 Silver and Gold varieties of the Campine | |
| Conservation status | RBST (UK): at risk [1] |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | Belgium |
| Use | eggs, show |
| Traits | |
| Weight | |
| Egg color | white |
| Comb type | single |
| Classification | |
| APA | continental [3] |
| ABA | single comb clean legged |
| PCGB | rare soft feather: light [4] |
| |
The Campine is a breed of domestic chicken originating in the northern part of Belgium. It is named for the Campine region of north-eastern Belgium and south-eastern Netherlands. It was known there as the Kempisch Hoen.
The Campine was originally a smaller type of the Braekel, weighing up to 1.2 kg less. [5] It was distributed throughout the province of Antwerp and in the northern and central part of the province of Limburg. It was decided in 1884 that the two types should be separated. [6] After a long controversy, the Campine became a separate breed with its own breed standard on 28 August 1904.[ citation needed ] After further controversy, the two breeds were reunited under a single standard in 1925 [5] or 1926, [6] with the name Kempisch-Braekel. [5] In 1962 it was decided that the Campine type had entirely disappeared, and the name of the Belgian breed was changed to Brakelhoen. [5]
The Campine was imported to England in about 1899, and was bred there to become a very different bird. In particular, hen feathering in cocks became standard. Hen-feathered Braekel cocks had been bred by Oscar Thomaes of Ronse, Belgium, in 1904, [5] and a cock hatched from one of his eggs took first place at a show at the Alexandra Palace in London in that year. [7]
Birds were exported from Britain to the United States. A Campines cock took first prizes at Madison Square Garden, New York City, and in Boston in January 1913. [7] The Campines was added to the Standard of Perfection of the American Poultry Association in 1914. [3]
In the teens and early 1920s, the Silver Campine was raised for eggs with some commercial success by U.S. poultry producers such as Homestead Campine Farm of Wayland, MA. [8]
There are two colour varieties of the Campine, Silver and Gold. Both sexes have the same colour pattern: the Silver has a pure white head and neck hackles, the rest of the bird being barred with black with beetle-green sheen, on a pure white ground; the Golden variety has the same pattern, but the head, neck hackles and body ground colour is rich gold rather than white. [2] : 87
In its country of origin, the Campine had a reputation as an "every day layer", a reliable producer of large white eggs. [7] : 53
Campines are considered to be a flighty, hardy breed with an active and inquisitive nature. They are among the rarest of domestic chicken breeds.
The Campine lays a fair number of white-shelled eggs, but is kept mostly for showing today.
The Golden Campine was used in early research into auto-sexing in chickens by Reginald Crundall Punnett and Michael Pease at the Genetical Institute in Cambridge. The Cambar, the first auto-sexing hybrid, created in 1929, was a cross between the Golden Campine and the Barred Rock. [2] : 53 [9] [10] [11]
The hen-feathering trait in cocks of the Golden Campine has been found to be identical to that in the Sebright, a bantam breed. It has been suggested that it is the same gene, and that the trait in the Campine derives from the Sebright. [12] [13] [14]
The Campine is closely related to the Dutch Chaamse Hoen. [2] : 86 Although the Campine also has a degree of resemblance to the Egyptian Fayoumi, in plumage and in behavior, no genetic studies have been done linking the two breeds.[ citation needed ]
The Araucana is a breed of domestic chicken from Chile. Its name derives from the Araucanía region of Chile where it is believed to have originated. It lays blue-shelled eggs, one of very few breeds that do so.
The Leghorn, Italian: Livorno or Livornese, is a breed of chicken originating in Tuscany, in central Italy. Birds were first exported to North America in 1828 from the Tuscan port city of Livorno, on the western coast of Italy. They were initially called "Italians", but by 1865 the breed was known as "Leghorn", the traditional anglicisation of "Livorno". The breed was introduced to Britain from the United States in 1870. White Leghorns are commonly used as layer chickens in many countries of the world. Other Leghorn varieties are less common.
