 Hen | |
| Conservation status | FAO (2007): bantam: endangered [1] : 84 |
|---|---|
| Other names |
|
| Country of origin | Netherlands |
| Traits | |
| Weight | |
| Egg colour | white [4] [5] |
| Comb type | single |
| Classification | |
| APA | no [6] |
| EE | yes [7] |
| PCGB | rare soft feather: light [8] |
| |
The Friesian or Frisian, Dutch : Fries Hoen, is an ancient Dutch breed of chicken. It originates in Friesland, on the North Sea coast of the northern Netherlands. [9]
The Friesian originated in Friesland in the northern Netherlands, and is thought to be an ancient breed. It is apparently related to other breeds in the area such as the Assendelfts Hoen, the Drentse Hoen, the Groninger Meeuw, the Hollands Hoen, the Ostfriesische Möwe and the Westfälischer Totleger. [10] The earliest written description may be that by R. Houwink in his Overzicht van alle bekende hoenderrassen, in hunne vormen en kleuren of 1909. [11] From the early twentieth century the Friesian was supplanted as an egg-layer by more productive breeds such as the Barnevelder, the Leghorn, the Rhode Island Red and the Welsumer. [11] During the First World War, it was not among the breeds for which a feed subsidy was available, and numbers fell. A breed society, the Fryske Hinne Klub, was formed in 1922. [11] A monograph on the breed, Ús Fryske Hinnen by F. Hoogeveen, was published in 1947. [10] A German breed society, the Sonderverein der Friesenhühner und Zwergfriesenhühner, was established in 1998. [10]
There are both standard-sized and bantam Friesians. The standard fowl is a light breed: cocks weigh 1.4–1.6 kg and hens 1.2–1.4 kg; [2] the bantam is very small. [3] : 118
The birds stand fairly upright, and hold their tails high. The eyes are large and dark orange; the earlobes are small, oval and white; the comb is single, red, rather small, and has five or six serrations; the beak is horn-coloured; the legs are white in the cuckoo-patterned variety, slate-blue in all others. [12] [3] : 118
Twelve colour varieties are recognised in the Netherlands, eleven in Germany, and three – chamois-pencilled, gold-pencilled and silver-pencilled – in the United Kingdom. [12] [7]
The hens are good layers of white eggs. [12] They may give approximately 200 eggs per year, with an average weight of 52 g. [4] Bantam hens lay about 120 eggs per year; the average weight is 30 g. [5]
The Welsummer or Welsumer is a Dutch breed of domestic chicken. It originates in the small village of Welsum, in the eastern Netherlands. It was bred at the beginning of the twentieth century from local fowls of mixed origin: Rhode Island Reds, Barnevelders, Partridge Leghorns, Cochins, and Wyandottes. In 1922–23, steps were taken to fix a standard after the birds began to show a good deal of uniformity. The eggs were originally exported for the commercial egg trade. Some stock was exported to the United Kingdom, and the breed was added to the British Standard in 1930.
The Orpington is a British breed of chicken. It was bred in the late nineteenth century by William Cook of Orpington, at that time in Kent in south-east England. It was intended to be a dual-purpose breed, to be reared both for eggs and for meat, but soon became exclusively a show bird. The Australorp of Australia derives from it.
The Malay Game is a breed of game chicken. It is among the tallest breeds of chicken, and may stand over 90 cm high.
The Sussex is a British breed of dual-purpose chicken, reared both for its meat and for its eggs. Eight colours are recognised for both standard-sized and bantam fowl. A breed association, the Sussex Breed Club, was organised in 1903.
The Plymouth Rock is an American breed of domestic chicken. It was first seen in Massachusetts in the nineteenth century and for much of the early twentieth century was the most widely kept chicken breed in the United States. It is a dual-purpose bird, raised both for its meat and for its brown eggs. It is resistant to cold, easy to manage, and a good sitter.
