Siciliana chicken

The Siciliana is an ancient breed of chicken from the Italian island of Sicily. It is notable for its unusual double or rose comb, for the early age at which birds reach maturity, and for the unusual shape of the eggs. The Sicilian Buttercup, bred in Australia, Great Britain and the North America, derives from it, but its long separation from the original stock has led to marked differences between the two.

Siciliana
Conservation statusRecovering
Country of originSicily, Italy
Traits
Weight
  • Male:
    2.0–2.4 kg
  • Female:
    1.6–1.8 kg
Skin colorYellow
Egg colorVariable, white to light brown
Comb typeCrown
Classification

History
Gallus turcicus, from the Ornithologiae tomus alter of Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522–1605)

The Siciliana appears to derive from ancient inter-breeding of local Sicilian birds with North African stock[1] such as the rose-combed Berbera breed[2][3] or the Tripolitana described by Tucci.[4] These birds may have been similar to the "Gallus turcicus" described by Ulisse Aldrovandi in 1600.[5][6] Chickens similar to the Siciliana are depicted in 16th-century paintings in the Vatican Museums and the Galleria Borghese in Rome, and in Florence and Paris.[7][8]

In about 1863[9] or 1877,[10] a certain Cephas Dawes of Dedham, Mass, captain of the Frutiere, was loading oranges in Sicily and bought a number of chickens to provide meat on his homeward journey. Some of these continued to lay well during the voyage, and were kept for eggs instead. Some of them were later sold to one C. Carroll Loring, also of Dedham, who became the first breeder of what would become the Sicilian Buttercup.[9][10] All American Buttercups, however, descend from a later shipment of hatchlings, in 1892.[11]

In Sicily, the Siciliana was bred from 1913 by Francesco Tucci, director of the Istituto Zootecnico, or zoo-technical institute, of Palermo, who bred only gold-coloured birds and who established the first standard for the breed.[4] The Siciliana was described in 1922 by Ferruccio Frau-Sanna, who praised the work of Tucci but found stocks to be low and of uneven type.[12] The breed declined through most of the 20th century until by the 1980s it was all but extinct. In 1986 some examples were shown at Forlì, and interest in the breed was renewed; it was for some time among the breeds under the protection of the Stazione Sperimentale di Pollicoltura (experimental poultry-breeding station) of Rovigo[13] and of the Conservatorio delle Razze Avicole in Pericolo di Estinzione (centre for avian breeds in danger of extinction) of the Veneto region.[14]

In 2004 the Siciliana was included in the official standard of the Federazione Italiana Associazioni Avicole, the federation of Italian poultry associations, which is the national authority governing poultry breeding in Italy.[15]

Breed numbers remain low. A study published in 2007 used a figure of approximately 1000 for the total breeding stock, of which approximately 250 were cocks.[16]

Characteristics

Four colour varieties are recognised in the Siciliana: golden duckwing, black, white and, since June 2008, blue.[15][17] The legs are willow green, and the skin is soft and yellow. The comb is cup-shaped, the two parts joined at the front and preferably also at the back, preferably with 5 well-defined points on each side. The ear-lobes are red; some white is tolerated. Average weight is 2.0–2.4 kg (4.4–5.3 lb) for cocks, 1.6–1.8 kg (3.5–4.0 lb) for hens.

The eggs range from white to light brown in colour, and weigh at least 45 g. They are of an unusually elongated and pointed shape. Ring size is 18 mm for cocks, 16 mm for hens.[1][15]

The Siciliana matures early. Male chicks may begin to crow at four weeks[6] and display sexual behaviour at 40 days.[1] Pullets begin laying at four[6] or five months.[1]

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References
  1. Atlante delle razze di Polli - Razze italiane: Siciliana (in Italian) Accessed January 2012. "Atlas of chicken breeds - Italian breeds: Siciliana".
  2. Gentile, Giovanni; Calogero Tumminelli (eds.) (1929-39) Enciclopedia italiana di scienze, lettere ed arti, Vol. 27. (in Italian) [Roma]: Istituto Giovanni Treccani. p.701. "Italian encyclopaedia of science, literature and the arts".
  3. Razza berbera (b) (in Italian) Treccani Vocabolario online. Accessed January 2012.
  4. Tucci, Prof. Francesco (1931) Gli allevamenti del bestiame in Tripolitania (in Italian) Roma: Sindacato italiano arti grafiche. pp.201–205. "Stock-raising in Tripolitania".
  5. Aldrovandi, Ulisse (1600) Ornithologiae tomus alter...cum indice copiosissimo variarum linguarum (in Latin) Bononiae: apud Io. Bapt. Bellagamba. pp.314–316.
  6. Mersch, Nuele Crowned heads and green feet: Siciliana Erhaltungszuchtverein für sizilianische Hühnerrassen. Accessed January 2012
  7. Zanon, Alessio Siciliana (in Italian) Il Pollaio del Re. Accessed January 2012. "The Siciliana"
  8. [s.n.] (1925) Sicilian Buttercup Poultry tribune, Volume 31. Poultry-Dairy Pub. Co. p.50.
  9. United States Bureau of Animal Industry (1905) Twenty-first annual report of the Bureau of Animal Industry for the year 1904 Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. p.439.
  10. [s.n.] (1910) Is the Buttercup a daisy? The Country Gentleman, Volume 75. Albany, NY: Luther Tucker & Son. p.22
  11. Buttercup Chicken The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. Accessed January 2012.
  12. Frau-Sanna, Ferruccio (1922) Le razze da uova: monografia delle principali razze ovaiole; libro primo (in Italian) Genova: Caimo & C. "Egg-laying breeds: monograph on the principal breeds of layers; book one".
  13. Alcuni cenni storici (in Italian) Allevatori Gallina Siciliana. Archived 10 June 2012. "Some historical notes"
  14. Conservatorio delle Razze Avicole in Pericolo di Estinzione (in Italian) Regione Veneto: Consorzio per lo sviluppo avicunicolo e della selvaggina del Veneto. Accessed January 2012. "Centre for avian breeds in danger of extinction".
  15. Federazione Italiana delle Associazioni Avicole (2004) Notiziario "Avicoltura – Avicultura" (in Italian) April–June 2004.
  16. Spalona, A.; H. Ranvig, K. Cywa-Benko, A. Zanon, A. Sabbioni, I. Szalay, J. Benková, J. Baumgartner and T. Szwaczkowski (2007) Population size in conservation of local chicken breeds in chosen European countries – Populationsgrößen in Erhaltungszuchtprogrammen für einheimische Hühnerrassen in ausgewählten Ländern Europas Archiv für Geflügelkunde 71 (2). pp.49–55. Stuttgart: Eugen Ulmer. ISSN 0003-9098
  17. Siciliana Colorazione Blu (in Italian) Comitato Tecnico Scientifico, Federazione Italiana delle Associazioni Avicole. 1 June 2008. Accessed January 2012."Siciliana: blue colour".
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