 Cock bird | |
| Conservation status | FAO 2007: endangered-maintained [1] :92 |
|---|---|
| Other names | Polish: zielononóżka kuropatwiana |
| Country of origin | Poland |
| Use | conservation only |
| Traits | |
| Weight | |
| Classification | |
| Notes | |
| Green shanks | |
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The Green-legged Partridge is an old breed of chicken indigenous to Poland. It is characterised by the unusual reseda green colour of the shanks. [3] :522 [4]
The Green-legged Partridge was first described by Bronisław Obfidowicz in 1879. [2] In 1894 a flock was shown by Roman Ujejski at the General Provincial Exhibition in Lviv. A breed standard was drawn up by Maurycy Trybulski in 1921, [4] and the breed was officially recognised in 1923. [2] From 1930 it was raised in some 70% of the country. However, egg production was found to be variable, and birds did not adapt well to intensive management. Numbers declined; between 1961 and 1973 its percentage of the national chicken population fell from 11.4% to 1–2%. [4] Conservation efforts began in the 1970s. [4]
Between 1946 and 1954 Laura Kaufman crossed the Green-legged Partridge breed with American Plymouth Rock birds to create the Polbar. The aim was to introduce the barred gene of the Plymouth Rock to make chicks auto-sexing – female Polbar chicks can be distinguished from males at one day old by the longer black eye-stripe. [2] [5]
There are two strains of the Green-legged Partridge, each with one flock; both populations are closed. [4] The ZK strain has since 1945 been kept at Felin near Lublin, in the eastern part of the country, by the University of Life Sciences of that city. It is kept for conservation only. At the end of 2014 there were 1170 birds. [2] The Z11 strain was kept at Życzyn from 1972 until 1995, when it was moved to the National Research Institute of Animal Production experimental station in Chorzelów. [4]
The Green-legged Partridge is well adapted to extensive management; it forages well and is resistant to disease. [2] It is not suited to intensive management, and becomes subject to cannibalism, feather loss and feather-pulling if kept closely enclosed. [4] Egg-laying performance is generally poor; [4] the yolk of the eggs has a low cholesterol content compared to that found in other breeds. [2] Both meat and eggs have good flavour. The breed is kept only for reasons of conservation. [2]
Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, their meat or their feathers. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes. The term also includes birds that are killed for their meat, such as the young of pigeons but does not include similar wild birds hunted for sport or food and known as game. The word "poultry" comes from the French/Norman word poule, itself derived from the Latin word pullus, which means small animal.
The chicken, a subspecies of the red junglefowl, is a type of domesticated fowl. Chickens are one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, with a total population of 23.7 billion as of 2018, up from more than 19 billion in 2011. There are more chickens in the world than any other bird. Humans keep chickens primarily as a source of food and, less commonly, as pets. Originally raised for cockfighting or for special ceremonies, chickens were not kept for food until the Hellenistic period.
Debeaking, beak trimming, or beak conditioning is the partial removal of the beak of poultry, especially layer hens and turkeys although it may also be performed on quail and ducks. Most commonly, the beak is shortened permanently, although regrowth can occur. The trimmed lower beak is somewhat longer than the upper beak. A similar but separate practice, usually performed by an avian veterinarian or an experienced birdkeeper, involves clipping, filing or sanding the beaks of captive birds for health purposes – in order to correct or temporarily alleviate overgrowths or deformities and better allow the bird to go about its normal feeding and preening activities. Amongst raptor keepers, this practice is commonly known as "coping".
The red-legged partridge is a gamebird in the pheasant family Phasianidae of the order Galliformes, gallinaceous birds. It is sometimes known as French partridge, to distinguish it from the English or grey partridge. The genus name is from Ancient Greek alektoris a farmyard chicken, and rufa is Latin for red or rufous.
A broiler is any chicken that is bred and raised specifically for meat production. Most commercial broilers reach slaughter weight between four and seven weeks of age, although slower growing breeds reach slaughter weight at approximately 14 weeks of age. Typical broilers have white feathers and yellowish skin. Broiler or sometimes broiler-fryer is also used sometimes to refer specifically to younger chickens under 4.5 pounds, as compared with the larger roasters.
The Cochin is a breed of large domestic chicken. It derives from large feather-legged chickens brought from China to Europe and North America in the 1840s and 1850s. It is reared principally for exhibition. It was formerly known as Cochin-China.
The Pekin Bantam is a British breed of bantam chicken. It derives from birds brought to Europe from China in the nineteenth century, and is named for the city of Peking where it was believed to have originated. It is a true bantam, with no corresponding large fowl. It is recognised only in the United Kingdom, where the Cochin has no recognised bantam version; like the Cochin, it has heavy feathering to the legs and feet. The Entente Européenne treats the Pekin Bantam as equivalent to the bantam Cochin.
