Origin: The Netherlands

Category: Softfeather Light

Egg Colour: White or Cream

Sitter:  No

The Breda, also called Guelderlands (Gueldre - Cuckoo variety) or Kraaikoppen (Dutch for crow headed), has been identified as far back as the 1840s.  It takes its name from the city of Breda in the Dutch province of North Brabant and was originally very common in Holland and Belgium, as well as in parts of northern France, while finding few admirers in other countries. It has the distinctive feature of having no comb at all. 

They are a medium good laying hen, laying 110-130 white eggs weighing 60-65g. They are good meat hens with a full breast, and the roosters reach a body weight of 3-4kg, the hens 2.5-3kg. In the past, the weight was said to be more considerable. The meat is tender and white. Although they are surpassed in both laying and meat qualities by some other breeds, their main advantage is that they are very hardy and not difficult to raise. They are not very reliable as brooders. 

Carriage & Body

Breda stand proudly, body only slightly sloping with a nearly straight top-line.  They are an active fowl. (World Poultry & Bantam Association).

Body compact, full and round - cylindrical. Chest  protruding, full and rounded, but not excessively deep. Back fairly long, broad, slightly sloping, saddle with abundant feathering. Tail well developed with broad feathers, fairly hard, medium length and fanned, carried fairly upright at around 45 degrees. Wings long, carried tucked up with tips below the saddle feathers. 

Head

The head is large, appearing short and broad proportionally, with a slight skull elevation and a high forehead. The beak is long and strongly curved (crow's beak), with a grey-black transverse saddle over the large protruding nostrils. There is no comb and no crest, but the feathers on the head stand up  in a tuft that can be slightly backward facing.  Just behind the cavernous nostrils there is a little depression in the red skin and behind that a little ridge of flesh  (see head image above). The combination of the absence of comb and the tuft of upward feathers creates an appearance unique to the Breda. The face is red, covered with short feathers. Wattles are moderately large and broad. Earlobes are small and white. Eyes large -  orange to dark red with black pupils. The neck is long, erect, and somewhat curved with abundantly feathered hackle. 

Legs & Feet

Thighs strong, medium length, with long strong vulture hocks. Legs strong, of medium length, moderately covered with short feathers on the outside,.

Toes (four) long, strong,  densely but moderately feathered on outer toe and slight middle toe feathering.. 

Plumage 

Plumage rich and plentiful, but still close-fitting with no fluffiness. 

Female 

Cock and hen differ only slightly. As in many breeds the female is fuller in the breast and carries her body slightly lower. She carries her tail less full and slightly less high. All other differences are those naturally seen between male and female.

Colour Varieties

The black Breda are the most common; blue, white, and mottled breeds also occur, for which the same rules apply as for other similarly coloured chicken breeds. In Australia black, blue, blue-laced, cuckoo and white are recognised in the Australian Poultry Standards. 

Black 

Pure black with green sheen as in many fowls. Beak dark horn with black. Legs slaty or black. The German texts describe the legs as dark lead-coloured or dark slate.

Note: purple or blue sheen on black or red feathers undesirable in the black. 

Blue-Laced

Plumage blue with clearly contrasting dark slate lacing and matching dark slate or black hackles. Beak horn and legs slate or slatey blue (Wright's Book of Poultry). 

Note: missing or very blurred lacing, very sooty ground colour, extremely pale plumage or rustiness is undesirable.

Cuckoo

White base colour evenly banded with dark grey. Beak white to horn. Legs and feet: white to light blue or grey.

White

Plumage white. Beak white to light horn. Legs and feet light blue or grey, with flesh-coloured (or white) being permissible in this colour variety. 

Weights

The British Poultry Standard seems to stress their utility as a table fowl. 

Standard Fowl

• The goal for a cock bird is to be 3kg or over, but as a cockerel you expect him to be around 2.5kg.

• The goal for a mature hen is to be 2.25kg or over however as a pullet you would expect her to be around 1.75kg.

Bantams

• A well-developed bantam cockerel will be around 900g and as he mature into a cock he will attain around 1kg.

• A bantam pullet will be around 700g and as she develops into a hen she will work up to around 800g.

Points

The British Poultry Standards (from which the Australian is drawn) gives a points allocation that appears to stress the importance of the head features by allocating 30 points of the 100 there. Type and carriage receive 20%, legs and feet receive 20%, and colour and condition pick up the lowest priorities at 15% of the points each. 

In Europe they give egg weights so we will include them here:

• Minimum hatching egg weight standard fowl 55g

• Minimum hatching egg weight bantams 40g

Faults

• Weak figure or too thin a body;

• Comb too large or having horns,;

• Defective nasal saddle - poorly developed or crooked;

• Lacking raised head feathers;

• weak straight beak;

• Unfeathered legs;

• Steeply sloping body carriage or stance,

• Heavily drooping wings;

• Major colour defects in the plumage.

Very Serious Faults: 

• Any crest growth at all;

• Too little foot feathering,;

• Any significant colour faults.

Sources

Bund Deutscher Rassegeflugelzuchter e.V. (Ed.). (1074). Deutscher Rassegeflugel-Standard:Musterbeschreibungen des Bundes Deutscher Rassegeflugelzuchter (DDRG) e.V. Verlag Jurgens KG

Pfenningstorff, F. (n.d.). Unser Hausgeflugel. Das GroBgeflugel. Erster Band: Rassenkunde. Berlin: Verlag fur Sport und Naturwissenschaften. 

SV of Dutch Bantams & Rare Bantam Breeds: https://www.seltene-zwerghuehner.eu/unsere-rassen/zwerg-breda

The Poultry Club of Great Britain: https://www.poultryclub.org/breeds/chickens/rare-soft-feather-light/breda/

The Rare Poultry Society: https://www.rarepoultrysociety.com/breda.html

VPFA Australian Poultry Standards, Victoria.

Wilson P.B. & Allonby, J.I.H., 2019. British Poultry Standards. Wiley Blackwell.

World Poultry & Bantam Association: https://www.wpba24.com/raze/0003/60860_003.php

W.P.B.A. https://wpba24.com/raze/0004/60860_004.php

Wright, L. (1902). Wright’s book of poultry (S. H. Lewer, Ed.). Cassell and Company, Ltd. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951000442047 

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breda_%28Huhn%29