From India, the domesticated chicken spread to the world by the 5th century BC. Today there are hundreds of chicken breeds, but just a flew of them are breeds of chickens with feathered legs, also known as chickens with boots. Let’s take a closer look at these extraordinary beautiful chickens with feathers on their legs.
List of Chicken Breeds With Feathered Legs
There are eight feather legged chicken breeds recognized by the American Poultry Associations and the American Bantam Association. These chickens with feathered legs are part of the group Feather Leg class (FL) in the above organizations.
- Belgian d’Uccle
- Booted Bantam
- Brahma
- Cochin
- Faverolles
- Frizzle
- Silkie
- Sultan
Now, let’s take a closer look at each of these stunning chickens with feathered legs separately.
1. Belgian d’Uccle
The Belgian Bearded d’Uccle is a chicken with feathered legs developed in the begging of the last century in Belgium. It was named after the town of Uccle. The goal was to develop a breed that has both a beard and boots.
This is a true bantam breed with an average weight of around 26 oz (740 g) for roosters and 22 oz (620 g) for hens.
They make great show chickens, and as a true bantams it is worth noting that they do not have their large versions.
This chicken breed with feathered legs and vulture hocks comes in seven color varieties: black , golden neck, mille fleur, mottled, porcelain, self blue, and white.
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2. Booted Bantam
This bantam breed of chicken with feathers on their legs was developed in the Netherlands from bantams originating in Asia.
The average weigh of males usually is around 850 grams (30 ounces) and females 750 grams (27 ounces). However the US standards dictate a smaller ideal size of 740 grams (26 ounces) for roosters, and 625 (22 ounces) for hens.
The Booted Bantam comes in several color varieties, and it has a single comb, and has fully feathered legs with vulture hocks. The hens lay a small white-shell egg and readily brood.
3. Brahma
Brahma is probably one of the most famous chicken with feathers on their legs. While the chicken is not farmed as heavily nowadays, mostly because there are other breeds that are a lot more productive, it is still a breed that exists.
What we do know, however, is that the purpose of breeding the Brahma chicken was to create a bird that was able to produce a lot of meat, while at the same time requiring very little in the way of maintenance.
Read more about this chickens with feathered legs: Brahma chickens.
4. Cochin
This feather legged chicken breed originated in China, to be used as a meat chicken breed with ornamental purpose. They come as both standard and bantam.
The Cochin chicken breed comes in several color varieties , the following are only the recognized varieties by APA: Barred, Birchen, Black, Blue, Brown Red, Buff, Columbian, Golden Laced, Mottled , Partridge, Red, Silver Laced and White.
One thing that is worth noting about this feather legged chicken breed is that it has great personality and extremely gentle temperament. It is one of the friendliest chicken breeds.
Its large variety is actually one of the largest chicken breeds in the world.
5. Faverolles – French chickens with feathers on their legs
This feather legged chicken breed was developed back in the 19th century in France. The Faverolles chickens can be large or bantam and are kept as a dual purpose breed.
It is not uncommon to see them across poultry shows in the US as show chickens. They have medium-sized and deep compact bodies. The male usually weighs around 8 lbs while the female weighs 6.5 lbs.
The hens are good layers of eggs with around 160 light brown to pinkish eggs per year.
The Faverolles comes in a few color varieties, of which the original color, salmon, remains the most common. They are very popular backyard chicken breed.
Perhaps the ‘stand-out’ feature of the Faverolles chicken is the beard that they boast. This is going to be a slightly different color to the rest of their feathers, and it looks rather elegant.
Faverolles are one of the most aggressive chicken breeds, so they are not recommended for first-time chicken owners.
6. Frizzle
The Fizzle is a chicken with frizzled feathers. It is worth noting that in Europe and Australia this is a recognized feather legged chicken breed, however in US the Fizzle is any breed of chicken with frizzled feathers, such as Polish Fizzle.
The Frizzle has a single comb type and is clean-legged–without feathers on the shanks. There are several recognized color varieties such as black, blue, buff, white, Columbian, red.
7. Silkie
The Silkie is very old breed of chickens with feathers on their legs. No one actually knows their origin but it is accepted that most likely it originated from China.
Their name ‘Silkie’ comes from their feathers which feel like silk and satin.
The Silkie comes in both sizes, standard and bantam. Even the standard one is relatively small chicken, males weigh around 2-3 lbs while the female around 1.5-2 lbs.
8. Sultan – Turkish chickens with feathers on their legs
The Sultan breed is very old ornamental breed with feathered legs originating in Turkey. These fully feathered chicks appear in three color varieties: Black, Blue, and White.
They are relatively small breed, since even the standard male weighs around 6 lb. (femals 4 lb.) while the bantam version is around 26 oz. (female is 22 oz.). Their hens lay large white eggs,
Other Chicken Breeds With Feathered Legs
We have found more chicken breeds with feathers on their legs, however they are not standardized.
As said earlier, there are only 8 that are recognized by APA or in the case of the Frizzle chicken, recognized by some European countries.
It is amazing how much diversity there can be in the world and even on our own farms. The feathered leg breed of chicken has a lot to offer, from their elegant beauty to their egglaying abilities.
One thing you might not know about them though is that they are so diverse! There are hundreds of breeds out there, but only a few with feathers on their feet.
If you want to see more chickens like this one at your farm or backyard coop, look for some feathered-legged chicks today!
Read more:
– Longtail chicken breeds
– Best chickens for eggs
– Best chickens for meat
