Overview of shaggy breeds

Shaggy chicken, which has several pedigree branches in the world, can be not only decorative. Chickens with shaggy legs or a shaggy head may well serve as a source of delicious chicken meat and bring eggs.

Breeds of shaggy hens

Meat Brahma

Chickens of the breed Brahma appeared as a result of the crossing of Malay and Kokhinkhinsky birds on the North American continent and was officially recognized as Samos of a lively branch of poultry in 1874.

Originally, poultry meat breeds were larger than other breeds of poultry. A large rooster was tall and reached a weight of almost 7 kg, which can be seen in the photo. However in the process of paying special attention to the decorative appearance of Bramsk hens (especially the plumage of the legs and torso), the productive qualities of this direction have lost their significance. The specimens for further breeding began to be plundered mainly by external signs, because the Brama breed lost its meat characteristics of the giant.

Today, the Brama breed of chickens is bred as a decorative shaggy bird, giving meat and eggs.

Brahms can be white, fawn, speckled and red.The modern representative of the breed reaches a weight of just over 3 kg, laying hens can gain a mass of about 2.5-3 kg. It is noteworthy that dark-colored brahms are larger and about half a kilogram in size and weight.

In appearance, the breed of brahma stands out for its massive strong physique, lush mane, wide rounded chest, and fluffy tail. From simple chicken representatives, this breed is distinguished by shaggy paws, which are covered with a thick feather.

In nature, dwarf bramah is bred, which exactly repeats its large copy. These poultry also boast the presence of plumage on their legs.

Shaggy hens of the Brama breed have maintained good performance indicators. Thus, a laying hen provides egg production at a level of from 100 to 120 eggs of 50-60 g each. Moreover, the early maturity of Bramsk hens allows them to start oviposition already at the age of 7-8 months.

Sergiev Posad earflaps

Sergiev Posad Scientific Institute using the Oryol and Pavlovskaya lines brought his shaggy breed, called ushanka. From the ancestors, the newly appeared bird with shaggy paws is distinguished by the color of its plumage. If the Oryol chickens are light, the Pavlovsky hens are colorful, then the earflaps that have appeared are painted in a light brown color.

Ushanka was loved by domestic farmers not only because of its proud posture and degree, but also because of good productivity indicators:

• the weight of an adult rooster with shaggy legs often exceeds the standard 3 kg, the mass of hens reaches 2.5 kg,
• egg laying in laying hens begins from six months of age and numbers approximately 150-160 eggs per year,
• each brown egg weighs 60 g on average.

In addition to the fact that the breed of earflaps has plumage on their legs, they are also distinguished by the presence of massive whiskers s feather that attaches to the neck and head of a powerful kind, because the breed is called. The plumage on the legs looks like lush panties.

Shaggy birds from Pavlov

The village of Pavlovo in the Nizhny Novgorod Region boasts a shaggy breed of chickens, which was named after its small homeland. These hairy chickens appeared in the XVIII century. Initially, when breeding the breed, the task was to get such a poultry that would tolerate frosty winter weather. Therefore, a lot of attention was paid to the appearance of chickens, their plumage density and color. As a result, Pavlovsky individuals became regular participants in agricultural exhibitions, regularly winning prizes due to their unique appearance.

Europeans often took Pavlovsky hens as a genetic basis when breeding their own crosses with shaggy legs.

Pavlovskaya shaggy breed of chickens is more decorative than productive. As a decoration of an agricultural compound, it can bring no more than 150-160 eggs, which are used mainly for incubation purposes for raising chickens.

The meat direction in Pavlovskaya shaggy is also not particularly developed. So, the rooster gains weight a little more than 2.0 and up to 2.5 kg, chicken – up to 2.0 kg. However, the shaggy Pavlovsky breed boasts a high (up to 97-98) percent survival rate.

Poultry poultry resembles their appearance in the photo of Pavlov. Some see Pavlovsky lohmachy similarities with birds of prey. It is not for nothing that the housekeepers note that the character of Pavlovsky roosters is cocky and aggressive.

A distinctive feature of the representatives of this breed is undoubtedly their colorful plumage, which is folded on its head in a tuft and on its neck – in a dense collar. 2 breed lines are distinguished by the color of the pen: silver and golden. The originality of the color of the pen lies in the fact that its main color gradually turns black at the ends.

