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    The Illustrated Guide to Chickens: How To Choose Them - How To Keep Them
    The Illustrated Guide to Chickens: How To Choose Them - How To Keep Them
    The Illustrated Guide to Chickens: How To Choose Them - How To Keep Them
    Ebook360 pages1 hour

    The Illustrated Guide to Chickens: How To Choose Them - How To Keep Them

    By Celia Lewis

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    About this ebook

    The Illustrated Guide to Chickens covers the 100 most familiar breeds of
    chickens in Europe and North America. The breed profiles are written in engaging text that covers the history
    of each breed, its main
    characteristics, and information about looking after them. Each
    breed has been illustrated with delightful paintings by the author.

    Introductory
    sections contain practical advice about poultry-rearing and husbandry,
    and outline the differences between breeds, including the pros and cons
    between pure breeds, hybrids, bantams, game fowl, etc., and layers or
    table. The foreword has been written by HRH the Prince of Wales.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateJan 31, 2013
    ISBN9781408169988
    The Illustrated Guide to Chickens: How To Choose Them - How To Keep Them
    Author

    Celia Lewis

    Celia Lewis is an accomplished artist and the author of the bestselling Illustrated Guide to Chickens, Illustrated Guide to Pigs and Illustrated Guide to Ducks and Geese and Other Domestic Fowl as well as the wonderful An Illustrated Country Year. Celia started her art career studying life and portrait charcoal drawing with Signorina Simi in Florence. She is now a member of a dynamic art group and several art societies in Surrey where she lives. She has won several prizes including the 2005 Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour (RI) medal and Royal Watercolour Society (RWS) Winsor & Newton Prize 2009. Living in the country Celia is lucky enough to be able to keep hens and pigs in her garden and, along with nearby cows and sheep, this is where she finds her inspiration. Although working mainly in watercolour she has now branched out into acrylics.

    Read more from Celia Lewis

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    • 5/5
      Even if you have no plans to keep chickens, the lovely watercolor illustrations on every page will bring delighted enjoyment of this little book. If you do plan to keep a backyard flock, then you will find good information here, including temperament and nature so that you can decide which variety is right for you. The book is small; about 61/2 inches by 8 inches and has a sturdy soft cover so it's easy to pick up and lose yourself in the interesting world of domestic chickens.

    Book preview

    The Illustrated Guide to Chickens - Celia Lewis

    Cocks or cockerels

    Blue laced Wyandotte cock

    You do not need a cock (known as a cockerel until his first moult) for your hens to lay eggs; this they will do anyway, but without one they will not be fertile.

    There are definite pros and cons to keeping a cock. On the pro side you will be able to hatch chicks, he will look magnificent and to an extent he will protect his flock from predators, or at least be the first line of defence. He will also be charming to the hens, calling them over when he finds some food – he has an ulterior motive, of course, but the hens always respond. On the con side he will crow. He will crow frequently during the day and start before dawn – various bantam cocks even crow in the middle of the night. To some this will be a delightful sound of the country but to others it will be an unpleasant nuisance, so this should be an important consideration. You can keep him quieter by making sure he stays in a dark henhouse until a reasonable hour; he will also find it difficult to crow if he can’t lift up his head, so a high perch or cramped conditions may keep him quiet to an extent.

    Another con is that if you only have three or four hens his favourite one may suffer from his attentions and develop a bare back and neck – if you are wanting to show your birds you can acquire a ‘saddle’, which is a sort of light cover that fits on the hen’s back. A cock can service at least ten hens so keeping six or more should spread his attentions.

    Game cock

    Finally, he may very well be aggressive. He will certainly be aggressive towards another cockerel but he may also find you a threat and take, literally, to attacking the hand that feeds him. Plenty of cocks are perfectly friendly, particularly the larger breeds, and even gamefowl tend only to be aggressive towards their own kind.

    Don’t forget he will be another mouth to feed with no return – unless you are considering coq au vin.

    Parts of a chicken

    Combs

    The comb is the red fleshy growth on the top of a chicken’s head and is usually larger in the cockerel. It is one of the distinguishing features of each breed and comes in many varieties. Chickens cannot sweat and so blood pumping through the exposed comb and wattles naturally cools the rest of the body. It is also a useful signal of the overall health of the bird and in the hen indicates whether or not she is in lay.

    In lay

    Not in lay

    Single: the most common type of comb. Single combs come in many sizes, may be upright or flop to one or both sides and are usually larger in the cockerel. There may be different numbers of serrations or spikes.

    Single

    Twisted single

    Single to one side

    Rose comb

    Rose: the second most common type found. Rose combs cover the top of the head like a flat cap with a tapering spike at the back and are covered in small round knobbles. The spike may follow the line of the neck, be horizontal or turn up at the

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