Conservation status | Livestock Conservancy: Watch [1] |
---|---|
Country of origin | United States |
Traits | |
Weight |
|
Skin color | yellow |
Egg color | brown |
Comb type | single |
Classification | |
APA | American [3] |
ABA | single comb, clean legged |
PCGB | rare soft feather: heavy [4] |
|
The Jersey Giant is an American breed of domestic chicken. It was created in Burlington County, New Jersey, in the late nineteenth century. [5] As the name suggests, it is a large breed, and is among the heaviest of all chicken breeds. [5]
The Jersey Giant was created by John and Thomas Black; with the intent of replacing the turkey, the kind of poultry used primarily for meat at the time.[ citation needed ] It was produced by crossing black Javas, black Langshans, and dark Brahmas, and was added to the Standard of Perfection of the American Poultry Association in 1922. The white variety was added in 1947, and the blue in 2002. [3] The black is, on average, a pound heavier than the white.[ citation needed ] Though its present size is considerable, it was heavier in the past. [6] For a time, these birds were raised as capons and as broilers by the meat industry until faster-growing modern industrial strains put an end to this use. [2]
A large amount of food and time is required for the Jersey Giant to reach its full size. The Jersey Giant is a calm and docile breed. The cocks are rarely aggressive. The hens lay very large brown eggs, and are fair layers overall, known particularly as good winter layers. The birds are robust and fairly cold-hardy. The breed's plumage comes in blue as well as black and white; legs are willow in hue. Jersey Giant hens will go broody. [2]
The American Game is an American breed of game fowl, chickens bred specifically for cockfighting. It has many color varieties, and may also be kept for ornament.
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 Cochin is a breed of large domestic chicken. It derives from large feather-legged chickens brought from China to Europe and North America in the 1840s and 1850s. It is reared principally for exhibition. It was formerly known as Cochin-China.
The Indian Game is a British breed of game chicken, now reared either for meat or show. It originated in the early nineteenth century in the counties of Cornwall and Devon in south-west England. It is a heavy, muscular bird with an unusually broad breast; the eggs are brown.
The Brahma is an American breed of chicken. It was bred in the United States from birds imported from the Chinese port of Shanghai, and was the principal American meat breed from the 1850s until about 1930.
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 Wyandotte is an American breed of chicken developed in the 1870s. It was named for the indigenous Wyandot people of North America. The Wyandotte is a dual-purpose breed, kept for its brown eggs and its yellow-skinned meat. It is a popular show bird, and has many color variants. It was originally known as the American Sebright.
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 California Gray is an American breed of domestic chicken. It may be also known as the "production black".
The Buckeye is an American breed of chicken. It was created in Ohio in the late nineteenth century by Nettie Metcalf. The color of its plumage was intended to resemble the color of the seeds of Aesculus glabra, the Ohio Buckeye plant for which the state is called the 'Buckeye State'.
The Faverolles is a French breed of chicken. The breed was developed in the 1860s in north-central France, in the vicinity of the villages of Houdan and Faverolles. The breed was given the name of the latter village and the singular is thus also Faverolles, not Faverolle. The final "s" is silent in French.
The Nankin Bantam or Nankin is a British bantam breed of chicken. It is a true bantam, a naturally small breed with no large counterpart from which it was miniaturised. It is of South-east Asian origin, and is among the oldest bantam breeds. It is a yellowish buff colour, and the name is thought to derive from the colour of nankeen cotton from China.
The Rhode Island White is a breed of chicken originating in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. Despite their very similar names and shared place of origin, the Rhode Island White is a distinct breed from the Rhode Island Red. However, Rhode Island Reds and Whites can be bred together to create Red Sex-Link hybrid chickens, such as the ISA Brown. In Australia, the Rhode Island White is regarded as a color variety of the Rhode Island breed according to the Australian Poultry Standards.
The Delaware is a breed of chicken originating in the U.S. state of Delaware. It was once of relative importance to the U.S. chicken industry, but today is critically endangered. It is primarily suited to meat production but also lays reasonably well. It has plumage of a unique pattern, and is accepted into poultry standards for showing.
The Java is a breed of chicken originating in the United States. Despite the breed's name, a reference to the island of Java, it was developed in the U.S. from chickens of unknown Asian extraction. It is one of the oldest American chickens, forming the basis for many other breeds, but is critically endangered today. Javas are large birds with a sturdy appearance. They are hardy, and are well-suited for both meat and egg production, especially by small-scale farms, homesteads, and backyard keepers.
The Iowa Blue is a breed of chicken that originated near Decorah, Iowa, in the early twentieth century. Despite its name, the breed is not actually blue according to poultry standards. It is an exceedingly rare fowl, and is not recognized for showing by the American Poultry Association. They are a dual-purpose breed laying brown eggs and known to be good foragers.
The Orloff is a breed of chicken named after Alexei Grigoryevich Orlov, a Russian Count. Reflecting this origin, it is sometimes called the Russian Orloff or simply Russian.
The Lamona is an American breed of chicken. It was developed from 1912 by Harry S. Lamon, who was the senior poultry expert of the Bureau of Animal Industry, at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Beltsville, Maryland.
The Silver Appleyard is a British breed of domestic duck. It was bred in the first half of the twentieth century by Reginald Appleyard, with the aim of creating a dual-purpose breed that would provide both a good quantity of meat and plenty of eggs.