The Dominique is an American breed of chicken, characterized by black-and-white barred plumage and a rose comb. It is considered to be the oldest American chicken breed, and is thought to derive from birds brought to America by colonists from southern England. It was well known by about 1750, and by the mid-nineteenth century was widely distributed in the eastern United States. It is a dual-purpose breed, but is kept principally for its brown eggs. It became an endangered breed in the twentieth century, but numbers have since recovered.
The Hamburg, Dutch: Hollands hoen, German: Hamburger, is a breed of chicken which is thought to have originated in Holland sometime prior to the fourteenth century. The name may be spelled Hamburgh in the United Kingdom and in Australia.
The New Hampshire Red or New Hampshire is an American breed of chicken. It was developed in the early twentieth century in the state of New Hampshire by selective breeding of Rhode Island Red stock; no other breed was involved. It is fast-growing, early-maturing, quick-feathering, and yields a meaty carcass. Mature birds are a light or medium red in color; they may fade in sunlight.
The Minorca, Catalan: Gallina de Menorca, Spanish: Menorquina, is a breed of domestic chicken originating in the Mediterranean island of Menorca, in the Balearic Islands to the south-east of Spain. It is a well-known exhibition bird in many countries of the world, but in the island of Menorca is an endangered breed and considered to be at risk of extinction.
The Sumatra is a European and North American breed of chicken. It derives from birds imported in the nineteenth century from the island of Sumatra in Indonesia as fighting cocks.
The Dutch Bantam is a breed of bantam chicken originating in the Netherlands. It is a true bantam, a naturally small bird with no related large fowl from which it was miniaturized. It is kept mainly for exhibition, and has been bred in many color varieties; it is a good layer of small eggs.
The Booted Bantam or Dutch Booted Bantam is a European breed of true bantam chicken. It is characterised by abundant feathering on the feet and shanks, which gives it a "booted" appearance; and by vulture hocks, long stiff downward-pointing feathers on backs of the thighs, from which the Dutch name Sabelpoot ("sabre-legged") derives.
The Asil or Aseel is an Indian breed or group of breeds of game chicken. It is distributed in much of India, particularly in the states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha; it has been exported to several other countries. Similar fowl are found throughout much of Southeast Asia.
The Bergische Kräher is a German breed of domestic chicken from the Bergisches Land, in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany. It is named for its unusually long crow, up to five times as long as that of other breeds, and belongs to the group of long-crowing chicken breeds, which are found from south-east Europe to the Far East.
The Bielefelder Kennhuhn or Bielefelder is a German breed of domestic chicken. It was developed in the area of Bielefeld in the 1970s by Gerd Roth, who cross-bred birds of Malines and Welsumer stock with American Barred Rocks to create the breed. Like other breeds with Barred Rock parentage, it is auto-sexing – chicks of different sexes can be distinguished by their colour. There is a bantam version, the Bielefelder Zwerg-Kennhuhn.
The Augsburger is an endangered German breed of domestic chicken. It originates from the area of the city of Augsburg, in the Swabian region of the state of Bavaria, in southern Germany. It was bred in the nineteenth century, and derives mostly from the French La Flèche breed. It is the only chicken breed of Bavarian origin.
The Yakido is a Japanese breed of fighting chicken. It belongs to the Shamo group of breeds. It was bred in the Kansai region in southern Honshu in the mid-nineteenth century. It was made a Natural Monument of Japan in 1950.
The Niederrheiner is a German breed of chicken. It is named for the Niederrhein or Lower Rhine region where it originated in the early twentieth century, and derives principally from the Dutch North Holland Blue meat chicken. It was recognized in Germany in 1943. In the twenty-first century it is an endangered breed.
The Appenzeller Barthuhn is a Swiss breed of bearded chicken originating in the historical Appenzell region of Switzerland. It is one of two chicken breeds from that area, the other being the Appenzeller Spitzhauben; the only other Swiss breed of chicken is the Schweizer.
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