Minorca Chicken

     The Minorca is breed of Chickens from Spain which is the largest and heaviest of all Mediterranean types. Their appearance is striking with their long, strong bodies, upright red combs (single or rose) and wattles, and large white earlobes. Black is the most popular color-variety for the Minorca, but white and blue colors do exist as well.

     Although Minorcas are long and large birds, they have narrow bodies so they are not good as table fowls. They are also available in a bantam form, which originated in Germany and Britain around 1910. The Minorca closely resembles the Black Spanish chicken breed, that’s why it was originally called the Red Faced Black Spanish.

     Minorcas are often kept as ornamental birds, despite being good egg-laying birds. The hens do not tend to go broody, but they lay very large, white shelled eggs all year around, especially during the winter months (around 170 – 220 eggs per year). The single egg weighs more than 65 g from the beginning of the second year of the hen. Minorcas are usually hardy birds and very tolerant of hot weather and prefer dry conditions.