List of oldest U.S. chicken breeds. Is it correct?

[The Yakima Kid]

I believe the Delaware was originally known as the "Indian River" and owes it's origin to a pre-potent rooster named "Superman."

The most interesting thing about the American breeds is the very strong preference for clean-legged birds. The other interesting thing is the diversity of the foundation stock; it seems that the poor soils of New England led to a very strong maritime economy that traded with all of the more populated continents - an probably made it as far as Australia. B^)

I believe the Chantecler is also classed as an American breed, although it is clearly Canadian.

~~At the dawn of the 20th century, no breeds of chicken had been established in Canada, and Canadian farmers and poultry fanciers only had fowl of European and American derivation. This fact was noted by Brother Wilfred Chantelain, a Trappist monk and Doctor of Agronomy, as he toured the poultry flocks of the Oka Agricultural Institute, an agricultural school at his abbey which is affiliated with the Université de Montréal.[1] In 1907, the Brother set out to remedy this void and create a practical chicken that would be suited to Canada's climate and production needs. Working at the Abbey of Notre-Dame du Lac in Oka, Chantelain first combined Dark Cornishes, White Leghorns, Rhode Island Reds, White Plymouth Rocks and White Wyandottes, creating the White variant of the Chantecler. It was admitted into the American Poultry Association's Standard of Perfection in 1921.[2] By 1918, the breed was presented to the public. To this day, the Chantecler is one of only two breeds of poultry from Canada, and the only one known to have been created primarily by a member of a monastic order.[3] At the outset, it was only intended for the breed to be white in color; white birds are preferred for commercial meat production in the West, as they produce a particularly clean-looking carcass. In the 1930s, the Partridge Chantecler was generated by crossing Partridge Wyandottes, Partridge Cochins, Dark Cornishes, and the rose comb type of Brown Leghorns to produce a chicken more adapted to free range conditions. This variant was admitted to the Standard in 1935.[1] There has also been a Buff variety present since the 1950s, but it has never been admitted to show standards.[2] In 1979, the extinction of the Chantecler was publicized, with what was thought to be the last rooster of the breed dying at the University of Saskatchewan's Department of Animal and Poultry Science. However, despite the disappearance of the breed in institutional and commercial hatcheries, it was still maintained by a few small farms.[3] In the 21st century, the breed persists, but is listed as Critical by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.[1]

 

[Bullitt]

Lamona and California Gray (non-APA) should probably be on the list. B^)

According to information I have seen California Gray was developed in the 1930s.

Number 10 on my list is Holland, which was developed in the 1930s. Can you show me documentation of which breed was first?

I think California Gray was not recognized by the APA because it looks like a Barred Leghorn. From everything I have read, they are the same.

I am going to have to look up Lamona. I am not familiar with that one.

 

[Bullitt]

Lamona and California Gray (non-APA) should probably be on the list. B^)

I looked up Lamona. I now have it listed as number 9. The information I found said it was recognized by the APA. Is it not recognized by the APA today?

 

[Bullitt]

I think you pretty much have your list.

Of course there was fowl here before these breeds, but they were not American breeds. The games were admitted into the standard as Old English Games.

Thank you.

So there is no American Gamefowl or American Game recognized by the APA? I am a little confused by the name.

 

[Bullitt]

It gets weirder than that - in some shows Javas were shown in an Asiatic class (Cochin I believe) and vice versa.

Interestingly enough, the Leghorn as we know it today in the US, the UK, and some other countries was heavily modified in the US.

Javas and Dominiques alike figure in a number of American breeds. Until the latter portion of the 19th C. Dominiques could have single combs and run larger than the modern bird. After that decision, many of the existing larger, single comb Dominique flocks were folded into the Barred Rocks. The new smaller size probably helped marginalize the Dominiques.

Javas are shown in the American class today, right?

Modifying breeds continues all the time.

Many old-timers will say "Dominickers" when they really mean Barred Plymouth Rock. No doubt there was some mixing there.

 

[Bullitt]

I believe the Delaware was originally known as the "Indian River" and owes it's origin to a pre-potent rooster named "Superman."

The most interesting thing about the American breeds is the very strong preference for clean-legged birds. The other interesting thing is the diversity of the foundation stock; it seems that the poor soils of New England led to a very strong maritime economy that traded with all of the more populated continents - an probably made it as far as Australia. B^)

I believe the Chantecler is also classed as an American breed, although it is clearly Canadian.

