Choosing Chickens - Polish Crested - Beauty, Brains and Rusticity.

Our photographs of the fabulous Polish race of hens, cockerels and chicks below speak for themselves but they have depths of personality and character and above all are so funny, charming and full of surprises that it would take a book to do them justice. Here we have Father and Sons. White-laced Crested and Bearded Chamois, frizzled Dad (in the middle) and  Black-laced Crested and Bearded Gold, frizzled and non-frizzled sons. Left to Right:- Rupert, Diavolo and Spike.

I'm starting my advocacy for old breeds, with an in-depth look into the Polish race. They qualify for all the requirements of a true all-rounder, they lay well, eat well, forage well, are reputedly delicious and on top of this are a beautiful addition to any garden. It's hard to believe that a creature which looks so frou-frou can be anything but ornamental and therefore totally unsuited to a backyard or smallholding but in the following article I hope to convince you that they are - and how!

The family portrait above was taken at night in a studio setting, not just because I wanted to show you the gorgeous feathering and shining personality of these birds but for another and far more practical reason. I was worried the brothers and father, living as they do in separate hen houses, though seeing each other daily in the garden, would start to fight. Polish are not aggressive but they do get a trifle silly if brought into unexpected close proximity. In the event, it was the Mother of the family, little Bungle, who started something, hence she was removed for some 'time-out' and did not appear in this picture. The female of the species is not only deadlier than the male but often as in this race the arbiter in disputes. A particular character in the above family is Josephine, Rupert and Spike's adopted Great Aunt (aged 10), who has been known to defend them against others in the flock, usually when they have started something they couldn't finish.

Josephine in one of her quieter afternoon-tea-with-Grandma moments (Bungle, as a chick, on the far left)

The History of The Polish Crested - The stuff of dreams 

The legend of the Polish breed is a long and romantic one and one of my favourite episodes is the way in which they arrived here in France. On the 26th of January 1736, Stanislaw Leszczyński, King of Poland, lost his throne for the second and final time and came to France to the court of his son-in-law Louis XV. Packed in the King's luggage were his favourite Polish Crested chickens, who found instant favour amongst the ladies of the court and in particular, with Madame Jeanne Antoinette d'Étiolles, King Louis' then official mistress. So great was her love of them that in France the breed was renamed for her official title and soon became known under the sobriquet of 'poulettes Pompadour'. I can't help thinking that they were also the inspiration for her famous Pompadour hairstyle, which is still as popular today and was the same style made famous in pop culture by Elvis.

Above is the illustration of the Polish cockerel in Ulisse Adrovandi's Ornithologiae, published in Bologna in 1599.

In Italy, where these birds are the main ingredient of several famous traditional Paduan dishes, la Gallina Padovana is having a renaissance under the sterling efforts of the Slow Food Movement. The Polish race came to Italy in the Fourteenth Century. They were brought back from Poland by the doctor and astronomer, the Marquis Giovanni Dondi dell'Orologio, who, like Mme de Pompadour centuries later, was struck by their beauty and elegance and described them as "resembling chrysanthemums". The Dondi family were friendly with the Polish royal family so it is probable that the Polish came to Padua through the same route as they were later to arrive in France.

The striking crest on the Polish, which makes them easily identifiable is supported by an actual bony cover, which protects the unusually elongated brain of the breed. The reason for this 'upthrusting' of the brain and why cerebral hernia is associated with crested chickens is still unknown. The other cranial peculiarity of the breed is in the nostrils which are higher and flatter than normal. The tight space between the nostrils and the bone protuberance supporting the crest prevents the normal development of the cock's comb, which is often either completely absent or irregular or knobbly often double and resembling horns, hence Diavolo above! The unique feature of the skull of this breed make it readily identifiable and from evidence of Roman excavations and diggings, it is believed that these birds were already in England at this period.

 

Apropos of this the bony cover which shields the brain, it continues to knit together and harden after hatching, so in the first weeks of life you should take particular care of the chicks. In other words do not place them in any danger of the mother hen jumping down upon them from any height.

