La Flèche Chicken

     La Flèche is a rare and large breed of Chickens, that originated in France. It’s famous for the fine quality of its meat, which is still served in high-level restaurants in France till this day. La Flèche also has a remarkably white skin, which led to a market advantage in its country of origin. As other native French breeds except the Bresse, its numbers drastically declined after the second world war. Luckily, a rescue program has been established lately to restore La Flèche’s numbers.

     La Flèche (‘the Arrow’ in English) has an unusual v-shaped comb, which appears in the shape of an arrow, and hence comes the name. The comb gives the bird its unique devilish look which it is famous for. La Flèche chickens are also charcterized with their fine wattles, white earlobes, and slate-blue legs. They are active and hardy birds, that can be quite flighty too.

     La Flèche hens are good layers of large eggs (around 200 white eggs per year) even in the winter, but they rarely go broody. Although, the recognized color for this variety is black, other unofficial and extremely rare colors like white, blue and cuckoo do exist. La Flèches is mostly used in ornamental purposes, despite being practically a good dual-purpose chicken. A bantam version is also available for this breed, which was developed in Germany.