What breed is my chicken?
A few tips for identifying what breed - or breeds! - your chicken might be
In the forums and our Facebook pages, we are often asked to help identify the breed of a chook (or duck or goose or turkey or quail or ...) you’ve found, bought, been given, inherited, or seen.
Note that not all birds have a breed, and sometimes you will be told something is a particular breed, when in fact it isn’t. Which is most annoying.
Sadly, we could probably safely say that the answer to most of the “what breed is this?” questions is “a pretty crossbreed”.
However, that doesn’t mean we can’t try to identify what breeds might be in a particular chooks.
Importantly:
Don’t be upset if you find your bird isn’t the breed you thought or told it was
Be kind and gentle when helping someone identify their bird.
And the short version:
If you don't know the parents, it's probably a crossbreed
Not every black chook is an Australorp :)
ISA Browns aren't a breed
Contents
Wait, my ISA Brown/Lohmann Brown/Hyline/Hi-sex isn’t a breed?
What IS a breed?
A breed:
Has a particular name
Has an entry in a Poultry Standard under that name.
Most countries have their own Standard, and you generally need to buy the whole book to read about them.
You can also read about breeds at the Open Poultry Standards.
Broadly matches the characteristics outlined in the Standard, including feather colour and patterns, colour of leg, beak, comb, and wattles, “shape [type], growth, temperament, and shell-color of eggs produced” (from the Open Poultry Standards)
When bred with another bird of the same named breed, produces offspring that resemble the parents and matches the characteristics in the relevant Standard.
Might be called a “purebreed” or “pure bred”.
There’s no real way to guarantee that you’ve bought the real thing, however. There’s no stud books, no registration, no cross-checking.
What isn’t a breed?
Anything else, really. Most chooks are crossbreeds; if you’re not sure, it’s safest to assume a crossbreed, not a pure breed.
A bird bred from two different breeds. An Australorp crossed with a New Hampshire produces neither an Australorp nor a New Hampshire; it’s an Australorp x New Hampshire, or an “Australorp cross” or “New Hampshire cross”.
A bird where you don’t know the parentage of the parents and the offspring doesn’t have characteristics of any particular breed.
A bird with a “brand” or “common” name, such as “Showgirls” (Silkie and Naked Neck cross), or any of the commercial layer names like “ISA Brown”, “Austra White”, “Bond Black”, “Gingerham”.
A breed in development which doesn’t yet have an entry in a Standard (“Quamby”, “Snow Leopard”).
Wait, my ISA Brown/Lohmann Brown/Hyline/Hi-sex isn’t a breed?
No. All the names for the commercial varieties are brand names owned by their respective businesses/developers. The birds have no entry in any poultry Standard, and don’t breed true even if you have a hen and rooster from the same hatch. They’re complex crossbreeds developed specifically for a business purpose.
What to look for
There is generally no one single “tell” for a purebreed bird, or to identify which breeds might be in your known crossbreed.
It’s a matter of combining a whole range of information to come up with an answer.
These are the main things we will use to help identify your bird:
Size. Bantam, Standard, halfway between.
Shape of the overall body ("type"). This is, in fact, really important. It’s possible to tell some breeds by silhouette alone.
Leg feathering. Presence or absence of feathering on the legs; if present, how heavy.
Head feathering - “headgear”. Presence or absence of feathers on top of the head (crest), either side of the beak (muffs), or under the beak (beard). If present, the size of the feathering.
Toes. Number of toes is relevant - most breeds have four, but some have five (eg Silkies, Faverolles).
Comb. Size, shape, colour, and type of comb. Single, rose, walnut, etc; red, black, mulberry; upright or flopped over
Skin colour. Colour of skin around face and on body. For eg, Silkies have black skin, which is sometimes inherited in crosses.
Eye colour. Black, orange, yellow, brown, “daw”.
Leg, beak, and lobe colour. Black, slate, white, yellow, green/willow, mottled.
Note: the lobe is the flat patch of skin under the eye. It can be blue, white or red, but its colour does NOT indicate the colour of the egg the chicken lays!
Feathering type. Hardfeather, softfeather, Silkie feathering (“silked”), frizzling (where the feathers curl outwards).
Colour and size of egg
Feather colour and patterns. This is last on the list because it’s actually a relatively minor part of breed ID. A striped chicken isn’t always a Plymouth Rock; a black chicken isn’t always an Australorp.
If you can provide a photo, or better still a series of photos, that clearly show these identification points, identification will be much easier!
And finally …
When helping with breed identification, remember:
Don’t be upset if you find your bird isn’t the breed you thought or told it was
Be kind and gentle when helping someone identify their bird
We are all learners and teachers here; on the same poultry journey together.
Be Nice.
Got a comment? Chat below!