White Face Spanish
The Spanish White Face chicken breed is on the critical list of 'The Livestock Conservancy'. We hope to help in bringing back popularity for these amazing chickens. They're excellent egg layers of large white eggs and I have found them to be a pleasure.
This breed are non-setters, and lay large white eggs. The white face of our Spanish is very slow to develop. Please allow the birds to go through one molt before presenting them in poultry shows.
The breed is of ancient and unknown lineage. They are thought to be the oldest breed in the Mediterranean class of fowl. The chicks can be rather flighty, as can be most Mediterranean breeds.
In plumage, the Spanish chicken is a lustrous greenish black in color, tight fitting of feather, and with moderately flowing tails. What sets this breed apart is the tremendous white ear lobes and white on face.
Spanish chickens have been widely known and recognized for their ability to lay a very large number of very large white eggs – gaining recognition for this even before 1816 in England. The breed came to America from Holland, and from 1825 to about 1895 was one of the best-known breeds of poultry. During the early 1860s, Spanish chickens were popular in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and as far west as Ohio. Farmers with flocks specializing in market eggs kept large flocks of this breed as late as 1892-1895. Eggs from Spanish chickens have been record in weights ranging from 2.75 ounces to 4.25 ounces (in 1852).
The downfall of the Spanish chicken came and they have been exceeding difficult to find as the breed went onto the critical list of going extinct. As breeders paid more attention to increasing the size of the white faces in the Spanish chickens, a great loss of hardiness was observed. This combined with the delicate nature of the chicks soon led to a loss of popularity as hardier breeds began to arrive.
Spanish chickens were admitted to the American Poultry Association standard as a recognized under the name of White Faced Black Spanish in 1874. They are a non-sitting fowl with: dark brown eyes; dark slate shanks and toes; white earlobes and faces; and lay chalk white eggs. Males weigh 8 lbs and females weigh 6.5 lbs.