List of the colors of the domestic chicken

For the description of the colors in domestic fowls , standardized names have been created that are of great relevance within organized pedigree poultry breeding. European pedigree poultry standards for chickens and bantams show a total of 164 different colors . The following table shows the most common basic colors and drawing patterns of the German-speaking breed standards.

Primary colors
White		The white color is preferred for broiler chickens because remaining parts of the feather shaft are less noticeable after plucking. White can inherit both recessively and dominantly. The genes that cause the white discoloration only affect the otherwise black colored feathers, so that a completely white color only occurs with a predisposition for completely black color.
black		The black color is inherited dominantly and occurs in many breeds. It should not be confused with fibromelanosis, a blackening of the skin and organs.
blue		Blue is black with a dilution factor and is in fact a gray color. Often the neck hangings of the roosters remain black with this stroke.
yellow		A complete gold coloring of a chicken is called "yellow" or "buff".
red		Red is gold with an extra color factor. The red color of the Rhodeland is known .
Pearl gray		Pearl gray is a separate color, lighter and more even than blue.

Drawing pattern
Partridge colored		The partridge color is a variant of the wild color in which the hen does not have a salmon-colored breast, but shows a black drawing there.
Chipped		A feather edging is usually black and frames the entire feather. The extreme form is found in the mountain chicken breeds and is called Dobbelung .
Speckled / flaked		Country chickens with speckles are found on the North Sea coast from Flanders to East Frisia and in Westphalia. The drawing is different depending on the breed and alternates between small black spots (flakes) on the same side and transverse bands.
Birch colored		Birch is a wild color variant in which the hen is black except for the neck.
Colorful		Colored chickens have white spots on the ends of their feathers with a uniform base color.
Wheat colored		In this drawing, which corresponds to the wild type, the hens have a light, wheat-colored basic color.
Columbia		The Columbia drawing includes a loose black coloration of the neck hangings, the wing tips and the tail.
Pissed off		The sparrowing is a transverse stripe drawing of the feathers, which can be either black and white or gold and white.
Spotted		The nibs are black when dabbed.
Pied		In the piebald drawing there are white spots on all feathers.
Wild colored		The wild type is the original drawing of the Urhühner ( junglefowl ) with gold neck and saturated same slope, gold swing , a black chest and black tail of the cock and an inconspicuous pale color in the hen.
porcelain		Porcelain includes a drawing with three colors on each nib: gold, black and white. The central part is gold-colored with an adjacent black border or spot and a white point at the end.
Banded		The banding means multiple hemming. It is comparable to double edging, be it that here the outermost border is gold-colored or light and the number of colored arcs is greater.
Double-hemmed		A double lining of the feathers, which is found not only in bred breeds, but also in wild chickens. The outer border is always black.
Quail colored		The quail color is similar to the wild color, but with black neck hangings on the roosters and a lighter breast color on the hens.
Exchequer	.	The Exchequer drawing is a black and white pattern in which white dominates and a color change occurs in the longer feathers.
Mohrenkopf		A variant of the drawing in which the head and upper neck areas are colored black.
Cinnamon colored		Although the rooster is of the wild type in this drawing, the hen is an undrawing light brown color. Genetically, the loft is traced back to the combination of wheat color with the “DK” gene.
Blacktail		Uniform basic color with a black tail.
Sheet fields		A black color of the head, neck and tail with an evenly lighter color of the rest of the body. The yellow-black variant is typical of the Vorwerkhuhn .
Splash		Splash is a somewhat chaotic drawing with white, black and blue (in fact: gray) feathers. It occurs with a homozygosity for "Andalusian blue" (BlBl).

List of the colors of the domestic chicken

See also

Footnotes