Danish Chicken

     The Danish Chicken, or the Danish Hen (Danish: Dansk Landhøne), is an old Chicken landrace from Denmark. Archaeological remains have revealed that the Danish landrace has been kept as livestock poultry in the area, for more than 2000 years. As it’s believed that Danish chickens were introduced to the Scandinavian region, about 400 BC.

     The Danish Hen is a sturdy, fast-growing, and disease resistant bird. It’s also an excellent forager, with an active and lively nature. Although Danish chickens aren’t large meaty birds, they are being raised mainly for meat, as they have fleshy chests. In fact, their meat has a fine structure and the taste is considered exquisite. Danish hens are also excellent layers of white eggs (of weight 55– 65 g per each), except in the winter.

     A distinct short-legged variety of Danish chickens known as ‘Luttehøns’ does exist. The Luttehøns is smaller, calmer and tend to be slightly heavier. Unfortunately, they have the lethal gene that kills 25% of chicks soon before hatching, which is very common among short-legged chicken breeds such as; Scots Dumpies and Krüpers.

     Several color-varieties are recognized for the Danish chicken, with brown as the most numerous one, and the black color-variety follows. Other color-varieties like; yellow, white, grey and golden-duckwing do exist too. Danish chickens have single combs, white earlobes, and slate-blue legs. A bantam version is available, but only in the brown and the black color-varieties.