 Rufus stretching his wings before the first business of the day - Breakfast

You are what your hens eat and so you need them to eat well.

Paradoxically enough, Mrs. Isabella Beeton in her splendid, book of Household Management dated, 1861 (our much-used family copy opposite), shows that even at this date, long before Big Farmer/Big Pharma came into being, the Polish was a most interesting breed from a monetary point of view. I'll take issue however with her on the point of the eggs of the Polish hen being not as nutritious. A hens eggs reflect the hens diet and getting a hen to lay a large amount of eggs needs a large amount of protein in her diet, probably as here in the form of grain, such as triticale or legumes. High protein is not a normal diet for hens, as omnivores and if left to their own devices, they eat a balanced diet and lay fewer, higher quality eggs, with which to produce good strong chicks. The Polish will eat a vast quantity and variety of fruits and vegetables as well as roots, insects, wild grass seeds, various 'weeds', mosses and lichens. I have also seen them eat fungi, minerals and catch and eat small rodents and reptiles.

The Polish are also great at sorting out your compost heap, I use mine to sift through the well-rotted compost, laying it down on a tarpaulin so the chicks can remove woodlice prior to spreading it on the soil. I then leave them to work it into the ground, after which the quail take over to mop up any small nuisances which remain. Of course once the hens have learnt what's inside the bin, they are constantly trying to find ways to storm the battlements.

All weather Polish

The Polish breed are exceptionally hardy in snow. They are the first out of the hen house, when other hens and cockerels just stand aghast staring at this strange white substance. Not only do the Polish venture forth but they even seem to like eating the snow. Even the young Spring-born chicks have no compunction to play out in the snow and I use the word in its true sense. The Polish breed are one of the few races I have come across where the cockerels actually play tricks on each other. The favourite game which mine enjoy is, taking advantage of the crest obscuring the rear view, the cockerels sneak up on each other and tweak their tail feathers. This makes the victim jump about a metre in the air whilst the others stand around making noises which I can only describe as laughter.

Where to keep Polish

Waiting for the fall - Garbo at apple picking

An orchard is an ideal place for the Polish breed. This doesn't preclude you from keeping them if you don't have one but it provides an environment, where they can be of great help in pest and weed control, find a varied diet and also shade in the hot summer. Polish have very beautiful plumage, thickly upholstered with down under the feathers, like all poultry they are sun worshippers but in the very hot midday sun they are inclined to the shade. We have a walled garden on two sides with high thick hedges on the other two, so our garden can become very hot in Summer, to counter this we planted hedges and shrubs as well as tall leafy perennials. We also grew many trees from seed, such as horse chestnut and eucalyptus which are now mature and providing a good shady canopy. In the orchard, which was a traditional cider apple one, we grafted old eating varieties and I also underplanted with shrubs and roses, scramblers and ramblers. Polish by the way, as do many other hens love petals, particularly apple blossom and roses, usually, happily, they wait until these fall off the tree.

Polish hens don't go broody...

I read this over and over again in websites and even repeated it, albeit with reservations here in this article but the events of last year have made me aware that this is not true. Not just in our garden but from the experiences shared in comments by others when I posted a film about it on Youtube. 

I knew Garbo was sitting under the inside a large honeysuckle bush because I heard her snoring one night but I never knew she was serious until I found a tiny chick at the hen house food bowl! Getting them out of the bush and into an orange box to transport them to the house was quite an operation.

So have I convinced you?

Polish hens are not good nest makers and can be careless of where they lay their eggs, at least this first generation was. The cockerels were forever remaking nests and trying to entice the hens to lay in them, only to watch the hen go off and lay in the middle of the garden. The next generation actually make good nests and have even on occasion made attempts to sit (UPDATED see above).

