Fayoumi Chicken

Fayoumi chicken is a very active and hardy breed originating in Egypt. It is a truly ancient chicken breed and has been raised along the River Nile in Egypt for centuries. And they are named for the Faiyum Governorate southwest of Cairo and west of the Nile. Egyptians have been raising them since B.C. Fayoumi chickens were first imported to the west during 1940s by a professor from the University of Iowa. But they are not included in the American Poultry Association’s Standard of Perfection. Fayoumi chickens are believed to be descendants of jungle fowl hybrids with domestic fowl that have adapted for life in thorn palm forests and marshes in Egypt (about 3,000 years ago). 

It’s a very common and popular chicken breed in Egypt and they grow very fast.

Characteristics

• Fayoumi chickens are quite small in size with large dark eyes and tails held high. 
• They are sometimes likened to a roadrunner with their forward jutting breast and neck and upright tails. 
• They are a light weight chicken breed that appear only in a single variety. 
• They have slate blue legs, red earlobes and a single medium comb. 
• There are white spot in their earlobes. 
• The skin color of Fayoumi chicken is slate blue and they have dark horn colored beaks. 
• Hens have silver-white hue color necks and heads with rest barred. 
• And the roosters have plumage with silver-white on the head, neck, saddle and back, with the rest in a white and black barring. 
• Fayoumi hens are good layers. 
• They lay small size off-white colored eggs. 
• They are not given to broodiness as pullets, but can be when they reach two or three years of age. 
• They are incredibly resistant to disease which has given them the reputation of being virtually indestructible by bacteria or virus. 
• They are also known to be naturally resistant to Marek’s Disease and to many other illnesses. 
• Fayoumi chicken is also one of the fast maturing breeds. 
• Cockerels start crowing at an unbelievable five or six weeks, and hens can begin laying eggs as early as 4 and a half or 5 months. On an average, a cock weights about 2 kg and a hen weights about 1.6 kg. 
• Silver penciled is the most common and only variety of Fayoumi chicken.

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