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These
would have to be one of my all time favourites. I find them a very
beautiful bird, jet black background with a beetle green sheen (including the
hens), and beautiful crisp white tipping in a 'V' shape on their feathers.
From the moment I first saw one it looked to me as though they were lightly
dusted with snowflakes.
We have found
the Ancona to be a wonderful bird, with generally a quite disposition. We
even have them following us around looking for that next treat or hoping that we
are going to dig up some dirt for them to scratch around in!
However, if you do not give them the time when they are young, treat them
gently & quietly, they can be as flighty as most Mediterranean breeds.
The original Ancona
is named after the Italian province from which the breed came. It is an
old breed & can be dated back to at least the seventeenth century.
They come in both Large, Bantam and can have either a straight comb or rose comb.
The
Ancona has continued to be very popular even today, being known as a hardy
breed, that loves to forage under free range conditions and due
to it being quite economical on the feed, the Ancona has also been known to
adapt very well to intensive conditions.
The
Ancona is not a breed that will normally go broody, and therefore, will continue
to lay very good size white eggs throughout the year.
The Standard calls for a
red face, free of feathers, white lobes, leg colouring should be yellow with
black mottling. Each feather should have a white 'V' shape tip and should
have a background colouring of black with beetle green sheen. |
