Orloffs

The Orloff is the national fowl of Russia. There for many years the peasants have endeavored to produce a fowl that would combine hardiness, freedom from disease, carcass of large size, good for table poultry and to combine with this heavy egg production. They have succeeded very well with this.

 

About thirty years ago some of these fowls were taken to England where they were named Cossacks. These fowls were bred very carefully in England where they were improved greatly as to size, shape, color and their peculiar adornments, of head which includes a comb that is very flat on the top of the head, wattles shown only on the male, very full development of beard and whiskers about the throat and up the side of the head on a level with the eyes.

 

In color one variety of them is dark mahogany, with rich dark orange trimming. In the description of them the color is described as a mixture black, mahogany and gray in the beard and muff, the back of the fowl, a rich deep mahogany shading into deep orange. There is also a spangled variety, a pure black and a pure white variety. So far, they have never been admitted to the Standard of Perfection.