The Braekel or Brakel is a traditional Belgian breed of chicken. It is thought to have originated in the area of Brakel, in the Flemish province of East Flanders, for which it is named. There is a bantam version of the Braekel. The Campine of the United Kingdom derives from it.
The Dorking is a British breed of domestic chicken. It is named after the town of Dorking, in Surrey in southern England.
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.
Reginald Crundall Punnett FRS was a British geneticist who co-founded, with William Bateson, the Journal of Genetics in 1910. Punnett is probably best remembered today as the creator of the Punnett square, a tool still used by biologists to predict the probability of possible genotypes of offspring. His Mendelism (1905) is sometimes said to have been the first textbook on genetics; it was probably the first popular science book to introduce genetics to the public.
The Indian Game is a British breed of game chicken, now reared either for meat or show. It originated in the early nineteenth century in the counties of Cornwall and Devon in south-west England. It is a heavy, muscular bird with an unusually broad breast; the eggs are brown.
The Brahma is an American breed of chicken. It was developed in the United States from birds imported from the Chinese port of Shanghai, and was the principal American meat breed from the 1850s until about 1930.
The Sussex is a British breed of dual-purpose chicken, reared both for its meat and for its eggs. Eight colours are recognised for both standard-sized and bantam fowl. A breed association, the Sussex Breed Club, was organised in 1903.
The Marans, French: Poule de Marans, is a French breed of dual-purpose chicken, reared both for meat and for its dark brown eggs. It originated in or near the port town of Marans, in the département of Charente-Maritime, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of south-western France.
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.
The Barbu d'Uccle or Belgian d'Uccle, Dutch: Ukkelse Baardkriel, is a Belgian breed of bearded bantam chicken. It was first bred in the town of Uccle on the outskirts of Brussels, in central Belgium, in the early years of the twentieth century. It is a true bantam, with no standard-sized large fowl counterpart, and is one of eleven Belgian true bantam breeds.
The Legbar is a rare British auto-sexing breed of chicken. It was created in the early twentieth century by Reginald Crundall Punnett and Michael Pease at the Genetical Institute of Cambridge University. They cross-bred American barred Plymouth Rock birds with brown Leghorns and created the gold and silver colour varieties. Pease created a cream Legbar by cross-breeding these with white Leghorns; later crossing with Araucanas caused this to have a crest and to lay blue or blue-green eggs.
The Sebright is a British breed of bantam chicken. It is a true bantam – a miniature bird with no corresponding large version – and is one of the oldest recorded British bantam breeds. It is named after Sir John Saunders Sebright, who created it as an ornamental breed by selective breeding in the early nineteenth century.
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.
The Bergische Kräher is a German breed of domestic chicken from the Bergisches Land, in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany. It is named for its unusually long crow, up to five times as long as that of other breeds, and belongs to the group of long-crowing chicken breeds, which are found from south-east Europe to the Far East.
Hen feathering in cocks is the occurrence of a genetically conditioned character in domestic fowl. Males with this condition develop a female-type plumage, although otherwise look and respond as virile males.
The Friesian or Frisian, Dutch: Fries Hoen, is an ancient Dutch breed of chicken. It originates in Friesland, on the North Sea coast of the northern Netherlands.
The Bassette Liégeoise or Bassette is a breed of large bantam chicken from Belgium. It is larger than most bantams, but much smaller than full-sized breeds; cocks weigh about 1000 grams and hens about 900 g. Like most Belgian bantam breeds, it is in danger of extinction. Eighteen colour patterns are officially recognised; many of them are rare.
Auto-sexing breeds of poultry are those in which the sex of newly-hatched chicks can be determined from the colour and markings of the down. Some breeds of chicken, of goose and of domestic pigeon have this characteristic. The idea of such a breed is due to Reginald Punnett, who created the first auto-sexing chicken breed, the Cambar, at the Genetical Institute in Cambridge in 1928.