Scots Dumpy Chicken

     The Scots Dumpy is an old Chicken breed, that has been bred in Scotland for over a century. The bird’s name refers to its stout body, and extremely short legs, that usually don’t exceed 5 cm in length. Scots Dumpies have other common names like “Bakies” and “Stumpies”, and they are believed to be developed from ancient Scotland’s landrace chickens.

     The Scots Dumpy is a dual-purpose bird, which is used for producing both meat and eggs. Also, their unique appearance earned them a place as pets and showy birds as well. Scots Dumpy hens are good layers of off-white eggs (around 180 eggs per year) and they go broody too.

     Unfortunately, the Scots Dumpy has the same lethal gene that short-legged chicken breeds like the Krüper have. As a result, mating two Scots Dumpy chickens will get 50% short-legged chicks which look exactly like the parent breed. 25% will be normal-legged, and the other 25% will die in their shells soon before hatching. To avoid a predetermined 25% dead in the shell occurrence, a long-legged bird can be crossed with a short-legged bird. This will give rise to a 50% split in short-legged and normal-legged offspring.

     The Scots Dumpy is a large low bird with a single comb and red earlobes. They are quiet placid birds that are well-suited to cold climates, and do good if allowed to free-range grassy lands. The Scots Dumpy is available in many color-varieties including white, black, cuckoo, silver-duckwing and golden-duckwing. A bantam version is also available for this breed.