IN THE POULTRY YARD

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18629, 26 July 1930, Page 13

IN THE POULTRY YARD

GENUINE _ FANCIES. The following paragraph from a ' Home paper gives a good illustration' of what constitutes a “genuine fan- j cier”:—The salvation of the fancy is! the variety of tastes of the fanciers.! Now, I admit that many so-called; fanciers arc no fanciers at all. Their birds represent so much cash, and honour in prizes, cups, etc., and they don't care a farthing candle what the sort is, provided it pays, and there may be those who have been forced, by passing admiration, to take up varieties who have now got tired of them, and would gladly change, only their money is in them, and they cannot see their way profitably out. All the same, there are genuine admirers of sorts that really do love the varieties, as they love, perhaps, nothing else in the lower animal life. They never look at any other breed but their own at a show. They will stand idly for hours, or in conversation, after they have looked their own sorts up, and never dream of going rountl to look at anything else. Such are the game men, both ancient (I beg pardon, “Old English”) and modern. Style, shape, reach, colour, they can talk harder on these than a horse can kick. Another sample of the genuine fancier is the “Any Variety Bantam” fancier. As a general rule he abhors anything of a game nature. The lovely lacing of a Sebright, the exquisite pencilling of a partridge Pekin, or evenness of colour of a buff, the marvellous barring of a Scotch Grey, or a little barrel rock bantam, well, at it, he is constantly throwing up his hands in ecstasy. Mark the Hamburg man. He is a man of courage, who dare say, “Come and let us look at the Brahmas and Cochins, Indian game, and Wyandottes,” to a genuine old hand in the Hamburg line. Such a one walks backwards and forwards interminably, along the rows of his favourites. The only thing you can safely mention to him is a drink — or luncheon, or a Hamburg Club meeting. And then watch those Buff Or- ■ pington and Buff Rock men. Said a i lady to me once, “I wonder what they I see. Every bird is as like its neigh- | bour as one sheep is to another.” \ You can tell the real genuine fancier by marking his “beat” at the show. ! It never gets beyond a few yards past j the breeds, or varieties, he idolises.

A Radnor-Suffolk ewe in England is reported to have given birth to four lambs, all of which are alive and doing well. This is the fourth time she has produced a quartette, and the total number of lambs born to her is 29.