if the eye is a 

 bright ruby red, all the better. Now with this 

 bird you want three or four tall, stylish pullets, 

 short in back, good in limb, fine in tail, and 

 with shoulder points well forward. If rosed 

 on the wing all the better. Such a pen will 

 give you plenty of rosy-winged, cockerel- 

 breeding pullets, and rich, sound coloured, 

 smart, reachy cockerels. Take every care of 

 these pullets, as they are invaluable for 

 cockerel-breeding, mated back to their sire. 



In pullet-breeding the great difficulty will 

 be to find the pullets. Rich, deep breast we 

 want, but above all clear wings, not wings that 

 have had a few rosy feathers faked out of them 

 for exhibition purposes — a trick practised by 

 some, but easy of detection. The cock must be 

 sound upon wing ends. Insistence upon this is 

 as necessary as in cockerel breeding. Top 

 colour is preferred quite uniform, of the dark 

 type, a brick-red colour. Naturally the cock- 

 erels will be too light in colour for exhibition, 

 but if pure in their white, and above all pure in 

 their bays, they should be reserved for another 

 season's breeding. 



We next turn to Black-red-crossed Piles. 

 For the cockerel pen secure a really sound 

 coloured Black-red cockerel, tall and good in 

 shape, and as perfect in colour as possible. See 

 that he is sound in his black both on breast, 

 bars, and fluff ; he must show no trace of lacing 

 whatever. Mate him to two or three lemon 

 Piles, fairly clear on wing, seeing that they 

 excel in shape and reach — this is most im- 

 portant — and have rich, deep orange-yellow 

 legs. The cockerels will come yellow-legged, 

 but three or four out of every half-dozen of the 

 pullets will be willow-legged. The latter are 

 generally the clearest in body colour and the 

 hardest feathered, and more stylish than the 

 orange-legged ones ; but having dark legs are 

 almost useless in the exhibition-pen. If judici- 

 ously mated to pure Pile pullet-breeding blood, 

 they will often produce good coloured pullets. 

 Some of the cockerels will be yellow-legged 

 Black-reds. If sound in wing-bars and wing- 

 butts, with a good, rather light, even top- 

 colour throughout, such a one will, even though 

 he be a bit laced on 'breast, tend to correct 

 washiness in breasts of pullets. 



But every one has not the space available 

 for double mating. In this case a single pen 

 can be made to answer ver}' well. The Pile 



