Faverolles Chicken – Meat, Eggs | Salmon Faverolles

The Faverolles chicken is one of the oldest chicken breeds in the world, with the Salmon Faverolles chicken being the most popular variety.

Are you wondering what the Faverolles chicken brings to the table? Literally? Then, bear with us! We have a ton of information to share with you.

On this page, we are going to take a little look at this chicken breed, and give you an idea about what it is like to own one of these.

Faverolles Chicken at a Glance

Eggs	180-200 per year
Egg Color	Light brown to pinkish
Skin Color	White
Use	Eggs + Meat (dual purpose breed)
Comb Type	Single
Weight	Male: Standard: 9-11 lb (4.55-5 kg) Bantam: 2.5 –3 lb (1.13–1.36 kg) Female: Standard: 7.5-9.5 lb (3.4–4.3 kg) Bantam: 2–2.5 lb (907–1133 g)
Country of origin	France

The Unknown Heritage of the Faverolles Chicken

This chicken breed, like many of the older breeds we have now, originated in Europe. France, specifically. As the name suggests, it comes from the town of Faverolles.

At the time of this breed’s creation, chicken was becoming more and more popular as a food item. As were eggs. This meant that many farmers were starting to raise a lot of chickens at once.

This was near the end of the 1800s, and battery chicken started to become a thing. However, the problem that many farmers faced was the fact that the chickens that they were currently raising really did not do well as battery chickens.

They stopped producing eggs as much. As a result, they started to produce a new breed. This breed became known as the Faverolles chicken.

As you can probably guess, the actual breeds that went into the creation of the Faverolles chicken have been lost to time. We have a rough idea, and we know that it includes these in the genetic makeup:

• Houdan Chicken (this was the breed the Faverolles was designed to replace)
• Dorking Chicken
• Brahma Chicken

There are more chicken breeds in there somewhere, but we are unlikely to ever know what they were. Actually no one can agree on its exact heritage.

There is a good chance that some of the breeds used to make the Faverolles chicken have simply become extinct.

The Look of the Faverolles Chicken

Did you know that the Faverolle chicken is one of the 8 chicken breeds with feathered feet? But we think that 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.

Since this chicken was designed to produce meat, it is a fairly large chicken.

However, the feathers on the Faverolles chicken are really fluffy. This means that the chicken can look a lot larger than it is. Don’t get us wrong. It is still going to produce a lot of meat, but probably not as much as it looks like it can give.

Looks really are going to be quite deceptive!

The reason why we know that the Faverolles chicken has come from the Dorking chicken is because it has five toes. The Dorking Chicken is the only other chicken breed with this extra toe.

Just like with the Dorking, the fifth toe is useless. The chicken won’t walk on it. It is just ‘there’.

There are many colors of the Faverolles chicken:

• Black
• Laced Blue
• Buff
• Cuckoo
• Ermine
• White
• Salmon

However, here in the US there are only two recognized varieties by the American Poultry Association, those are Salmon Faverolles and White Faverolles.

Salmon Faverolles Chicken

Back in 1914 the Salmon Faverolles chicken was the first recognized variety of this breed, while the White was recognized recently (1981).

It is worth noting that the rooster and the hen are in different color. The Salmon Faverolles rooster has black beard and muffs, while the hen has creamy white. The rooster has black breasts, thighs under fluff and tail, while the hen has cream breasts, thighs and under fluff.

Meat Production

With the Faverolles rooster weighing up to 11 lb the purpose of this chicken was to be a meat chicken, with a few eggs here and there. But, they aren’t raised commercially any more.

This is because there are a whole lot better chickens for meat rearing than this. However, you will find that a lot of backyard chicken owners will rear the Faverolles for meat.

The Faverolles is fairly fast to grow, and it produces a nice bit of meat. If you can establish a good breeding program for the chickens that you own, then you should always have a few decent chickens ready for the slaughter.

People love the meat, it is just there is no real sense in raising them commercially.

Faverolles Chicken Eggs and Egg Laying

This chicken breed isn’t going to lay the most eggs in the world, but it should be able to give you a decent number. Most people claim that they get about four per week from the chicken. So you can expect 180 to 200 eggs per year at the most.

The hens are good layers and can do well in any climate. This seems to happen when the chicken is heading into the winter too. So, while you are not going to be getting a whopping number of eggs from the chicken, it will at least help to keep you supplied throughout the winter months.

Feathers

Alright. So, a lot of people are not really raising chickens for feathers nowadays. However, if you are one of the few people that does, you will be pleased to know that the Faverolles chicken produces a decent number of feathers.

They both look and feel great to the touch.

We suppose this is a benefit if you are planning on slaughtering the chicken at some point, but we probably wouldn’t recommend that you raise the chicken for the feathers alone.

Is the Faverolles Chicken for your Backyard?

If you are not a fan of loud chickens, then the Faverolles chicken is not going to be for you. This is one of the loudest chickens there is.

So, we probably wouldn’t raise these if you live in an urban environment. We are sure that your neighbors won’t be happy with you if you did that!

If you can put up with the noise that they produce, you will be pleased to know that this is a very docile and friendly chicken. They love to interact with humans. They do seem to get on well with other chicken breeds too.

One thing we are keen to point out is that while this breed was initially developed to be a battery chicken, it does love to run around a lot.

It is a large chicken, so we wouldn’t keep it cooped up all the time. It needs space to run about. The chicken gets happier when it does that, which means you may be able to get a few more eggs per year from your chicken.

Health Issues

As long as you take the time to give your chicken a balanced diet, then there are very few health issues associated with the Faverolles chicken. Perhaps the only real issue that you are going to encounter with this breed is that it does have looser feathers.

This means that lice are able to hide in their feathers a lot easier. So, if you own this chicken breed, then you are going to need to check them for lice regularly. If you fail to do this, then it could cause a few health issues later on down the line!