THE BRAHMA FOWL

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3842, 4 December 1936, Page 3

THE BRAHMA FOWL

ONE OF THE WORLD’S BEST. The Brahma fowl is one of the breeds which came to England from Asia during what is known as the Asiatic boom of the middle of the 19th century. It is a large handsome fowl, a layer of brown eggs: and it lays well in the winter months. It is not a good table bird because it takes rather a long time to mature, owing to its heavily feathered body, yet in the adult stage it carries a lot of flesh, particularly on the thighs. There are two varieties, the- light and the dark, and both from the plumage aspect, are very beautiful. The light has white body feathers, with beautifully striped neck hackles; the tail is black; the wing primaries are black edged with white; the foot feathering is black and white, mixed. The darks are really more beautiful than the lights and mere varied in colour. The cocks have a silvery white head; neck and saddle hackles are silvery white striped with black; the breast and under-parts of the body are rich glossy black; the back is white, except between the shoulders where the feathers are black laced with white; the primaries are black; wing and tail coverts black edged with white; tail black. The hens have a silvery white head striped with black; red hackles like that of the cocks; tail black edged with grey; the rest of the body is grey, finely pencilled with grey of a darker shade. The head is small and carries a triple comb. The body is profusely feathered and the plumage is fairly close. As becomes such a large bird, the Brahma is sedate, in carriage, but fairly active. Cocks weigh from 10 lb, to 12 lb, hens from 7 lb, to 9 lb.