Hedemora Chicken

     The Hedemora is a rare landrace Chicken breed, that got developed in the forested areas of the part of Sweden known as Hedemora. It’s said to be the coldest hardy chicken in the world. Hedemoras are known to lay throughout the frigid winters, and are willing foragers even in the snow at a very low temperature in subzero weather.

     Hedemora chickens are a landrace that over time split into three distinct varieties. The first variety is the ‘Wooly Silkied-Feather’, which has fine and furry looking feathers that cover its body. The other known varieties are the ‘Feather-Legged’ and the ‘Clean-Legged’, both with a heavy down layer under their smooth feathers, which protect them from the extremely cold weather.

     Hedemora chickens have small single combs and wattles, and mostly red earlobes. The hens are good layers of light-brown eggs (around 150 eggs per year), and they tend to go broody too. Due to their very thick feathering, Hedemoras are capable of brooding very large clutches of eggs, and make wonderful mothers as well.

     The Hedemora comes in a wide range of color-varieties, with black, red and blue as the most common ones. Swedish breeders believe that all three types and colors should be kept in a flock to assure genetic diversity.