66 | <strong>Good</strong> <strong>Organic</strong> <strong>Garden<strong>in</strong>g</strong> Ch<strong>in</strong>a girl Not just a good looker, the Australian Langshan, orig<strong>in</strong>ally from Ch<strong>in</strong>a, is also a champion layer
Australian Langshan | FEATHERED FRIENDS Full-size Australian Lanshan and bantam. Owners adore the friendly bantams Words & photos Megg Miller Which chook breed is best? If you go look<strong>in</strong>g among the various types, you’ll be sure to f<strong>in</strong>d one you like — but will it put eggs on the table? There is one purebred that can give the ISA Browns of the world a nudge when it comes to egg output. The Australian Langshan is the top choice for susta<strong>in</strong>ed egg lay. It’s a very docile bird that enjoys great success on the show bench and its unusual utility properties don’t seem all that affected by concentrated selection for exhibition po<strong>in</strong>ts. Many breeders take pride <strong>in</strong> conserv<strong>in</strong>g the utility side of their fowls, so the breed’s numerous stra<strong>in</strong>s produce pullets that lay outstand<strong>in</strong>gly. Well-kept secret Aussie Langshans are only now becom<strong>in</strong>g backyard birds. They should be better known but they simply haven’t received the commercial support that pushed the Australorp to the forefront and made it famous. For many decades, too, the Aussie Langshan wasn’t well known <strong>in</strong> the southern states. If you were a Victorian or South Australian, you’d have had to look very hard to locate breeders. Langies, as they are affectionately called, were northern birds; there was an unsubstantiated belief they did better <strong>in</strong> warmer climes. Southern states were for big-bodied, heavy-feathered breeds such as the Sussex. Better communication and more travel have enabled birds to be shared around and now Australian Langshans are well distributed Australia-wide. Matter of identity If you look for Langshans onl<strong>in</strong>e, you will discover there is a family of them. We’re careful <strong>in</strong> this country to identify our <strong>in</strong>terpretation of the breed as Australian Langshan. For many decades, it was called Ch<strong>in</strong>ese Langshan because of its orig<strong>in</strong>s but after 80 years on Australian soil, it was renamed Australian Langshan. Also <strong>in</strong> this country are Croad Langshan, a distant relative of our Aussie Langshans and a whopp<strong>in</strong>g big bird of impressive stature. Overseas there are Modern Langshan, longlegged specimens with a keen follow<strong>in</strong>g. The Croad and the Modern are <strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g fowls but we’re concentrat<strong>in</strong>g on the Aussie Langshan because of its suitability to backyard food producers. Chequered history Orig<strong>in</strong>ally from the Nantong region of Ch<strong>in</strong>a, Langshans were <strong>in</strong>troduced to Australia sometime around 1900. A Sydney-based steward work<strong>in</strong>g on steamers trad<strong>in</strong>g with Shanghai collected a few Ch<strong>in</strong>ese fowl, found they were great layers and so sought them out on each subsequent trip. These small, black fowls were rem<strong>in</strong>iscent of Croad Langshan, a popular breed that had been taken to England <strong>in</strong> the 1870s. Croads had impressed their new owners with w<strong>in</strong>ter lay<strong>in</strong>g and their large, purple-brown eggs. The small, black hens, once <strong>in</strong>troduced here, were passed around and one enterpris<strong>in</strong>g owner entered a flock <strong>in</strong> the 1906 lay<strong>in</strong>g competition at Hawkesbury College. Entered as Ch<strong>in</strong>ese Langshan, the birds astounded everyone, their output over the two years of the trial establish<strong>in</strong>g them as outstand<strong>in</strong>g layers. This led to much surreptitious cross<strong>in</strong>g with Black Orp<strong>in</strong>gtons, the lead<strong>in</strong>g layer of the day. The end result was the development of the Australorp. An octogenarian who worked for the Department of Agriculture remembers sort<strong>in</strong>g day-old commercial chicks back <strong>in</strong> the 1940s and f<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g many of the Australorps had feathered legs, a sign that Langshan had been bred <strong>in</strong>to parent l<strong>in</strong>es, probably to improve egg lay. The Australorp went on to become a A Sydney-based steward work<strong>in</strong>g on steamers trad<strong>in</strong>g with Shanghai collected a few Ch<strong>in</strong>ese fowl, found they were great layers and so sought them out on each subsequent trip. <strong>Good</strong> <strong>Organic</strong> <strong>Garden<strong>in</strong>g</strong> | 67