Shaggy sultanka

One of the parents of the snow-white sultanka with shaggy legs and a furry head became Pavlovsk birds. As a result, the newly bred breed with abundant plumage has fixed at the genetic level exterior signs: panties on its legs, a lush crest on its head and a small beard.

The Sultanka is considered a difficult bird for breeding, therefore, most often it acts as a decorative decoration of the bird’s yard.

This breed stands out for its small size. Its representatives have a short body with a broad and lush high-set tail and downward-directed wings. The mass of roosters of the Sultan breed reaches no more than 2.0 kg, laying hens – up to 1 kg, like ordinary teenage chickens. This decorative bird does not differ in egg laying indices . For a year, a laying hen of the Sultanka breed is able to bring only up to 60 medium-sized eggs up to 45 g each, from which chickens are hatched. Moreover, after the bird reaches the age of 2 years, this small productivity decreases even more.

Oriental Cochins

Chickens Cochinhin breeds were brought to Europeans from China and Vietnam, easily acclimatized in a new place and gained their popularity at UK poultry farms. At the end of the 19th century, representatives of the chicken breed with shaggy legs of Kokhinkhins appeared in Russia.

According to historical facts, the first shaggy representatives of the kokhinkhin were presented to the British Queen.

Massively folded large cochinchins are distinguished by a strong body, muscular chest and dorsal sections. Cochinhin roosters are distinguished by their lavishly folded tail and small crest. Chunky laying hens of the Cochinchin breed are more squat, with a slight tilt of the body forward.

The Chinese have brought dwarf cochinchins, which duplicate their relatives in appearance and are able to bring meat and eggs. A separate breed are dwarf curly bred in zoos, in which the body and legs are covered with curly feathers.

Among the lineage there are various colors:

• the black cochinchin has a green tint in the plumage,
• the white plumage of the birds has a silver hue,
• blue cochinchins are diluted with a black head, collar area, wings,
• fawn plumage of birds in the caudal region and on the wings cast bronze,
• partridge cochinchins delight the eye with color, their plumage can be diluted with gold around the edges, a red collar, black on the chest.

Among the positive characteristics of poultry farmers note their unpretentiousness and phlegmatic nature. Cochinhin chicken breed belongs to meat . The live weight of roosters is about 5 kg, chickens – up to 4 kg. The egg production is much more modest: up to a hundred eggs per year.

Silk Chinese

Silk Chinese bird , which appeared in China, became another decorative breed of shaggy hens. and then became popular with poultry farmers in many countries of the world. Due to its unique decorative appearance, which it shows in the photo, the silk Chinese chicken became a real decoration of gardens and zoos.

In the Chinese homeland, silk chicken is called a bird with crow’s bones, as their bone color is black, the skin is dark brown, and meat with a dark gray tint. The reason for this pigmentation was the eumelanin pigment produced in large quantities.

An unusual appearance of plumage is provided due to the lack of grip on the feather hairs and the softness of the feather rod. The color of the pen can be white, fawn, blue and black.

Small-sized silk birds are not very productive. Males grow up weighing no more than 1.5 kg, hens – up to 0.8 kg. Each year, hens provide up to hundreds of eggs weighing 35 g each. Most often, eggs serve as material for breeding chickens.

Faerole birds

Shaggy hens of the faerole breed are also owners of shaggy legs. They were bred in France in the locality of the same name, from where their name came from, based on the Goodan breed using Mantle birds. Later, cohinchin and silver dorkings were included in the selection work. Initially, the Faverole breed belonged to the meat direction, serving as a source of chicken meat for French restaurants. In the process of breeding, the appearance of the chicken faverole changed and, after some time, they began to be kept not only for meat and eggs, but as an ornamental breed.

The faverole breed came to Russia through Germany, where a number of selection changes in appearance took place.

The appearance of fawerol birds is characterized by the presence of sideburns and a fluffy feather on their feet. They are coarsely folded, the body is elongated, the short tail is raised.The color of the faverole is mixed, and for roosters and hens it differs:

• dorsal, fly wing white, pectoral and tail feathers black,
• hens on top with a light red tint, bottom – white.

Fairly large in size, the faverols grow up to 5 kg of roosters and up to 4 kg of chicken. Eggs of laying hens begin from six months of age, up to 180 per year.