By: Elly Vogelaar. Photos: Aviculture Europe

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1 By: Elly Vogelaar Photos: Aviculture Europe Ostara, goddess of Spring, must have had pity on the closed-in poultry on Mainland Europe, as she arrived later than ever this year! But look how soon she made up for arrears! In the first week of May there was an abundance of green all over, complete with the fragile pinks and whites of the various fruit trees, the Laburnum sparkling in the sunshine and at the white house of the Maas Family in Ossendrecht, overwhelmed with clouds of purple and white Lilacs forming the background of our long lost picture.. free ranging Barnacle geese in the green meadow. Jac and Margriet Maas Now poultry (meaning: Chicken, Geese, Ducks, Turkey, Pheasant, and so on) finally is allowed to free range again, it sure is a great relieve to all of us poultry lovers. No wonder our visit was in a really cheerful mood. You could tell by the looks on their faces how happy and proud Jac and his wife Margriet were, showing us around the place; above all things happy that the Leghorns survived the total prohibition of free range (due to bird flu threat) rather well. It was not too bad for the ducks and geese; they could stay in their familiar places, although everything had to be

2 covered up. That was giving many troubles though! Now they tell us about it with a smile, but they certainly will not have laughed at the time, when they had to clear the tarpaulins from the snow several nights to prevent the whole construction from coming down. What else can you do, when you see at 2:00 in the middle of the night that there is already a heap of snow, and you have not a clue if it will go on snowing all night long? The Leghorns however, had to stay put in their poultry houses for all those time and missed the free range, the sunshine and the sand baths, but now they act like they have forgotten completely already! They are laying well again, with good fertilisation, and Jac and Margriet have their hopes high on the coming season. The first pedigree-poultry arrived here in It was Jac s idea to have some true-bred chickens; he remembered the black Minorca at his granddad s when he was a little boy and started searching for the breed. But he did not like what he found and after some thinking and comparing he decided to go for the black Leghorn, and after all those years they still are around! The Leghorn Dutch type Most people will know that a Leghorn is a chicken, but they probably don t know that Leghorn is the English name of the Italian town of Livorno, a seaport town from where long time ago these chickens were transported to England and America. By that time the breed had no name, it was just another Italian breed, and so it was simply named after the seaport town. To me, the Leghorn is the most legendary chicken breed and one of the few breeds that now-a-days still exists commercially apart from the poultry fancy; the major part of the hybrids has direct blood strains with the Leghorn. As a matter of fact, this original Italian breed with its incredibly laying capacity brought about the development of the large-scale poultry and eggs industry; first in America on very large poultry-farms. After 1950 the Leghorn s place was more and more taken by Leghornhybrids. Fortunately the Leghorn as a pure breed survived with the fanciers, which used all their skill, care and love to create it into a beautiful fancy breed. In England they crossed with the Spanish (with the large white face) and Minorca, in this way making a heavier bird with very large comb and wattles, large body, long legs and simple

3 tail. The Americans crossed i.e. with Sumatra and Phoenix, creating the American Leghorn: a strong but fine boned chicken, whose comb is not too big and with an abundant tail. The Leghorn in mainland Europe is somewhat in between those two, concerning weight, size, comb & wattles and tail. Originally the Leghorn was a small chicken; that is what made the breed so special, because these tiny chickens laid large eggs! Being a utility chicken, the smallness was a welcome breed character; a properly raised little Leghorn hen weighed 2 kg., ate only 38 to 40 kg. feed par year and produced 13 to 15 kg. eggs; this one can read in the American 'The National Geographic Magazine' from April That s some 250 eggs of 60 grams! Above: Two black Leghorn cocks (born in 2005) When about 1915 the qualities of the Dutch Leghorns began to faint, several poultry farmers started a plea not to breed too large Leghorns. Especially the large combs and wattles as these were blamed for all kinds of problems. In the Dutch magazine Avicultura from April 1920, Van Gink was writing: This breed is hardly a Leghorn any more; it has the blood of the Malay and the Spanish, which is reprehensible and the breed is already loosing its value for the poultry industry. The winter-lay is becoming less and less. The large, heavy hens have become great eaters, the lay only starts at 6,5 to 7 months and the enormous size does not seem to preserve them from egg bound, which so often causes an untimely death. The cocks often demands special care in order to enable them to do what they have to do and weakness of the legs is a never ending source of misery. The large combs and wattles seem to draw strength from the body, apparently demanding too much strength for their own. All kinds of failures seem to originate from this, making disappointment in the breeding and bad fertilisation of the eggs quite the usual thing

