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Our feathered friend and companion, the chicken, has been around “since Adam were a lad”, as an old farming friend used to say.

The rich diversity of colour, size and feather pattern, along with their elegant toy-soldier-like strutting, is a joy to behold. Most are friendly, docile creatures but there are a few “grumpy old men” who will view your legs as their next appetizer. In the chicken world many are bred for the sheer joy, pleasure and happiness they give to their breeders, and many small breeders will put in two or three hours of care on top of a full day at work.

Standards of care for chickens vary enormously around of world, but thankfully the welfare of the birds is widely promoted and most chicken farming is undertaken responsibly these days. The vast majority of British farms and farmers ensure that all birds have a good and stress-free life, and lead the way in commercial standards of husbandry, while in the United States bodies such as the Animal Welfare Institute promote high welfare standards and animal-sensitive approaches to farming.

In the British Isles organizations such as The Rare Poultry Society and the Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST) do much to ensure that rare breeds do not disappear into the annals of history. RBST grading, where mentioned in the book, refers only to the colour of chicken pictured. The same breed, but of a different colour, can have a different grade.

Jack Byard, Bradford, 2020

NOTE Many breeds of chicken have been developed to produce a range of different varieties/colours. In this book the breed heading and Characteristics information relate to the variety shown in the accompanying photograph.