Historic Chicken Breeds

Right, so I thought I'd share some of the interesting information I've dug up recently on chicken breeds and just where they came from. Many of these pics are borrowed from www.feathersite.com which is a great resource on chicken information.

All domestic chickens are descended from the Asian Red Junglefowl. It's scientific classification is Gallus gallus, and it has been genetically proven as the original species in the Gallus genus. Gotta love modern science backing up what breeders had been trying to prove for centuries. Now, in all fairness, the Grey Junglefowl was in an overlapping territory in the Indian Peninsula at the same time in history, and many modern breeds carry that genetic mix as well, however the first artwork and records from a couple thousand years ago indicate that it was the Reds that were originally kept domestically in Asia for both meat and eggs. Chicken breeding, you will see, has many Asian roots, and some of the most popular variations and specialized breeds started over there. Notice how this wild Junglefowl looks like a cross between Chanticleer and a pheasant! For whatever reason, this original Asian bird had tail feathers that didn't molt out, but got long and dangly. The hens have almost no waddle or comb.

Domesticated fowl from Asia and India began being imported to Greece by 500BC, according to Wiki's article. Chickens are, by nature, quite loyal to whoever feeds them, and wherever the good shelter is, so they would have been an easy animal for small crofters to keep.

Today, the Red Junglefowl is a closely watched breed, having nearly gone extinct, but they really are best left in the wild, as they do not domesticate well! A single person can train them to accept food from them, and they will get used to their presence, but strangers put them in a total panic. It does beg the question of who was patient and foresighted enough to breed generations of these birds to breed out the "crazy-wild-thing" attitude? Probably some ancient Asian farmer befriended some, or raised peeps he stole from a hen, and voila! Fried chicken was born!

Zoos have had many failed attempts at displaying Junglefowl because they are just SO flighty and wild. Recently the originals have been deliberately crossed with modern bantams to get a friendlier bird that still looks the same. Now, the closest breeds to the originals (in appearance) that are commonly found today are the Phoenix, and the Yokohama.

Here is a modern domesticated Red Jungleflowl, this picture was taken of one in Laos. You can be sure this is a hybridized bird, however, there is a lot of resemblance, dark legs, long tail feathers, distinct coloration.

Here is a modern Silver Phoenix hen. This one is mine, her name is Wild Thing. Body shape and patterning is the same as the Junglefowl of old, merely a more pale color set.

 Here is a Silver Phoenix cockerel, check out the fancy tail! The gene for the non-shedding tail feathers can be deliberately perpetuated, obviously.

And then we have the Japanese Yokohama chickens. There is not a Yokohama breed in Japan, that was simply the name the American breeder gave his line of birds that had been shipped to him from the port of Yokohama, Japan. These birds have the pea-comb, rather than the more game-cock style comb. This boy is the Blue and Red variety. Grey chest and underfeathers, gold hackles and red saddle.

So, that leads me up to some recent acquisitions, my pair of Blue and Red Phoenix/Yokohama crossed birds. They do have the pea-combs, rather than the tall comb on the original reds, but their color is lovely!

They are relatively easy to handle, and have a lot of the lanky body type of the original Junglefowl and hold their tails the same way. They also have dark legs, gold hackles, and a red saddle. The female looks just like Wild Thing did as a pullet but with gold in substitute of her silver.

The Asians have had a love of showing off their birds for thousands of years, and have been breeding for specific attributes since the first Junglefowl was kept in a cage. Then at some point, someone got a genetic mutation where the binding between the hairs on the feather shaft no longer made a solid feather.
And the Silkie chicken was created!

Marco Polo described the very unusual Asian chicken in 1298 as having "hair like a cat, and black skin"...not that you can SEE the skin on this bird!

You can actually get spontaneous Silkie feathering on just about any breed of bantam if you do too much straight line breeding (deliberate inbreeding for a specific trait). Weird, huh? Well, the Silkies left their genetics behind when cross bred throughout Europe in the middle ages for small, cute, and easy to handle chickens. In colonial times, it was considered a status symbol to have Silkies loose in your yard as it implied you could afford to have expensive, and purely ornamental imported birds. Silkies are passable seasonal layers, but their best trait if you are a breeder is that they are very broody in general, and will happily sit on, and hatch out eggs belonging to any sort of bird. They are known for being very tame, and are usually quite happy to be held or sit in your lap for hours on end.

These cute powder-puff chickens come in many colors, primarily hues in the black to white range, as well as buff. A few clever folks have bred Partridge colored silkies (brown and gold mottled) and a few other varieties, but the vast majority are white, silver, blue, splash (grey with darker mottling), black, and buff.

Here is a silver splash baby:

I have decided to name that one Lint. She has siblings I have been calling Pouf and Fluff, but perhaps better names will surface for them.

Next time on Historical Chicken Breeds will be the Marans, and the d'Anvers (both French breeds).

I haven't done an egg count yet for today, but yesterday was 7 (3 of which were blue, my young Americaunas are getting more consistent, yay!), and the day before that was 12.