So, its that time again where we choose another breed of chicken and crown it ‘Chicken of the month!’
This month see’s the Polish chicken or Poland winning the title. This chicken can be identified, primarily, because of its beautiful crest of feathers which cover their entire head. You can see this from the picture above of the Silver laced polish cock. He has a very distinctive white feather with black edging and an impressive plumage of long thin feathers sprouting from the top of his head.
There is a fair amount of controversy in the chicken world as to where the origin of the name Polish chicken came from. This breed could have been named after the country Poland which would be the first assumption one would make. There are also theories that it comes from the Middle Dutch word Pol, meaning head, referring to this birds identifying headdress.
This breed has been identified as far back as the 1400’s where chickens of a strong resemblance can be seen in paintings from the era. The derivation of the Polish chicken is unclear but theories suggest that they were brought to Eastern Europe by Asian Mongols during the medieval times or that immigrants could have brought them from Spain or Italy.
Wherever they came from I’m sure we can all agree that they extremely impressive and can appreciate why they are a firm favourite with chicken fanciers the world over.