One of the few drawbacks to the Polish is that, due to their being viewed as purely ornamental, they have tended to be over-bred purely for the size of the crest. This can sometimes cause them problems and at one time some years ago there was a strange movement afoot to ban people from keeping them altogether and so would have died out one of the most beautiful, ancient and intelligent breed of poultry. Luckily this move did not succeed and all it needs, if you do come across an overheavy crest in one of your birds, is a careful trim, another good reason to have a good and trusting relationship with your birds. As for the rest, Polish are not great sitters (UPDATED see above) and I am also wary of them in damp weather as like all hens they can suffer from colds and unfortunately as they are ardent foragers they do tend to want to go out in the pouring rain. If you do not have a well planted area where you keep your hens, you would be well advised to make some sort of shelter whereby they can scratch around out of the rain.

What more can I say?

Now if you'd like to, sit back and watch the film:-

Thanks for dropping by and do feel free to share experiences or ask for further information in the comment section. If you have enjoyed this piece and found it useful think about sharing it with your family and friends, on social media and also maybe about joining this blog and/or subscribing to my Youtube, Odysee  or BitChute Channel or even supporting us on Patreon or

It all helps to keep me going!

Until next time, all the very best from sunny Normandie! 

Sue

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Choosing Chickens for a Garden or Homestead - Old Breeds & Organic, a winning combo in your backyard.

Clogs to clogs:- New baby chicks, the pride and joy of my Great Grandma, who along with her husband was joint farmer and innkeeper at the sign of the Black Hamburg. During the First World War and by popular demand of the regulars, the Inn sign was repainted for what was seen as a more patriotic Old English Game Cock.


(Perhaps one of the most famous breeders of the Black Hamburg was L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In his sequel to the latter he replaced Dorothy's companion Toto with Billina, a hen, whose character is thought to be drawn from his experience in raising Hamburgs.)

Old breeds versus New Money

Thumbing through old horticultural magazines of the mid 1800s one finds included in their columns information on poultry, pigeons and bees. The editorial carries special features on specific breeds and a lively question and answer column shows that backyard poultry was alive and kicking. A glance through the prize winners in the individual breed sections of the Poultry Show results therein, reveals a fair sprinkling of the first and second estate but not exclusively. By the time poultry reaches the novels of the 30's, country people, such as Dorothy L. Sayers' spinster and prime suspect in Busman's Honeymoon is described as keeping Buff Orpingtons, a heavy, dual purpose utility breed. Up to this date a reader of a crime novel would still be expected to know about specific breeds of poultry. By the early 30s however, in the US, the battery farming of hens had reared its ugly head, along with the growing usage of pesticides and synthetic fertilisers. In the 1920s concern over these practices had also engendered the beginnings of the Organic Movement in the UK. From the 50s onwards, main stream commercial, or what has become to be known as conventional, poultry farming went underground, or rather behind closed doors and as the decades continued people began to be less and less aware of and/or concerned with how their food was produced and in particular in what state animals and birds were kept.

Making hay whilst the sun still shines on the small farmer in the early 30's. My Grandmother atop the hay wain.


City meets Country between the Wars. My great Aunt down on the Farm having come up from the Bright Lights of London.

The Farmyard and Barnyard at War

The Second World War sounded the death knell for so many of the hundreds of different and often ancient breeds of poultry, particularly in Europe. To begin with, there were the actual physical deaths and displacement which war wrought on farm animals, the Normandy cow, for example, was almost wiped out in the intense fighting in the region.

This ancient race was brought to Normandy by the Vikings in the 9th century but conflict in Normandy during WWII, decimated the breed. Florence (above) is a new addition to the dairy herd on the organic farm, where I buy my grain, as are those below from a local organic farm, where I buy my raw organic milk.

Other ancient breeds, such as the Oxford Sandy and Black pig, the most popular, friendly smallholder/homesteader pig for 300 years previously, were brought to the edge of extinction by the move towards faster growing, smaller pigs. These latter unlike the 'Plum Pudding Pig' as it was also known, were to be fed on cheap grain not left to forage. Again, happily, this ancient race is growing in popularity and if you want to see some in a beautiful woodland setting, then take a look at them on my sister's small organic farm in Scotland.

