Standard Varieties of Chickens:

Houdans

The three varieties of poultry in the French class are the Houdans, Crevecoeurs and La Fleche. Of these the Houdans (fig. 32) are conceded to be the most popular and profitable, being bred to a great extent throughout the entire country. They are hardy and prolific layers of large, white eggs. For table purposes they are among the best fowls. They have small bones and the flesh is tender and delicious. The chicks are sprightly, active, and feather rapidly. They are nonsitters and light feeders; like the Leghorns, they may be fed at a small cost as compared with some of the larger breeds. They are of medium size and of a mottled white plumage, black and white intermixed, the black slightly predominating, wing bars and secondaries, black; primaries, black and white intermixed. Houdans are a crested variety, having a leaf comb, shaped somewhat like the letter V, which rests against the crest; crest of cock is large, well fitted upon the crown of the head, falling backward upon the neck, and composed of feathers similar in shape and texture to those of the hackle. The crest of the female is large, compact, and regular, inclining backward in an unbroken mass. A peculiarity of the breed is their having five toes, like the Dorkings; shanks and toes are of a pinkish-white color.

The standard weight of cocks is 7 pounds (3.2 kg); hens, 6 pounds (2.7 kg); cockerels, 6 pounds (2.7 kg); and pullets, 5 pounds (2.3 kg).

FOR FURTHER READING...

The first image below comes from the Oklahoma State University Department of Animal Science's Poultry Breeds pages. The second and third images are from the FeatherSite, "an on-line zoological garden of domestic poultry". The Houdan page at Oklahoma and the Houdans page at FeatherSite contain further information about this breed's history and more images of these fowl. Clicking on each image takes you to the page specifically about that particular variety.

Image Credits (from left to right): Copyright © 1996, Oklahoma State University Board of Regents; Courtesy of Barry Koffler; Courtesy of Chris S.

Please note: These links point to pages that are being served off of the Oklahoma State University's web server and off the cyborganic.net web server, which are not part of the Chickscope project. Because of this, the pages may be missing or corrupted, and control of this is generally out of the hands of the Chickscope development team.

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