~~At the dawn of the 20th century, no breeds of chicken had been established in Canada, and Canadian farmers and poultry fanciers only had fowl of European and American derivation. This fact was noted by Brother Wilfred Chantelain, a Trappist monk and Doctor of Agronomy, as he toured the poultry flocks of the Oka Agricultural Institute, an agricultural school at his abbey which is affiliated with the Université de Montréal.[1] In 1907, the Brother set out to remedy this void and create a practical chicken that would be suited to Canada's climate and production needs. Working at the Abbey of Notre-Dame du Lac in Oka, Chantelain first combined Dark Cornishes, White Leghorns, Rhode Island Reds, White Plymouth Rocks and White Wyandottes, creating the White variant of the Chantecler. It was admitted into the American Poultry Association's Standard of Perfection in 1921.[2] By 1918, the breed was presented to the public. To this day, the Chantecler is one of only two breeds of poultry from Canada, and the only one known to have been created primarily by a member of a monastic order.[3] At the outset, it was only intended for the breed to be white in color; white birds are preferred for commercial meat production in the West, as they produce a particularly clean-looking carcass. In the 1930s, the Partridge Chantecler was generated by crossing Partridge Wyandottes, Partridge Cochins, Dark Cornishes, and the rose comb type of Brown Leghorns to produce a chicken more adapted to free range conditions. This variant was admitted to the Standard in 1935.[1] There has also been a Buff variety present since the 1950s, but it has never been admitted to show standards.[2] In 1979, the extinction of the Chantecler was publicized, with what was thought to be the last rooster of the breed dying at the University of Saskatchewan's Department of Animal and Poultry Science. However, despite the disappearance of the breed in institutional and commercial hatcheries, it was still maintained by a few small farms.[3] In the 21st century, the breed persists, but is listed as Critical by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.[1]

I am talking about breeds created in the United States.

The Delaware was mentioned earlier. I found, "George Ellis of Delaware created the breed in 1940." Accepted into the APA in 1952.

So the Delaware was not early enough to be on the list.

 

[Bullitt]

Here is a video that shows Java chicks. Black and mottled are recognized by the APA. They bred Black Javas and through recessive genes got white and auburn. In this video they show they were able to recreate White Javas, which as no longer recognized by the APA because they look like White Plymouth Rocks and which went extinct in the 1950s. And they recreated Auburn Javas, which were used to create Rhode Island Reds and went extinct in the late 1800s. The Auburn Java was never recognized by the APA.

I need to see if I can find pictures or video of adult Auburn Javas.

 

[Bullitt]

The Java Breeders of America has this picture of Auburn Javas. There are also other pictures on their website. These are some good looking birds.

http://www.javabreedersofamerica.com/javas/auburn/

 

[Yellow House Farm]

Thank you.

At least this fact is finally being admitted.

Thank goodness, I was able to locate and meet the living grandson of Lucy Converse's grandson, J. Lyman Kelly last year. Who testifies to the importation from the Isle of Java and his grandfather wanting to keep his grandmother's line pure.

This particular Black Java line (direct from Java) can be traced up until ~1952.

The first Poultry Show in America was held at the Public Gardens in Boston Massachusetts on November 15-16, 1849 where there were 1,423 different breeds and 219 exhibitors. The number of people admitted to the show was not less than 10,000 spectators. The Java in it’s own “hometown” was shown and categorized in the Large Asiatic or Great Malay Tribe as “Java”.

It's kind of like including Cornish in the English class, but it is what it is. Whatever makes the Java a Java is Asiatic, and there's great value in that, meaning that it directs toward clarity. First of all, European breeds lay white or tinted eggs--without exception. Any modern European breed that lays brown eggs does so because of Asiatic importation. The entire body structure of the Java is Asiatic. Reading the various histories, one realizes that there is a long duration of time between the points of importation and standardization where there is much ambiguity and nomenclatural indifference between Javas and Black Cochins.

On the contrary, the Dominique is distinctly European. The entire structure of the breed's type cries Europe. It's probably a misnomer, though, to talk about "developing" Dominiques; it would probably make more sense to discuss them as "emerging" out of colonization efforts in a fairly random fashion. The brown egg, by definition is something that would have come later to the game by sheer force of space and time.

