Introducing the Ukrainian indigenous poultry — the Poltava chickens

The series of poultry breeds of Ukraine by Drs Mikhail Romanov and Yuri Bondarenko continues with chickens from the region of Poltava. To get more information or to discuss terms of supplying Ukrainian poultry breeds and strains, please contact the authors at: Poultry Research Institute, Borki, Zmiyov District, Kharkov Region, 313410, Ukraine. Telefax: (05747) 3 49 58.

Origin

Poltava is one of the central and long-established regions of the Ukraine, with the old traditions of livestock breeding and farming. Here, during an expeditionary survey in the 1920's, three varieties of native...

...1928 showed that among 161 native Ukrainian hens, 42 hybrid and 35 chickens of foreign breeds, the best layers were two Poltava Clays which produced respectively 169 and 164 eggs for 259 days of test. The Poltava Clays were also the first at the second All-Ukrainian egg production competition in 1928-1929.

In 1950 a special order of the Ministry of Agriculture of Ukraine drew attention of regional and...

...yellow (controlled by gene Id).

At present, the Poltava Clay chickens are spread in the Mirgorod District of Poltava, in Kharkov and other regions, at the Poultry Research Institute Experimental Husbandry in Borki and at the collection farms of the All-Russian Poultry Research and Technological Institute and All-Russian Research Institute of Animal Breeding and Genetics. By 1 January 1985, there were 714,385 Poltava Clays at the collective and state farms of the former USSR.

There are now three dual purpose Poltava Clay lines in Borki which are under selection. Besides, a line resistant to neoplasms has been produced. In all, about 3,300 purebred Clay chickens are kept at the Institute...