Cochinisation And Orpingtonisation

Expert poultry man Fred Hams considers the 'utility' features in these pure breeds today – and the so called 'feather duster effect'.

- Fred Hams



My last notes that tried to show how exhibition selection saw Cochins and Brahmas lose most of their early utility potential. (Utility as in being useful for both eggs and meat). One could easily use the whole of another edition following the similar development that rapidly saw William Cook’s utility bred Orpingtons soon become almost become almost pastiches’ of the fluffiest Cochins.

That a winning Black Orpington of today would have won in say 1905 (and probably visa-versa) may be of interest to poultry historians but of far greater importance to those interested in pure-breed development as useful fowl (in terms of egg and meat production), is a continued process that has led to the probable extinction of the utility forms of most once important main-line laying and dual purpose breeds.

The Orpingtons become almost fluffier and feathery than those disparate strains of Asiatic fowl that later became known as Cochins. These were coming via ports along thousands of miles coast inevitably containing the widest possible genetic diversity, including the useful group that could be labelled ‘the Langshan factor’ and another far less useful set that could, tong in cheek, described as the ‘Feather Duster effect’.

Useful Langshans

These ‘Langshans’ would all seem to have come from the Shanghai region of China and included the probably more useful (utility) of the first imports that were in fact for years simply labelled Shanghai’s and an 1890 direct importation by Major Croad of fowl that first became known by the then in vogue regional name ‘Langshan’, and those latter selected on the more utility lines becoming known as Croad Langshans.