Combs, wattles and feathered legs: Keeping poultry cool on your smallholding (From Smallholder)

Combs, wattles and feathered legs: Keeping poultry cool on your smallholding

8:10am Friday 6th August 2010 in

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Sometimes known as ‘head furnishings’ or ‘furniture’; one of the most distinctive features of a chicken are its comb and wattles. The main reason for both are to act as a cooling system because, like a dog (which uses its panting tongue to lose heat), birds cannot sweat , so the chicken cools itself by circulating blood through its comb and wattles, thereby dissipating body heat.

Bearing in mind the fact that breeds such as the Ancona, Minorca and Leghorn originate in Mediterranean countries which are obviously hot for a good portion of the year, it is therefore logical that their combs are, in general, large and usually stand proud or flop away from the head; giving the largest possible expanse of area through which heat can be lost.

What makes less sense however, is the fact that some breeds such as the Malay, come from even hotter countries and yet only have a walnut comb and virtually no wattles to speak of – they are though, relatively sparsely feathered and so that may help.

The Transylvanian Naked Neck takes the importance of heat loss a stage further: at first glance, this unusual-looking chicken seems like a bird that has spent its life with its head and neck through the bars of a battery cage as virtually its entire head and neck is bare of feathering.

Knowing that any reduction in feather mass improves the chances of heat loss, its originators bred it in such a way so as to create a commercially viable table bird far less likely to be stressed by high ambient temperatures. Chicken feathers come in many colours and patterns, and provide both insulation and waterproofing.

The condition of a bird’s feathers is maintained through preening, which takes up a large proportion of its day and involves both dust-bathing and applying oil from a gland at the base of the tail.

From a zoological point of view, feathers are composed of keratin, like hair and horn, and correspond to the scales of a fish. And, like scales, they overlap one another.

Obviously not all birds have the same amount of feathering – some breeds have feathers right down their legs and may also have feather beards and crests.

When you consider some that do carry the latter and look at the winter temperatures of the country from which they are said to originate, there is again some logic in the fact that, rather than a large exposed comb, several of these breeds have a small, sometimes almost non-existent comb which is then protected by a combination of muffs, beards and crests – surely nature’s way of preventing heat loss?

Some feathers are purely ornamental, almost always in the males, such as the sickle feathers in the tail, the saddle, wing shoulders and the neck.

Although in the case of the neck hackles they have not only a sexual purpose in the same way as a peacock’s tail, but also in making the cock look far more aggressive towards a possible contender for his harem when they are raised in fight mode.

It is not only the obvious contenders that might face a sparring cock bird with his hackles raised.

Despite generations of domesticity a cockerel in India will adopt exactly the same position upon encountering a snake. While those of us who have kept chickens, especially the tenacious bantam, will no doubt have suffered at some time or another from a male bird who will insist on flying at the back of your legs, hackles set in a ruff formation and spurs set ready to do the maximum amount of damage.

This willingness to fight at the least provocation has, of course, led to many cruelties at the hand of man, and cock-fighting was extremely popular in schools as early as the twelth century – with the knowledge and encouragement of the masters, some of whom actually bred birds to sell to the pupils.

Before a fight and during training, the cock’s feathers were trimmed: the neck feathers clipped from head to shoulders and the wings cut to a point.

The rump and hackle feathers were also shortened while the comb was cut as short as possible (dubbed) in order to reduce the target area when pitted against an opponent.

It is however, interesting to see contemporary paintings of fighting cocks in full feather as portrayed by the likes of J. F. Herring, senior, as they are shown with full combs, wattles and, in some cases, even feathered legs.