The Poland

In all the breeds of Poultry in this country, one that can lay claim to be the most decorative and ornamental is the Poland, with their fantastic ‘Tennis Ball’ shaped crest of tightly packed feathers on their head and in some of the colours this is accompanied by a full beard and muffling.

- Stuart Key

The exact origin of the birds is as usual open to discussion amongst the historians.

Remains of birds with similar shaped skulls have been found by explorers in some of the old Roman sites in Britain almost proving that they have been here for at least 2,000 years.

It is thought by many writers from the past that the Poland was created from the Padua or Patavinian fowls, which in turn could have been associated with several other different Russian breeds, however it was in Holland that breeders perfected the birds into the fine specimens that we now admire, possibly by using some birds known as ‘Crested Dutch’.

Polands have always been a favourite bird to be painted by artists from many countries around the world. There are examples of these paintings right through from the seventeenth century. The point that is worth mentioning when discussing the breeds origin is that they have always been standardised in two types; one with full beard and muffling and then the white crested birds that are clean faced, which suggests that Polands could have been developed by using different breeds.

Whatever their origin Polands in the twenty first century are very eye catching and always attract a lot of admiration from visitors to the shows.