Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
their necks, they always look surprised. This particular breed of chicken was developed in
France in the 1800s. Friendly, docile, and quiet birds, they get to be around 10 pounds for
the males and 8.5 pounds for the females. These dual purpose birds, bred for meat and egg
production, are not only high quality eating but are above average layers, producing light
brown and pinkish eggs. Unfortunately, as many of these chickens are used only for show
in today's society, they have lost some of the utility for which they were originally bred.
Frizzle chickens look about as amusing as they sound; essentially, these chickens look like
they have a constant and bad case of bed head. They are thought to have originated in South
East Asia approximately 300 years ago; while the gene that causes their feathers to go all
willy-nilly may be introduced into any different breed of chicken, the Frizzle breed is re-
cognized as a distinct breed of chicken, the Cochin chicken that has this particular gene.
The standard weight for a rooster is 11 pounds with the hens weighing in at 8.5 pounds.
They are good free range chickens, though they are typically only kept for show these days.
They are docile, quiet, and quite gentle. They make a decent roasting chicken, and they lay
well in the spring but poorly throughout the rest of the year.
Golden Comet chickens are a commercial hybrid strain of chicken. They are engineered
to be color coded: roosters are white, and the hens are an auburn color. These birds are
average-sized, with the hens at 7.5 pounds and the roosters at 9.5 pounds. These birds were
literally engineered for close confinement and egg production. They mature early, and the
hens start to lay eggs at a younger age than standard types of chickens. They produce large
brown eggs.
Hamburg chickens were developed in Holland well before the 1700s and are a noticeably
smaller chicken. The standard variation has roosters weighing in at 5 pounds and hens at
4 pounds, with the bantams weighing in at 1.5 pounds. These chickens tend to fly about a
lot and are highly nervous around people. They work best as free range birds, are good at
scavenging, and produce an above average number of small white eggs.
The Iowa Blue is a particularly hardy chicken, good in both very cold weather and able to
handle the hotter summers. They are good foragers, and they are non-aggressive towards
humans; however, the roosters will be highly aggressive towards any potential threat. The
birds can be somewhat flighty and lay only an average amount of tan eggs. They are smal-
ler in size than average hitting only at about six pounds and if there are more than one
rooster present, fights are likely to break out. They work well as free range birds, but are
not likely to do as well as contained birds. They are considered to be a bit too stringy for
good eating; however, if just the hens are kept cooped, they will do well when mixed in
with other breeds of chicken.
Next up are the Java chickens, developed by pioneers in America sometime before the
mid-1800s. They are large birds, bred to be hardy, with the roosters averaging over 9
