Robusta Lionata Chicken

     The Robusta Lionata is a recent dual-purpose breed of Chickens, which originated in Italy in the 1960s. This breed was developed by crossing Buff Orpingtons with the commercial strain known in Italy as the ‘White America’. The White America itself is believed to have been based on breeding mutant white Barnevelders, with contributions from white Leghorns, Rhode Island Whites, and white Plymouth Rocks.

     The Robusta Lionata chicken is a large bird with a lovely buff color and a black tail. It always has a single comb, red earlobes, and bright-yellow legs. Generally, the Robusta Lionata is a healthy and calm chicken, that makes a fine backyard fowl.

     Robusta Lionata hens are good layers of pinkish-brown eggs (around 160 – 170 eggs per year of weight 55 g or more per each), and tend to go broody too. Robusta Lionata roosters can also be crossed with barred Plymouth Rock hens to produces an auto-sexing first-generation hybrid chickens.