4 But you can rest at ease; the now-a-days Dutch Leghorn is once again a chicken with every part in acceptable proportion, strong and proud, a superb chicken for the fancier and a real beauty in the exhibition pen. Above: Silver duckwing cock and hen, 2 duckwing hens and a black one. A quality Leghorn is a graceful bird that has length and dept in body, with a good round deep front and tail not carried too high. Face, wattles and comb are bright red. The single comb is rather big; the hen s comb hangs over to one side. The eyes are orange-red and the earlobes should be opaque white or cream. The beak is yellow or horn. Legs and feet are yellow. They are recognised in both single comb and rose comb variety. Originally both a utility and exhibition breed; a breed being able to lay an abundance of eggs and is beautiful as well. All members of the Leghorn family are very attractive with charming colours, such as black, white, cuckoo (striped), red, buff, blue, duckwing (gold, silver, yellow, brown), pile, exchequer and more. They are easy to breed true to colour and type. Right: Margriet with one of the black Leghorn cocks

5 Jac on his Leghorn The Leghorn still is Jac s favourite after all these years, and especially the black Leghorn. The past years he had Leghorn in various colours, such as red, buff, duckwing, silver duckwing, pile, cuckoo may be he forgot to mention some. As for character they don t differ too much, he says, although the barredduckwings were really tame. At the moment there are also some other colours around; duckwing and silver duckwing, but those are not really how he wants them to be, and cuckoo (in Holland called: striped) which are rather susceptible to Marek disease, so he will not breed from them anymore. Due to the threat of the bird flu and compulsory keeping undercover, he had to dispose of many chickens. You simply cannot put more than one cock in the pen if they are closed in all day. If they can free range and have enough territory, they will not get in each other s way. Leghorn cocks are rather combative; it is almost impossible to put some together just like that. The same holds for the cocks that return from the exhibition; they cannot return to the pen where they brotherly lived together till some days before. Domestic remedies like putting them back at night in the dark, or sprinkle them with perfume, onion or garlic juice, forget it, it simply does not work on Leghorn! So after this year s last show, with the coming Total prohibition of free range, there was no other option than to slaughter a number of fine quality cockerels right after the show. To my surprise, Jac keeps a reasonable number of old birds, and when I say old I mean real old! Above: Old black hen from 1999, that becomes the looks of a cock. She does not lay eggs anymore. Right: Old cocks often get knobby earlobes. This old male also has some white in the tail feathers; good for offspring with a green shine and yellow legs. Jac explains that he still has the same blood lines from This is something that many fanciers do wrong, he says, you must be aware of your old birds that win and preserve their qualities. Practice in-breeding in the proper way, then you retain only the right qualities. Over the years he has had some new stock, mostly from Germany, but he always kept the lines apart on breeding. At the moment his black breeding pen consists of one cock and 6 hens, all 4 years old. 79 Eggs were put in the incubator; 7 were unfertile and 72 chicks

6 hatched the other day! They aren t completely black all over, that would not be right, says Jac, for then they won t get that green shine, so he knows from experience. Left: Leghorn Cock, Silver duckwing Some tips on breeding the black variety: to breed bright green shining black plumage and best pullets with good yellow leg colour: see a cockerel with sickles white at the base and the under colour next the skin on the back too. Mate him to sound coloured pullets with good yellow legs. The other cockerel which has not a trace of white in feather one refers to as a cockerel-breeder. He may breed good cockerels but darkish legs may appear in his daughters. But first grade your pullets severely for size and type before they are out into the breeding pen. (And may be even on laying-capacity!) In the end there will be only some 15 to 20 chicks left from the 72 newly hatched. Probably half of them will be cocks and they will end in the kitchen one day. About 15 weeks old he makes the final selection; according to Jac they will not be completely moulted then, but one can be assured that qualities that are not there at the time will never be. Right: Jac with one of his black cocks Food and care The chickens are fed with granules from Kaspar Fauna Food, (a Dutch brand) with an additive of broken corn and some linseed. The chickens get chicken meal from Versele Laga, a Belgian brand, because according to Jac, such a fine quality chicken meal is not available in Holland. The first days after hatching the chickens only get a mixture of self-ground grain and oats. The first feed must not be too fat, says Jac, that helps providing problems with defecation, especially poop that sticks to their bottoms. It is also a good thing to give lukewarm water with a bit of dextrose. When the chickens are about 4 weeks old, he regularly hangs a bunch of nettles in the pen; a healthy treat, that gives a lot of activity. Jac is also

7 a supporter of mixing some apple cider vinegar through the drinking water; 1 spoonful on a bucket. Left: Black, cuckoo and duckwing Leghorns Combs can get damaged by frost, he warns, but mostly due to a too damp climate in the pen. Make sure there is enough ventilation, especially in winter! Protecting the wattles from freezing is more difficult. Leghorn have long wattles and while drinking the wattles will hang in the water. Keeping the drinkers as full as possible will help, so they don t have to bend over to much while drinking. There are no problems with lice; the Leghorn is a hard-feathered breed which is not often troubled with lice. Hanging a bunch of fern in the pen will help, same as tobacco stems or - a customary around here, with the Cigarette factory of Philip Morris nearby tobacco dust..just mix some with the (nestbox) litter, works perfect! Controlling red mites is difficult; according to Jac hardly any effective insecticide is for sale in Holland. He advises to go shopping in Germany or Belgium for those specific remedies. Please read on in Part 2. Copyright 2006 Aviculture-Europe. All rights reserved by VBC