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8 Best Breeds of Chickens With Feathered Feet [+ Photos!]

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Not all chickens were made equal. Some, like the Polish chicken, wear their crests with all the style of the most eye-catching fascinator at Ascot while others strut around in their tufts and buffs like something out of a Jane Austen novel.

Chickens with fluffy, feathered feet don’t look quite as stylish, but are very cute, often looking like they’re wearing over-sized slippers.

8 Gorgeous Chicken Breeds With Feathered Feet

  1. Booted Bantam
  2. Belgian d’Uccle
  3. Brahma
  4. Cochin
  5. Faverolle
  6. Langshan
  7. Silkie
  8. Sultan

What Kind of Chickens Have Fluffy Feet?

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Most of us are familiar with the fluffy-footed bantam but what other chicken breeds have feathers on their feet?

Do Orpingtons have feathered feet, for example? Apparently not, but there are eight different breeds of chickens that do and are recognized by the American Poultry Association as part of the so-called Feather Leg Class.

Just because they look cool, however, doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll slip into life in your backyard as easily as chickens that lack those feathered feet.

Before rushing out to secure yourself a selection of fluffy-footed fowls, let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of owning such chickens.

1. Booted Bantam

dutch-booted-bantam-with-feathered-feet
The Booted Bantam is the feathered-footed supermodel of the chicken world!

This diminutive breed has been around since the 1600s and is one of the “true bantams” which means “it is a naturally small bird with no related large fowl from which it was reduced in size.”

Often regarded as the Supermodel of the chicken world, Booted Bantams are primarily kept as exhibition or show chickens, or as pets. They’re not bad layers either, producing around 150 to 180 – admittedly quite tiny – eggs per year.

With their short, compact bodies, long wings, and feathered feet and hocks, Booted Bantams come in a wide range of colors, from pure white to the more eye-catching Silver & Lemon Millefleur.

To keep them in perfect condition, “many owners prefer raising Booted Bantam chicken indoors or in protected coops with soft bedding.”

2. Belgian d’Uccle

Belgian-d'Uccle-chicken-with-feathered-feet
The Belgian d’Uccle is calm, lovable, and has gorgeous feathered feet

Not as well known as the bantam, the Belgian d’Uccle is “as sweet as Belgian chocolate.” Calm and lovable, they make great pets and eye-catching companions with their wide variety of colors and patterns.

While the Belgian d’Uccle won’t provide you with breakfast every morning, laying an average of 100 eggs per year, they will add a touch of style to your coop.

Easy to keep as well as easy-going, the d’Uccle is a great chicken for beginners and make great mothers with their naturally broody tendencies.

Being lighter than your average chicken, Belgian d’Uccles are excellent flyers so, if you’re considering getting a flock, you might want to cover your chicken run before they end up all over the neighborhood.

See Tractor Supply’s range of baby chicks!

3. Brahma

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Brahma chickens are impressive with their feathered feet and laid-back nature

This American breed “was the principal meat breed in the US from the 1850s until about 1930.”

Brahma chickens are easy to keep and easy on the eye with their pea combs and vulture hocks, the latter referring to the “cluster of stiff feathers growing on the thighs of a domestic fowl and projecting backward.”

Weighing as much as 17lb (8kg) while laying around 300 eggs per year, the Brahma is one of the best dual-purpose chickens around, especially for backyard chicken keepers.

Buy Brahma chicks at TractorSupply!

But, wait a minute…

Do all Brahma have feathered feet?

Yes, both the dark and light variations sport the famous foot feathering which, along with their elegant coloring, makes them look as though they’re “wearing an elaborate ball gown.”

P.s. check out this book – Extraordinary Chickens, it’s really cool!

4. Cochin

cochin-chicken-with-fluffy-feet
The Cochin chicken has super impressive feathered feet!

Originating in China, the Cochin was introduced to North America in Europe in the 1840s to 1850s where it gained instant popularity as an exhibition bird.

It shares some characteristics with the Brahma, which also descended from the so-called Shanghai birds of China.

Fun and friendly with comically fluffy feet, the Cochin is another dual-purpose bird, weighing up to 13 lb (6 kg) and producing between 150 to 160 eggs a year.

With feathers everywhere, including their toes, Cochins can be difficult to care for, especially in muddy conditions.

On the plus side, they do better in cold weather than almost any other feather-footed breed and will even continue laying through a snow-capped winter.

The Cochin is not a naturally inquisitive bird and its heavy body prevents it from flying as easily as the Belgian d’Uccle, making it ideal as a backyard breed.

Most of our feathered-feet chickens are available from Tractor Supply!

5. Faverolle

Faverolle-chicken-feathers-on-their-feet
The Faverolle isn’t as well known but it sure is impressive with its bushy beard and feathered feet!

The lesser-known Faverolle reveals its French origins in its fluffy muffs, bushy beard, and feathered feet, none of which would look out of place at the Paris Fashion Show.

Most commonly white or salmon-pink, Faverolle come in a wide range of color varieties and patterns, bringing your backyard to life with their vibrancy.

