Augsburger (chicken)

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Black Augsburg hen
Augsburgers
BDRG - Standard No.
origin augsburg
year Bred around 1870
colour black and blue fringed
Weight Stopcock 2.3 to 3.0 kg

Hen 2.0 to 2.5 kg

Laying output per year 180 eggs
Eggshell color White
Egg weight 58 g
List of breeds of chicken

The Augsburger Huhn is a German breed of chicken that originated in the Augsburg area and is the only chicken breed in Bavaria. Because of the good laying performance and the excellent meat, the Augsburg chickens are typical dual-purpose chickens. The most prominent feature of the Augsburg chickens is the crown or cup comb.

Origin and Distribution

Julius Meyer, an oilcloth manufacturer from Haunstetten near Augsburg, bred the first animals with a so-called double comb around 1870, which spread in the southern Black Forest , in the Augsburg area and in further Bavarian Swabia because of their laying performance and which he further developed into the Augsburg chicken. Meyer used the French La Flèche , a meat-based French landrace, and the Italian Lamotta chickens as starting breeds, through which the new breed was better adapted to the climatic conditions and a better laying performance was to be achieved. In 1885, the Augsburg chicken was first described by Jean Bungartz in the book "New Chicken Races". After 1945, Hans Suttner from Augsburg continued to breed the breed.

The Augsburg chicken is the only breed of chicken that has been bred in Bavaria. The breed was still widespread around 1960, but the populations fell sharply by the year 2000, so that it was almost extinct. A blue color was common in the former GDR and is still bred today. Today the breed is bred in other European countries as well as in Germany .

Existence and endangerment

The Augsburg chicken is rare and is considered an endangered breed of domestic animal . The Association of German Pedigree Poultry Breeders and the Society for the Conservation of Old and Endangered Domestic Animal Breeds have classified the Augsburg residents in the highest hazard class I (extremely endangered) in the “Red List of Endangered Livestock Breeds”. After that there were only 64 roosters and 289 hens in Germany in 2009. In 2013 there were 36 cocks and 162 hens of the black color, 7 cocks and 25 hens of the blue-lined color. In 2013, the breed was looked after by a total of 25 breeders in Germany in the "Special Association of Breeders of Augsburger Chicken and Dwarf Augsburger".

Features and performance

The Augsburg chicken is a dual-purpose chicken with a laying capacity of 150 to 180 eggs per year. The animals are fast-growing, extremely weatherproof and resilient, but have a poorly developed breeding instinct. Augsburg chickens start to lay after just five months. Augsburgers are good forage hunters in the free run and need a generous run. Augsburgers are considered easy to fatten and the meat is excellent. The breed is considered headstrong and freedom-loving. Since the animals fly very well, they also overcome higher fences and like to stay in trees. The Augsburg chicken is suitable for small-scale farming, also because its breeding requires extensive, species-appropriate husbandry and the animals tend to grow slowly.

In 2011, the Augsburg chicken was declared a “Passenger of the Ark of Taste” by Slow Food Germany . Traditional, regional foods, farm animals and cultivated plants are included in the “Ark of Taste” in order to preserve and preserve them from oblivion. The Augsburg chicken is intended to make a contribution to the variety of flavors and biodiversity.

Breed characteristics

Augsburger (rooster) with typical cup crown in the Hohenloher open air museum in Wackershofen

Characteristic of the medium-weight chicken is the elongated country chicken shape with a long back and slightly sloping posture. The weight of the rooster is 2.3 to 3 kg, that of the hens 2 to 2.5 kg. The rooster has a well-covered tail that is carried slightly open. The hen has a well developed belly. The thighs are visible, the legs are of medium length with a slate gray color.

The most striking breed characteristic is the comb , which consists of a cup-shaped structure made of comb meat, which begins at the beak and divides after the first or second comb teeth into a cup with an evenly jagged edge. It is therefore a crown or cup comb, which is genetically to be viewed as a doubling of the single comb. It is inherited as a split inheritance and only occurs in about half of the chicks in the offspring, which is why the responsible Bavarian Agriculture Office forbade further breeding of the breed around 1900.

The face is smooth, the eyes dark. The ear discs are white.

Originally the feathers are pure black and have a green sheen. Lately lines with blue-fringed plumage have also been bred.

Among the large chicken breeds, the Augsburg chicken is considered the exclusive exhibition chicken.

Dwarf form

Around 1930, work began on breeding a dwarf form of the breed with a cup comb. Around 1958 Otto Knöpfler from Augsburg began again to breed the dwarf form, whereby the Great Augsburger, the German bantam and the dwarf Italian were involved in the breeding. In 1963 and 1965 the first animals were presented in Stuttgart and Frankfurt. The dwarf Augsburgers were officially recognized in 1975. The dwarf form only exists in black with a green sheen. It is much rarer than the normal form. The rooster weighs 900 grams and the hen 800 grams. The laying capacity is 120 eggs per year. These are white and weigh 35 grams. Because of its low distribution, the breed should be protected and promoted.

literature

  • Tobias Pehle, Yara Hackstein: Dumont's little lexicon of chickens . Rearing, keeping, breeding. Dörfler-Verlag, Eggolsheim 2010, ISBN 978-3-8955-5463-6
  • Horst Schmidt, Rudi Proll: Pocket Atlas Chickens and Bantams , Eugen Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-8001-6418-9 (2nd edition)
  • Hans-Joachim Schille: Lexicon of the chickens. Komet-Verlag 2005, ISBN 3-89836-447-X
  • Walter Schwarz, Armin Six: The large poultry standard in color. Reutlingen: Oertel + Spörer Verlags-GmbH & Co. 2004 (7th edition)
  • Horst Schmidt: The chicken breeds . Volume 2: Easy Types. Albrecht Philler Verlag, Minden 1981, ISBN 3-7907-0722-8
  • The Augsburg chicken. In: Jean Bungartz : Chicken Breeds. Illustrated manual for judging the breeds of domestic fowl. 2nd edition, probably supplemented except for the newest breeds, E. Twietmeyer, Leipzig 1893, p. 87f ( digitized version of the HathiTrust Digital Library)
  • Jean Bungartz: Poultry Album. Painted from nature by Jean Bungartz, animal painter with 150 panels. Art and publishing establishment Ferdinand Bungartz 1885

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Description of the Augsburg chicken in the Augsburg Wiki (with video representation)
  2. ↑ Herwig zum Berge: The Augsburger Chicken. Retrieved on July 22, 2014 (Rasseportrait Diverse Initiative for the Conservation of Old and Endangered Domestic Breeds (VIEH)).
  3. ↑ Red list of domestic livestock breeds in Germany 2013 ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.genres.de
  4. ↑ http://www.geh.de/rassebeschreiben/55-gefluegelhuhn/144-augsburger-huhn
  5. ↑ website VHGW
  6. ↑ Portrait of the Augsburg chicken as "Passenger of the Ark of Taste"
  7. ^ Schmidt and Proll 2010: 138