Today there is a strongly standardized, set sense of breed, and when we think breed, we think of a consistent and normalized reproduction of an ideal. Throughout the 1800's, into the early 1900's, these breeds were emerging and inconsistent. Some more perfected than others because history backed a few of the American breeds in a more substantial manner. However, there were decades and decades of ambiguous shape, form and definition, before the arising of the birds we think of today as typical were set; they did not simply hit the ground running. Along the way, through all of the crossing and sharing of stocks, many different color mutations arose, such as "Auburn Javas". To say that they contributed to the rise of the RIR is more random and accidental, the RIR is a Red Malay cock on whatever was floating about at the time; over decades and decades the breed emerged via continuously returning to the Red Malay cocks. Assuredly more important than an Auburn Java presence, was a Brown Leghorn presence.

The renewed interest in the old breeds is coming with new twists; indeed, imagination is helping to birth new relevance, in some cases, for the first time. Dominiques were common, but they were also commonplace. People who were into chickens qua chickens raised the more established breeds that were recognized not only for utility but for beauty. Javas were a stepping stone breed that raised its head during the cloud of emerging farm stock that happened through the process of mixing Asiatic and European bloodlines. As that nebulousness began to clear the Barred Plymouth Rock eclipsed both of them, being generally held as the most beautiful. If there's something unique that the Java can offer now, it's in the Mottled variety, because it is the only larger mottled large fowl, which, were people to raise them seriously, could be a very beautiful bird. The Buckeye was nothing more than a sound bite on the blip of history, and the last decade or so has seen it become this undeniable presence. These three breeds may currently be enjoying the most attention that they have ever received. It's framed within the guise of respecting the past, but really it comes down to a statement about the spirit of the present. There are four American breeds of extended, multifaceted consequence: the Plymouth Rock, the Wyandotte, the Rhode Island Red, and the New Hampshire. These are easily the most developed and the most perfected. These are the American breeds that made American breeds some of the most respected poultry on the planet. Their history is enduring, long-lasting, and layered. The other American breeds apart from these seven tend to be redundant. They never were popular and probably never will be so.

This phenomenon isn't restricted to the American class, though. Consider Dorkings, the least important color variety historically--Red--has now become one of the most visible as people imagine tales about them and Columella. Every month, it seems, there's someone who wants to resurrect the Colored Dorking, although it was only ever a stepping stone variety that arose out of cross-breeding and, when as a gene pool, it began to stabilize, it emerged as the Silver Grey.

It gets weirder than that - in some shows Javas were shown in an Asiatic class (Cochin I believe) and vice versa.

Interestingly enough, the Leghorn as we know it today in the US, the UK, and some other countries was heavily modified in the US.

Javas and Dominiques alike figure in a number of American breeds. Until the latter portion of the 19th C. Dominiques could have single combs and run larger than the modern bird. After that decision, many of the existing larger, single comb Dominique flocks were folded into the Barred Rocks. The new smaller size probably helped marginalize the Dominiques.

This is important, because it highlights a poultry reality. Several breeds emerge out of the ebb and flow of human life on the planet, but when we think about highly developed, elegant poultry, there are three, perhaps four, spaces that arise as the hub of modern poultry perfection: North America, England, the Benelux countries, and, perhaps, Germany. Almost any breed, in fact I'm trying to think of one that doesn't, that exists in a truly perfected, symmetrical, balanced, even, specific form with strong feathering, i.e. almost any breed that has attained beauty above and beyond the dung-hill, has done so in these places. The entire Mediterranean class, the entire Asiatic class, the majority of the Continental class, all of these breeds are what they are because of work in America in Britain, primarily.

This latter reality explains more lucidly my original comment about breeds that are much more American than half of the American class ever will be or ever was, for that matter. Almost all the poultry in the world is American or British. True, raw materials were brought from other places, as with the Java, but they are what they are because of America and England. Moreover, these two were always sending stock back and forth for a century. Thus, American poultry is not actually American poultry without these. American poultry without Buckeyes would go on as always, as it always did, but American poultry without Light Brahmas, Buff Cochins, Brown Leghorns, Silver Spangled Hamburgs isn't really American poultry.

 

[bbishop]

Dominque barred rock red rocks rir wyandottes red stars jersey giants