The Scots Dumpy is a traditional Scottish breed of chicken. It is characterised by very short legs, so short that the body is a few centimetres from the ground; as in other breeds of creeper chicken, this chondrodystrophy is caused by a recessive lethal allele. The Dumpy has at times been known by other names, among them Bakie, Corlaigh, Crawler, Creeper and Stumpy. There are both standard-sized and bantam Scots Dumpies. It is one of two Scottish breeds of chicken, the other being the Scots Grey.
The Plymouth Rock is an American breed of domestic chicken. It was first seen in Massachusetts in the nineteenth century, and for much of the early twentieth century was the most popular chicken breed in the United States. It is a dual-purpose breed, raised both for its meat and for its brown eggs. It is resistant to cold, easy to manage, and a good sitter.
The Wyandotte is an American breed of chicken developed in the 1870s. It was named for the indigenous Wyandot people of North America. The Wyandotte is a dual-purpose breed, kept for its brown eggs and its yellow-skinned meat. It is a popular show bird, and has many color variants. It was originally known as the American Sebright.
Poultry farming is the form of animal husbandry which raises domesticated birds such as chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese to produce meat or eggs for food. It has originated from the agricultural era. Poultry – mostly chickens – are farmed in great numbers. More than 60 billion chickens are killed for consumption annually. Chickens raised for eggs are known as layers, while chickens raised for meat are called broilers.
The Nankin Bantam or Nankin is a British bantam breed of chicken. It is a true bantam, a naturally small breed with no large counterpart from which it was miniaturised. It is of South-east Asian origin, and is among the oldest bantam breeds. It is a yellowish buff colour, and the name is thought to derive from the colour of nankeen cotton from China.
Feather pecking is a behavioural problem that occurs most frequently amongst domestic hens reared for egg production, although it does occur in other poultry such as pheasants, turkeys, ducks, broiler chickens and is sometimes seen in farmed ostriches. Feather pecking occurs when one bird repeatedly pecks at the feathers of another. The levels of severity may be recognized as mild and severe. Gentle feather pecking is considered to be a normal investigatory behaviour where the feathers of the recipient are hardly disturbed and therefore does not represent a problem. In severe feather pecking, however, the feathers of the recipient are grasped, pulled at and sometimes removed. This is painful for the receiving bird and can lead to trauma of the skin or bleeding, which in turn can lead to cannibalism and death.
Cannibalism in poultry is the act of one individual of a poultry species consuming all or part of another individual of the same species as food. It commonly occurs in flocks of domestic hens reared for egg production, although it can also occur in domestic turkeys, pheasants and other poultry species. Poultry create a social order of dominance known as pecking order. When pressure occurs within the flock, pecking can increase in aggression and escalate to cannibalism. Cannibalism can occur as a consequence of feather pecking which has caused denuded areas and bleeding on a bird's skin. Cannibalism can cause large mortality rates within the flock and large decreases in production due to the stress it causes. Vent pecking, sometimes called 'cloacal cannibalism', is considered to be a separate form of cannibalistic pecking as this occurs in well-feathered birds and only the cloaca is targeted. There are several causes that can lead to cannibalism such as: light and overheating, crowd size, nutrition, injury/death, genetics and learned behaviour. Research has been conducted to attempt to understand why poultry engage in this behaviour, as it is not totally understood. There are known methods of control to reduce cannibalism such as crowd size control, beak trimming, light manipulation, perches, selective genetics and eyewear.
The Czech Gold Brindled Hen, Czech: Česká slepice zlatě kropenatá, is an old breed of chicken originating in Bohemia. The first mention dates from 1205, when a flock of these chickens was presented to Valdemar II of Denmark as a wedding gift on his marriage to the Czech princess Dagmar of Bohemia. Nowadays it is an endangered breed.
The broiler industry is the process by which broiler chickens are reared and prepared for meat consumption. Worldwide, in 2005 production was 71,851,000 tonnes. From 1985 to 2005, the broiler industry grew by 158%.
The Bielefelder Kennhuhn or Bielefelder is a German breed of domestic chicken. It was developed in the area of Bielefeld in the 1970s by Gerd Roth, who cross-bred birds of Malines and Welsumer stock with American Barred Rocks to create the breed. Like other breeds with Barred Rock parentage, it is auto-sexing – chicks of different sexes can be distinguished by their colour. There is a bantam version, the Bielefelder Zwerg-Kennhuhn.
The Polbar is a breed of chicken from Poland. It was created between 1946 and 1954 by Laura Kaufman, who crossed the native Polish Green-legged Partridge breed with American Plymouth Rock birds. The aim was to introduce the barred gene of the Plymouth Rock to make chicks auto-sexing – female chicks can be distinguished from males at one day old by the longer black eye-stripe.
The Pictave is an endangered French breed of bantam chicken. It is named for the Pictavi, the tribe which gave its name to the former Province of Poitou, now part of the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It is a true bantam, and has no full-sized counterpart; it is the only true bantam of France. Cocks weigh about 800 grams and hens about 600 g. It was created in the twentieth century by Raymond Lecointre, who used the hens to incubate his pheasant eggs and raise the chicks.