THE ORPINGTONS 



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greater force to the large prototype, the Exhibition 

 Game. The decadence of the latter as a popular show 

 fowl has been a source of regret to many old line fan- 

 ciers, who bred this aristocrat of featherdom for pure love 

 of the Game fowl." 



Exhibition Games cannot be raised in close quarters 

 and without proper care and environments. They can be 

 raised in the mountains of New York and New England, 

 if allowed the freedom of range their nature demands, 

 and their coastitution is dependent on. To obtain the 

 hard feather, the muscle and bone that make the Game 

 fowl the athlete of all fowl, requires open air culture and 

 the simple life. This means hardiness and splendid 

 physical condition, which no artificial methods have been 

 able to supplant. In fact, if you wish to raise superior 

 Games and Game Bantams, the latter may not be the only 

 way, but it certainly is the easiest way. 



This reminds us of a little experience we had in 1888, 

 the year the Newburg, N. Y. show was held. We had a 

 pen of Golden Spangled Hamburgs on exhibition, which 

 by their fine condition attracted the attention of Sherman 

 Hartwell, a veteran breeder of Partridge Cochins from 

 the Nutmeg State. Mr. Hartwell asked us how we got 

 these birds in such fine shape and we informed him that 

 they were farm raised, well fed and had never been in- 

 doors since they were old enough to roost in the trees 

 of an apple orchard, and we picked out the pen by lan- 

 tern light from the flock that roosted in an open shed 

 after they had been taken from the trees in November. 

 "Well," remarked Deacon Hartwell, "that's about the 

 way I condition my Partridge Cochins, but of course they 

 can't fly high enough to roost in trees, so they take to 

 the nearest fence." 



It is needless to say that while such methods were 

 productive of good results 20 or more years ago, they would 

 not do in this age, when every bird must be prepared 

 weeks before a show to get a place in the awards. The 

 principle was correct as far as health, vigor and stamina 

 was concerned, but the finishing touches had to be put on 

 under cover where rain and sun could not afifect the new 

 plumage. The latter is especially important in the pre- 

 paration of buflf fowl for the show. To pioduce a buff 

 bird in "silk attire" requires very careful handling. Suc- 

 cessful breeders of buff varieties of poultry are very care- 

 ful in providing the proper quarters for their growing 

 young stock and the moulting old ones, especially in the 

 fall of the year when the new feathers begin to push 

 forth from the old ones. Shade from the sun and shelter 

 from the rain are the two important factors in the ulti- 

 mate .success of producing rich golden buff plumage. One 

 very successful breeder of Buff Cochin Bantams keeps 

 his young and old stock under cover from the time the 

 new plumage starts until it is fully grown. Breeding 

 Cochin Bantams, he naturally keeps them in a small area, 

 to retard any growth, toward legginess and to increase the 

 length and retain any volume of the foot feathering. The 

 same rule will apply to Buff, White, Black and Partridge 

 Cochins. 



With Brahmas we believe Old Dame Nature is the 

 best "conditioner." Give the Light Brahma the range, 

 the exercise, and the same sound grain, breeders of Ply- 

 mouth Rocks, Wyandottes and Rhode Island Reds give 

 their fowls, and you will have Brahmas that are correct 

 in type and second to none in egg production and market 

 properties. The Brahma is not a Cochin, consequently 

 does not require a restricted range and close confinement 

 to grow a huge bunch of feathers on body, fluff and legs 

 and toes. Like the American varieties, they will require 



mixed entirely with it. Given this continually, the birds 

 that are intended for show will quickly come to hand 

 and be in prime condition when they are wanted. The 

 other items of dietary should be quite as usual. Spe- 

 cial dieting and extra feeding are quite unnec- 

 essary and indeed undesirable because show fowls thrive 

 far better when treated like ordinary beings, and it is my 

 experience that the more one fusses about one's best 

 birds, the worse they fare and the less keen become their 

 appetites. They must be kept clean, however, and every- 

 thing around them must be clean and neat. Time spent 

 attending to these matters is time well spent. Vessels in 

 which milk has been placed require special attention as 

 milk is apt to coagulate in the bottom, the efifects of which 

 are far from salutary." 



The above advice is sound and, if followed, good re- 

 sults are bound to follow. Milk is not fed as extensively 

 to chickens in the United States as in England and Can- 

 ada except in a few localities near Philadelphia and 

 Washington where milk fed chickens for market are 

 largely and profitably produced. But there are a few 

 fanciers who fully realize the great value 6f milk, and one 

 in particular, George W. Mitchell, uses a liberal supply 

 to grow his famous Partridge Cochins, while his man- 

 ager, Adolph Anderson, has produced the largest and 

 finest White Cochins in the country by using the milk 

 diet liberally. Mr. McNeil of Canada is another believer 

 in milk as food, and where length of feather is desired, 

 the lacteal fluid is superior to all other foods. Years ago, 

 when engaged in dairy farming, we used considerable 

 milk for the young chickens giving it to them from the 

 start, but we diluted it with one half boiling water, which 

 we found kept the milk in better condition in warm 

 weather. 



Grain Foods 



There are prepared grain foods on the market that 

 are excellent for conditioning fowls in confinement, but 

 our advice to the purchasers is: Be sure to buy the best 

 regardless of the price. Grain is high, that is sound 

 sweet wheat, barley, oats or corn, and no such thing as a 

 "cheap ration" should be considered. 



As to Games and Game Bantams, we will say that the 

 best way to condition such birds is to provide unlimited 

 range, in the woods if possible, feed them a giound oats, 

 barley and dry bran mash, using one-third by weight of 

 each, with sound wheat and Canadian flint corn as a 

 scratching food. 



Dan Clayton, the most successful breeder of Brown 

 Red Game Bantams in England is a great believer in the 

 value of Canadian corn as a food for his Bantams. His 

 birds are raised in movable coops on grassy plots and 

 have unlimited range. The corn seems to put them in 

 prime condition, bringing out the. luster of the plumage 

 in a remarkable degree. 



Pigeon fanciers are well aware of the value of this 

 yellow corn, and chicken fanciers would be if they rea- 

 lized its value as a conditioning food. The high price, 

 however, has acted as a barrier to its more extensive use. 

 Canadian flint corn is the small variety of maize known 

 in the United States as Dutton corn. It is a very hard 

 grain when old, and the harder the grain, the better the 

 result will be. It keeps the chickens busy grinding it, and 

 this has a beneficial influence on the health of the birds. 

 Birds fed and reared in such a way need no condition 

 powders to stimulate their appetites or improve their 

 condition. Although the above comments were written 

 with the Game Bantam in view, they will apply with even 



