Ciuffine Ghigi

Ciuffine Ghigi, or Tuffled Ghigi, was an Italian ornamental bantam chicken created by Professor Alessandro Ghigi during his poultry genetics work at Rovigo in the 1920s and 1930s. The breed was made by crossing small bantam stock with crested Padovana chickens, then selecting for reduced size, a large head crest, visible white earlobes, slate legs, and bearded or non-bearded forms. Several color varieties were developed, including black, white, mottled, gold, and silver types.

This is best treated as a historical breed page, because true Ciuffine Ghigi stock is generally considered extinct. It remains useful to poultry historians, conservation breeders, and people studying how ornamental traits were selected before modern genetic tools. Anyone claiming living birds should be asked for documentation, not just resemblance to Padovana bantams or Polish-type chickens. The practical value of the page is to preserve the name, origin, type, and caution around reconstruction claims.