The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1914-04-23
RUFF>FoWLs.

The three solid or self colored types
of domestic fowls are the White.
Black and Buff. | have taken up the
first two in previous articles, and will
devote these few notes to the Buff
breeds, equally popular with the
Blacks, but much less so than the
Whites.
The earliest buff chickens of which
we have any record are the Buff Co
chins. These heavily upholstered
members of the well known Hen Fam
lily were introduced into this country
from China ports by some sea cap
tain who was in the China trade in
the old days Of the Yankee clipper
ships Tradition says that they were
we'll and favorably known in China
and Manchuria for centuries before
and the pair which were brought to
this country were saved from the pot
only by chance The breed achieved
considerable popularity along the New
England coast and would undoubtedly
hold a very commanding position in
the poultry world today were it not
for their friends.
Early in the American history of
the breed certain misguided Cochin
fanciers conceived the idea that IF
clothes make the man feathers make
the chicken and that was the be-
ginning of the end for the unfor-
tunate Buff Cochin. These enthusi-
asts so arranged the standard descrip-
tion of these fowls that il was neces-
sary to produce a tremendous growth
of feathers upon show specimens in
order 10 win prizes, and the result
was that the breed was changed in its
character, the young ones took almost
a year 70 mature to the laying age.
laying ability was very seriously in
terfered with, and the unitarian value
Of the breed for the farmer was en-
tirely destroyed
From this original buff breed came
great many Of the valuable Bluffs
that we now have, however, so they
have been of some service to the poul-
try keeping public 1t is an undoubted
fact that Cochin blood was used in the
development of some strains of Buff
| Wyandottes, Plymouth Rocks, Or
pingtons, Games, Leghorns, and even
the Rhode Island Red contains its
quota of Cochin blood. The cham
pions of many of these breeds will in
| dignantly deny this imputation, but it
can and has been proved in the case
of each of the buff breeds named, and
really it is nothing to be ashamed Of
Buff, as understood by the poultry
man, is a solid old gold tone, which
is to be aimed at but never quite
| reached. In reality most buff chickens
are a wonderfully discouraging mix
ture of lemon, orange, red, black and
white, these colors being so tangled
up that the breeder despairs of ever
getting them Strengthened out. The
red shows on the shoulders and the
hackle and saddle. The white comes
in the wing and tail feathers, and it is
sometimes so bad that there is no
hope of dyeing 1t or biting the white
spots out so that the judge cannot de,
tect It. The black comes in the wings
most frequently, and its removal is
often so impossible that the breeders
have TO arrange their standard de-
scription to make black fight feathers
legal and desirable, in order to avoid
having all of the birds disqualified.
Owing to that old Cochin blood the
breeder of buff fowls has a fine time
preventing his smooth legged breed
from growing feathers on the legs.
The Cochin has as many feathers on
his legs and feet as a pigeon has in
his wings, and they keep cropping out
in any breed that possesses Cochin
progenitors. Another thing that both
ers the buff fanciers is the vulture
hook Of the Cochin. At the hook or
knee joint will appear a bunch of long
stiff feathers that is not accepted in
polite chicken society, and this is one
of the things that makes the buff
breeders of today curse the memories
of the man who first thought of using
Buff Cochins to make Buff Wyan-
dottes.