Dunghill Fowl

[TimG]

In doing some reading about old varieties of chickens, I came across a article of the Plymouth Archaeological Redisdovery Project that describes the most common chickens of Plymouth Colony, the dung hill fowl, as "red in the body with the heads and necks of the roosters being gray, red or yellow" and goes on to quote a source (Googe) that says "The best kinde are such as have five clawes, so that they be free from spurres.."

Am I correct in guessing that this five-toes "dung hill fowl" is a Dorking? I believe I have also seen mention that this breed is used today at Plimouth Plantation. I've found a picture of a Red Dorking, but no red Dorkings with grey neck feathers. Does anyone kow if that variety is still in existence?

I'm also curious about the reference to five-toes birds being free from spurs. In the pictures I see of Dorkings, the roosters do appear to have spurs. Is there some connection between spurs (or lack thereof) and five-toes?

Elaboration on just what a "dung hill fowl" is would also be appreciated.

Thanks,
Tim

 

[pdsavage]

http://www.history.org/Foundation/journal/Winter05-06/animals.cfm
Dunghill fowl, a domestic fowl of common breed.
http://books.google.com/books?id=rT...0CBwQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=dunghill fowl&f=false

 

[speckledhen]

Odd line in that book, though

"White fowl are of weak consitution and seldom good layers"
How did they come to that conclusion, I wonder, considering that Leghorns are probably the best layers on the planet! Maybe they mean the white variety of Dunghill Fowl? Hmm.

 

[pdsavage]

Quote:
Might be cause they where white so got attacked first by everything...

 

[Vcomb]

dung-hill was a term that today has been replaced by "land-race" or "mutt". it just means they have questionable ancestry but are ok chcikens. Dung-hill is also a term used in the gamefowl world to describe "cold-blood" (which basically means everything except pit-tested gamefowl!)

By the grey color in the neck they are most likely referring to silver or silver with a black central stripe in the feather.

 

[NYREDS]

My understanding of the term is that it refers to how these birds made their living. They were mixed breed fowl that roamed farm yards & found much of their food in the form of undigested grain in the "dung hill".

 

[vnsseed]

I just came across this post and thought I would elaborate. For the most part, the "dunghill fowl" was a mutt, however, in New England the "mutt" seems to have a very distinct look to it (more than likely coming from a mix of a few different breeds of chicken that came over from England) . I have been researching this for the better part of a year and, from primary source descriptions, archaelology digs, and paintings, I plan to recreate the look of the "New England Dunghill Fowl" to be used by museums and historical presentations that we put on. We have some 1st generation crosses now that we are working with.

 

[enola]

Does any one know what happened with this breeding experiment?

 

[vnsseed]

We are still working on it. We have had some excellent off spring that are in museums around New England.

 

[opeth13]

Not to bring an old thread back from the dead, but I stumbled across it via google and I've seen them and they are very friendly. If I make it over to the festival this weekend I'll post some pictures I know the people that run one of the farms pretty well