Westfälischer Totleger

Westfälische Totleger

Westfälischer Totleger hen
Country of origin Germany
Traits
Weight Male: 2–2.5 kg [1]
  Female: 1.5–2 kg[1]
Egg color white
Classification
Chicken
Gallus gallus domesticus

The Westfälischer Totleger is a German breed of domestic chicken. It is more than 400 years old, and is a rare breed. As of 2009, only 301 roosters and 1353 hens were officially registered.[1][2]

Name

Although the German word "Tot" means "death" and "Leger" means non-sitters (hens which lay eggs), the real meaning is another. Due to the considerable ability to produce eggs, the breed was called "Alltagsleger" (each day nonsitters, it means it lays an egg each day) or "Dauerleger". Under the influence of Low German the name changed into "Doutleijer". Later, from this Low German word, it developed into "Totleger". Derivation from "lays eggs till the death" is thus not correct.[3]

Origin

It is an old landrace from Westphalia. It is closely related to the Ostfriesische Möwe and Braekel.

Description

It is kept in 2 colours: Gold Pencilled and Silver Pencilled. The roosters weigh 2-2,5 kg and the hens from 1,5–2 kg. The hens are non-sitters, produce 200-243 eggs per year of 55-65 g weight.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Das westfälische Totlegerhuhn
  2. "Rote Liste der gefährdeten einheimischen Nutztierrassen in Deutschland" (PDF). Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung (BLE). 2010. Retrieved 2011-02-23.
  3. Unterweger, Wolf-Dietmar: Das Hühnerbuch: Praxisanleitung zur Haltung "glücklicher Hühner", Graz 2004, 2. Aufl., S. 125
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/30/2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.