poultry

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poultry were probably introduced to Ireland from Roman Britain. From earliest times they have been kept for both meat and eggs. Intensive, large‐scale poultry keeping, however, developed only during the late 19th century. By 1900 there were about 18.5 million poultry in Ireland, more than three times the number recorded in 1850.

During the 1890s, there was much official debate on the necessity of reorganizing the Irish egg trade. Poultry‐keeping had become a major source of income for farm women, who used the profits to obtain items such as tea, sugar, or clothing. By 1900, even tiny western farms might keep flocks of around 100 chickens. It was estimated that 20 hens equalled a cow in value, and on many of these smallholdings only one cow was kept. Irish eggs, however, had a very poor reputation with retailers. Poultry breeds were not systematically improved, and there were allegations that both farm women and the shopkeepers or egg merchants with whom they dealt held on to eggs until prices rose, with the result that they were often inedible by the time they reached urban markets. In 1897, merchants in Liverpool and Glasgow threatened to boycott Irish eggs if the situation did not improve.

Public bodies, including the Congested Districts Board and the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, attempted to improve poultry breeding by distributing cockerels, pullets, and eggs to small farmers. This succeeded to the extent that breeds such as the Leghorn, Dorking, Brahma, and Frizzle became common. Poultry keeping classes and egg‐laying competitions were organized, and these also had a significant effect. After 1897, the Irish Agricultural Organization Society began to encourage the formation of local societies to collect, grade, and pack eggs. By 1900, 21 specialist egg societies were established. This development had a major effect, despite complaints from farm women that it would lead to the transfer of income to the control of men. During the 1920s, legislation in both the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland required eggs to be tested and graded before packing, and intensive poultry farming became one of the most profitable aspects of Irish farming.

Bibliography

Bolger, P. , The Irish Co‐operative Movement (1977)

Jonathan Bell

poultry domesticated fowl kept primarily for meat and eggs; including birds of the order Galliformes, e.g., the chicken, turkey , guinea fowl , pheasant , quail , and peacock ; and natatorial (swimming) birds, e.g., the duck and goose . Several poultry birds, including the chicken and the goose, were domesticated over 3,000 years ago. The chief poultry bird is the chicken, which probably originated as a jungle fowl in SW Asia. Until recently, poultry were raised for domestic and commercial use on many farms in the United States. Large-scale producers now virtually monopolize the poultry industry. Specialized hatcheries deliver chicks fresh from the incubator to commercial growers, who mass-produce birds under precisely controlled conditions on diets scientifically calculated to produce rapid growth to market size, for delivery to processors. Many distinct chicken breeds, once appreciated for their particular combinations of characteristics, have been combined through selective breeding into a few relatively standard types that are notably efficient converters of feed into meat or eggs. The dominant meat chicken today is a cross between the fast-growing female White Plymouth Rock chicken, and the deep-breasted male Cornish chicken (see Cornish hen ). The predominant egg type in the United States today is the White Leghorn chicken . Dual-purpose meat-and-egg breeds have all but disappeared. Turkeys have been similarly standardized. Because of their lower cost and lower fat content, chicken and turkey are increasingly popular protein sources with American consumers, rivaling pork and even beef in per capita consumption. A few breeds of chicken are raised chiefly for their ornamental appearance or as pets. These include the Polish varieties, characterized by their large showy crests; the fighting, or game, varieties, still bred where cockfighting is popular; and the Bantams, which are primarily miniature counterparts of standard breeds.

Bibliography: See R. Moreng and J. Avens, Poultry Science and Production (1985); R. E. Austic and M. C. Nesheim, Poultry Production (13th ed. 1990).

poultry General term for farmyard birds (as opposed to wild game birds) kept for eggs and/or meat; chicken, duck, goose, guinea fowl, pigeon, and turkey.

poul·try / ˈpōltrē/ • n. domestic fowl, such as chickens, turkeys, ducks, and geese.

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