In the wake of both World Wars, came the concerted push to try out all the new chemical and mechanical farming systems, which had their inception prior to WW1 but advanced in leaps and bounds after 1945. Subsidies were created purely to fund farmers in the use of these chemicals and hedges and habitats were ripped out to make way for the giant bank-funded machinery. In a World of Agrochemicals and Intensive Farming, a slow growing, independently-minded, hardy forager, had no place and ancient breeds of poultry, for example, were systematically downgraded to 'hobby hens' purely for exhibition and show. Intensive indoor systems required docile, plain-feathered birds, who could survive and lay in close confinement, the White Leghorn was in the ascendancy. Finally, even this warm-weather breed from Italy could not suffice as a laying machine and new hybrids both for meat and laying came out of the laboratory and onto the market. Meat breeds were created, which had been devised to sit at food troughs eating 24/7 and killed at 41 days and hens which sat, laid and lived in a cage no bigger than a sheet of A4 paper and so it continues, to featherless GMO hens. To summarise, two forces in Agriculture and Horticulture have been at war ever since the actual World Wars. There can be no quarter given, they are diametrically opposed, the philosophy of each precluding the existence of the other. In recent years and to back up the organic farming movement has arisen the organic homesteader, permaculturist and biodynamic backyard farmer, who is a supporter of old breeds, old methods and old skills. On the side of the Agrochemical industry are the Biotech companies, patenting the gene pool, limiting, standardising and globalising  production and increasing the use of chemicals. Today the stakes are even higher.

The Second Agrarian Revolution and Backyard Organics

Taking a Break - Chamois White laced Polish Crested, Silver Duckwing Ardenners and Polish/Sebright/Ardenner crosses - Willing Workers on Organic Smallholding/Forest Garden.

As more and more people come to understand the important effect of food on their health and happiness the more questions will be asked as to how that food is produced. In the meantime an increasing number of us are deciding that as food is the most important factor to sustain life, then we would be better off producing it ourselves. If you are going to do this, then you really have to be organic, otherwise all the hard work and effort you put in, will still produce an inferior product. There is also an added bonus beyond the production of good quality food and that is the insight keeping poultry gives into the workings of not only an avian society but also of our own. Studying  hens is far from boring, their societies and relationships are incredibly complex and individually and as a group they are capable of adapting to change with a logic which is startling. Here below, a group of hens sunbathing together, make the vital production of vitamin D3 into a social event!

In tandem with continuing research into poultry behaviours and animal sentience, which support hypotheses obvious to those of us who care for our poultry, there is another element. Our awareness that the keeping of animals is a sacred trust and that because of that trust we should keep them well. If you wish to school yourself in the aspects of diet or good parenting then you need look no further than the barnyard. Where poultry fall prey to disorder in their flock or habits it can usually be traced back to something imposed upon them by humankind. In my experience chickens do not overeat, nor do they become obese, furthermore they actually do not over-consume any of the individual elements of their diet. Put your hens in the compost heap and they will feed themselves on woodlice to a certain point and then stop and go off to look for greenery. Conversely, when they do not get enough greenery they will then start to attack your flowers and shrubs.

Here are some tiny gardeners. After our Wild poppy border had died back I used Lucky and her chicks to clear the ground before planting out a salad crop. The tiny feet do little damage to the soil structure but their big appetites clear the ground of wireworms and woodlice. 

Over the next few posts I will look at some of the breeds of chicken I have kept and how their dispositions and characteristics make them ideal allies and companions in the pursuit of sustainability and self-sufficiency.

Thanks for dropping by and do feel free to share experiences or ask for further information in the comment section. If you have enjoyed this piece and found it useful think about sharing it with your family and friends, on social media and also maybe about joining this blog and/or subscribing to my Youtube, Odysee  or BitChute Channel or even supporting us on Patreon or

It all helps to keep me going!

Until next time, all the very best from sunny Normandie! 

Sue

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Polish Crested - Beauty, Brains and Rusticity.

It's hard to believe that a creature which looks so frou-frou can be anything but ornamental and therefore totally unsuited to a backyard or smallholding but in the following article...read more

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