Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-10-02
NOTICE COLOR OF
The HENS LEGS
A Help in Picking Out the lay
ers-No High Producer Will
Have Yellow Legs at the End
of the observation-disclosures
Carried on at Orono

Orono, Me, Sept. 90.-(SpeciaD.- The
following was given out today by Charles
d. Woods, director of the Experiment
Station:
For some time past there has been in
progress at the Maine Agricultural Ex-
pertinent Station an investigation of the
cause of the different shank colors OBJ
served in different breeds and different
individuals of the domestic fowl. The re-
suits of this investigation are new in
hand, and a bulletin ON the subject will
shortly be issued. As this bulletin will
be of a rather technical character it is
thought desirable to call attention at this
time to some of the more important, nom
technical and practical features growing
out of this work
1t is well known fact to every poul-
tryman and every visitor to a poultry
show that different breeds of fowls have
Enthusiastically different colors of the
skin. In the United States generally
yellow skinned birds are preferred over
white skinned ones for market purposes
AS consequence of this preference nearly
all of the SO called American breeds such
as, for example, Plymouth Rocks, Wy
andettes, Rhode Island Reds. etc, have
distinct yellow color to the skin. Cor
related with this general yellow skin
color these same breeds of poultry have
characteristic yellow shanks. This color
of the shank is one to Ybich good deal
Of attention IS given both by the judges
in the show room and by the expert poul-
tryman in picking out stock for his pens.
A clear. bright yellow leg is always pre-
ferred in these breeds by the show room
judge.
In the matter of this preference for yell
low skin color in its poultry the United
States stands practically alone. Nearly
all of the European countries prefer a
white skinned bird for table purposes. In
consequence the birds for table uses on
the continent of Europe and in England
belong to breeds characterized by white
skin color, and usually by white shank
color such as. for example, is seen in the
White Orpingtons.
The cause OF the skin color of birds is
really a layer of colored fat which lies
American breed is coored by particular
kind of yellow fatty pigment known as
lipochrome pigment. While the mat
ter has not yet been completely inves-
ttgated it is very probable that the yell
low color of chicken fat which gives the
color to the skin is due to the same pig
ment which gives the yellow color
to the milk of the Jersey or the
Guernsey cow. Recent experiments on
the color of milk in cattle have demon
strated that there this pigment is chem
ically precisely the same as that which
gives the yellow color to the common car
rot. This eoloring matter is known by
the name carotin. In the white skinned
breeds of poultry this yellow pigment is
very nearly. or completely, absent with
the result that while the skin fat is there
just as in the yeliow-skinned breeds il is
not colored. Also probably this same col
oring matter gives the yellow color TO the
yolk of the egg.
This last consideration is one which
calls attention to the practical bearing
of these results on shank color. 1t is a
well established fact. both in cattle and
in poultry, that when the food does not
supply a sufficient amount of this yellow
celoring matter carotin for the product,
whether milk or eggs, the animal then
draws on it's own body fat for the fur
Their supply of this coloring matter. This
results in a bleaching of the body fat of
its yellow color while keeping up the
color of the milk or the eggs, From this
fact it results that the general skin eoler
and particularly the shank color, of d.
hen having naturally yellow shanks is
much bleaehed out after the hen has
been laying heavily, and furthermore the
heavier the laying has been the greater
will be the amount of bleaching observed.
In consequence of this it is possible to
go through flock at the end of a lay