- May 19, 2009
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Here is an interesting old article I recently found on the subject.
Best,
Karen
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Poultry world - Volumes 15-16 - 1886
Pages 164 and 165
Acclimation of Fowls.
Mr. E. W. S., of Charleston, 8. C, writes: "lam a reader of The Poultry World, but never have purchased fowls from the north, as I have always heard, and it is the general opinion here, I believe, that fowls brought from northern localities cannot stand our climate. Is there any means of acclimating fowls; if so, can you refer me to some means of so doing?"
It is undoubtedly true that fowls require acclimation, when removed from a cold to a warm climate or vice versa, and we can easily understand that if the removal is unseasonable that trouble and loss might ensue. Yet it is perfectly easy to satisfy any one that the difficulties are greatly exaggerated, and that the loss need be extremely small or reduced to a point where it absolutely ceases. We are constantly importing into this country fowls from abroad, England, France and Italy, and little or no loss results therefrom. Their systems may receive a greater or less shock according to the difference in the climate of their native and their adopted homes, but the shock does not prevent them from breeding successfully. In some cases it certainly stimulates the reproductive organs, and the fowls for a few generations lay more eggs in their adopted than they did in their native home.
If our southern brethren desire to purchase fowls from northern breeders they should not hesitate to do so. The best time is in the autumn months, and the fowls removed from a colder to a warmer climate are, or ought to be, grateful for the change. By the time that summer with its excessive heat arrives they have become somewhat accustomed to the new climate and very little trouble need be apprehended. Even the heavily-feathered Asiatics do well in the south.
We shou'd not advise the purchase of birds north in the months of June and July, for they would doubtless suffer somewhat from the longer-continued and more excessive heat of the south. This would have a debilitating effect and render them much more subject to attacks of disease and less able to successfully withstand them. But if they are purchased at any time from September to January we think that they will do well. The "general opinion" to the contrary may be a mere prejudice or it may be founded upon a few cases of unseasonable introduction of fowls, but we seriously question whether it has any substantial reason for existing. At any rate, we do not hesitate to advise our querist to purchase such fowls as he may desire of northern breeders.
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