Dunghill Fowl

[Stick317]

I just stumbled across this post searching for info on Dunghill chickens after seeing some at coggeshall farm in RI. Very pretty birds.

 

[ChirpnBern]

Just stumbled onto this thread. Very exciting if you have managed to resurrect this variety of chicken! Congrats! I hope someone posts a pic soon. Not sure what my chances are of ever getting to meet them in person.

This has got me wondering . . . Would this type have been widespread during Colonial times, or was it pretty restricted to the "Plimouth" area? What breed/s would have been the run-of-the-mill chicken in other colonies? Hmmm . . .

 

[varidgerunner]

English and Spanish games were probably the most common varieties of chicken at that time. In the days before hollywood, high school, college and professional sports, the chicken's main purpose was entertainment. This is why they were domesticated. Four pound jungle bird that lays 20 eggs a year was not domesticated for eggs and meat, in a jungle hanging with fruit, wild pigs and a stones throw from an ocean teaming with fish. People liked the pretty colors, the crow, and watching them do what they do. By colonial times it was a very popular sport accompanied by much fanfare and gambling. A large part of our nation's history.

A dunghill is nothing more than a semi-feral game mix. Too domesticated for combat, too wild for the broiler house or hen-house. Have a whole yard full of them, they do like the dung hill. It's not a breed, it's a conglomerate that occupied a historical niche. At many times, and places, and by different names. In India it is called a Desi, for instance, with more asil than Bankiva game attributes. These names were often used in historical (and not so historical) references as a put-down, among those concentrating on the athletic abilities of fowl.

I find it sad and ironic that someone is trying to re-create a rather benign and common mutt, under the name of history, while ignoring the stately breeds that went into that mutt. Americans engaged general Santa Anna, twice, long before the Alamo, not with sabres and cannon, but with chickens. Sleek and colorful symbols of America, just like us, unique breeds made with combinations of differing ancestry. Some Irish, some Spanish, some English, and even a little Asian, by way of the Dutch. A long and very rich history concerning the gamefowl in this country.

If I were going to actually try to recreate historic New England fowl, I believe I would start with some Flarey Eyed Greys, a few Morgan Whitehackles, some Irish Hennies, and stuff like that. You know, actual breeds that could be saved from extinction, that still exist in a few breeders hands, relatively unchanged since colonial times. That is what I would spend my green pictures of old cockfighters on, if I were interested in history.

 

[Muncy89]

English and Spanish games were probably the most common varieties of chicken at that time. In the days before hollywood, high school, college and professional sports, the chicken's main purpose was entertainment. This is why they were domesticated. Four pound jungle bird that lays 20 eggs a year was not domesticated for eggs and meat, in a jungle hanging with fruit, wild pigs and a stones throw from an ocean teaming with fish. People liked the pretty colors, the crow, and watching them do what they do. By colonial times it was a very popular sport accompanied by much fanfare and gambling. A large part of our nation's history.

A dunghill is nothing more than a semi-feral game mix. Too domesticated for combat, too wild for the broiler house or hen-house. Have a whole yard full of them, they do like the dung hill. It's not a breed, it's a conglomerate that occupied a historical niche. At many times, and places, and by different names. In India it is called a Desi, for instance, with more asil than Bankiva game attributes. These names were often used in historical (and not so historical) references as a put-down, among those concentrating on the athletic abilities of fowl.

I find it sad and ironic that someone is trying to re-create a rather benign and common mutt, under the name of history, while ignoring the stately breeds that went into that mutt. Americans engaged general Santa Anna, twice, long before the Alamo, not with sabres and cannon, but with chickens. Sleek and colorful symbols of America, just like us, unique breeds made with combinations of differing ancestry. Some Irish, some Spanish, some English, and even a little Asian, by way of the Dutch. A long and very rich history concerning the gamefowl in this country.

If I were going to actually try to recreate historic New England fowl, I believe I would start with some Flarey Eyed Greys, a few Morgan Whitehackles, some Irish Hennies, and stuff like that. You know, actual breeds that could be saved from extinction, that still exist in a few breeders hands, relatively unchanged since colonial times. That is what I would spend my green pictures of old cockfighters on, if I were interested in history.

Its all really a matter of opinion isn't it? Would we even need standards to go by if everyone just started breeding whatever is old enough and established enough to be considered purebred?

I understand your trying to sound educated on the subject but the way you worded it just made you sound awful. Maybe for some people its a waste of their time to work with birds they aren't interested in just because they're considered a pure breed.

SMH I've been noticing a trend of attitudes I don't like on here in the little time I've been a member here. We are suppose to be working together. Not belittling someone for their personal interests.

I would like to know if this breeding program is still ongoing aswell simply because it is referred to on a Plymouth Rock club site

 

[varidgerunner]

Dunghill means "game influenced mutt". There are dunghills all over the world, have been for a long time. Breeding stock should be really easy to find. Establish a standard, sell hatching eggs for 70 dollars a dozen on ebay, get GFF on board, run the price up to $400 per adult bird. It would be the trendy thing to do. They will still be game influenced mutts. Or possibly a poor attempt to recreate a breed that was at the time of it's historical reference, a game influenced mutt.

 

[varidgerunner]

I mean seriously, vague historical reference to a now extinct landrace. Obviously had some Dorking, because that was probably the only thing with that trait that came from the point of origin of those settlers. No spurs? Probably a mutation that cropped up in a now extinct landrace with limited outside genetic influence. The only breed I know of that cocks come spurless is the Ga Noi Don from Vietnam. So cross some spurless Ga Noi to some Dorkings, and whatever else you need to get the color right, get them to breed true, and boom, you have your recreation. Of what was probably not even a breed, that is long extinct, referred to in a few lines of text.

They were probably "the best" because the spurless ones were less than a year old and therefore more tender than the older ones, and the ones that had five toes had more meat because of the obvious dorking infuence. This writer referred to them as "dunghill" undoubtedly because that is what everyone referred to them as, as many others did. That is what they were. The breeds that they had penned up and cared for, and were probably more proud of, and that had economic importance at the time were most likely gamefowl.