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The Cockerel Buying Habit
Title
The Cockerel Buying Habit
Creator
Date
Synopsis
This describes a conversation between a poultry farmer and an unnamed narrator about the state of a flock, some suspicious genetic variations, and the possible source: a young male chicken purchased from a "so and so a few years back."
Publisher
Farm-Poultry Publishing Company. Boston, Massachusetts
Subject
Excerpt
"...All hens in a flock look pretty much alike at first glance, and it is hard to pick out individual characteristics. But I had to say something.
'Perhaps you mean they vary somewhat in size. You have some very white birds.'
'I mean they're all sorts and kinds. I've got some very white birds, and I've got some not so white. I've got some big ones, and I've got some all fired runts. The fact is they come every which way. I haven't anything like a strain.'
As I looked I became convinced that there was something to what he said.
He sat down on his heels and pointed with his pipe stem. 'There that one facing this way--tail to tail with that other one--she's eating now.'
'Yes, I see her.'
'Well, she's what I call a pretty middling fair bird--good full breast, and nice spread of tail. There may be a couple of others something like her in the flock--not exactly like--not on your life--but something like. I know where they come from. I know them as much as anything by a certain defect they all have--a hollow comb--worse in the males than in the females, of course--or more noticeable. They keep showing up since I bought a cockerel of So and so a few years back.'"
page 54
'Perhaps you mean they vary somewhat in size. You have some very white birds.'
'I mean they're all sorts and kinds. I've got some very white birds, and I've got some not so white. I've got some big ones, and I've got some all fired runts. The fact is they come every which way. I haven't anything like a strain.'
As I looked I became convinced that there was something to what he said.
He sat down on his heels and pointed with his pipe stem. 'There that one facing this way--tail to tail with that other one--she's eating now.'
'Yes, I see her.'
'Well, she's what I call a pretty middling fair bird--good full breast, and nice spread of tail. There may be a couple of others something like her in the flock--not exactly like--not on your life--but something like. I know where they come from. I know them as much as anything by a certain defect they all have--a hollow comb--worse in the males than in the females, of course--or more noticeable. They keep showing up since I bought a cockerel of So and so a few years back.'"
page 54
Contributor
John Henry Robinson, Editor
Relation
Farm-Poultry, Volume 15, Number 3, page 54
File(s)
The Cockerel Buying Habit Cover.jpg
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The Cockerel Buying Habit.jpg
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