Delaware
Delaware is an American chicken breed developed in the 1940s from New Hampshire and Barred Plymouth Rock breeding. Before modern broiler hybrids took over, it was used as a fast-growing meat bird that could also lay a good number of brown eggs. Delawares are white to silvery birds with black barring or ticking in the hackles, tail, and sometimes wings, giving them a clean farm-breed appearance without being plain white.
Today the Delaware is mainly kept as a heritage dual-purpose breed. Small farms value its growth, calm handling, and useful laying, while breeders work to keep body width and correct color from fading. It needs ordinary large-fowl housing, good feed during growth, and enough space to avoid soft condition. Buyers should distinguish true Delawares from white commercial crosses, because the breed's value lies in a reproducible heritage type, not just pale feathers.
Colors: Barred, Birchen, Black, Blue, Brown, Buff, Columbian, Crele, Cuckoo, Duckwing, Gold, Gold Laced, Laced, Lavender, Mille Fleur, Mottled, Partridge, Penciled, Porcelain, Red, Silver, Silver Laced, Spangled, Splash, Wheaten, White, White with Black Barring