Another dual-purpose breed, the Faverolle does as well in an enclosure as it does free-ranging, usually laying up to 180 eggs per year.

Gentle and sociable chickens, the Faverolle love humans as much as they relish an unexpected worm or a decent dust bath on a hot day. As such, they make great pets, especially for children.

6. Langshan

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Although there are now several different types of Langshan, they’re all descended from the original Croad Langshan. While not quite as fluffy-footed as the Brahma, the long-legged Langshan has a smattering of feathers on its shanks and outer toes.

A hardy bird, the Langshan is a good meat bird, capable of providing plenty of white meat and they make decent layers, producing up to 220 eggs per year and laying throughout the winter.

They’re good foragers and great flyers so need a secure coop to keep them contained.

Another great chicken for beginners, the Langshan comes in a variety of colors, with the original Croad Langshan sporting a black plumage that reveals its green iridescence in the sunlight.

When viewed in profile, the Langshan has a distinct “wine-glass shape” which, in my opinion, is another reason to love them!

7. Silkie

silkie-chicken-breed-with-feathers
The Silkie chicken is one of the world’s favorite chicken breeds

One of the world’s favorite chicken breeds, the well-known Silkie is distinguishable by looking, fundamentally, like a fluffy chicken ball.

Although small in stature, Silkies make a big impact with their stylish hats and big slippers.

As one of the oldest breeds of chicken in the world, the Silkie has been around since the 13th century and, rather appropriately, traveled to the West via the Silk Route.

Named for its plumage, “which is said to feel like silk and satin,” the diminutive Silkie weighs less than two pounds (1kg), making it unfeasible as a meat bird, and lays just 100 eggs a year.

In other words, it’s not much good for anything except looking at and cuddling.

Nevertheless, Silkies make great pets and fashion accessories, according to some celebrities! They also have a surprisingly long life-span, living up to eight or nine years old.

Top 10 Largest Chicken Breeds In the World [+ Some Record Holders!]

8. Sultan

white-Sultan-chicken
The gorgeous Sultan chicken is a calm, friendly, and striking bird!

This striking breed of chicken originated in Turkey and it didn’t take long for it to travel the world, arriving in England in 1854 and the US in 1867.

The name is directly derived from the Turkish title, Serai-Tavuk, meaning “fowls of the Sultan.”

One of the smallest of the large-breed chickens, the Sultan is primarily ornamental, laying just 50 eggs per year and growing to a maximum weight of around 6lb (2.75kg). They are entertaining birds, however, with calm, friendly dispositions.

These robust birds are easy to keep and do well in confined areas, although their fluffy feathers provide perfect hiding places for fleas, lice, and other external parasites.

Other Chickens With Feathered Feet

While not a breed in itself, if you want a giggle, you should get a frizzle!

Frizzle chickens are a variety of hen that have an abundance of frizzled feathers and fluffed up feet. You can get frizzled Cochins, frizzled Pekins, and even frizzled Polish chickens.

Frizzling occurs when the feathers curl outward and upward rather than lying flat against the body and is the result of “an incomplete dominant gene.”

Get yourself a frizzled Japanese bantam and breed it with a Silkie and, the next thing you know, you’ll have yourself a Sizzle!

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03/12/2024 03:59 am GMT

Why Do Chickens Have Feathers On Their Feet?

rooster-and-chicken-with-feathered-feet-in-coop

There is no scientific explanation for why some chickens have feathers on their feet when others don’t.

In fact, “other than looks, feathered feet don’t offer any extra benefits. Even though it would be really cool if it gave the ability to walk on water like the basilisk lizard.” (source)

In 2002, researchers at the University of Wisconsin found that, by activating one of the two genes responsible for the formation of scales and feathers, they could make an embryonic chicken grow feathers instead of scales on its feet.

They also found that the Chinese Silkie has “feathers similar in shape to unearthed feathered dinosaurs,” at which point their imaginations probably ran away with them, conjuring up images of a Tyrannosaurus Rex covered with soft, white fluff!

Foot Feather Problems and How to Deal With Them

Chinese-silky-bantam-chicken-with-feathered-feet

Fluffy-footed chickens are eye-catching and fun, but they do come with their own set of problems.

As we mentioned earlier, chickens with feathers on their feet don’t do so well in muddy conditions as they transfer that mud to their nests, and their eggs, making them “vulnerable to bacterial infection”.

To avoid this, give your chickens a dry run and plenty of bedding.

Chickens with feathered feet are also more prone to scaly leg mites. As the feathers emerge from beneath the leg scales, so they give mites an ideal entry point and easy environment in which to thrive.

Treating scaly leg mites isn’t complicated on a normal chicken but, on one with feathers all over it, it is considerably more challenging.

Although many of the feather-leg breeds cope well in cold weather, they are more susceptible to frostbite than the naked-legged varieties.

Counterintuitive though that may seem, “if your chickens have a wet or snowy run and get slush or mud embedded in their legs feathers, that can freeze hard and cause frostbite issues”. (source)

None of these issues is particularly serious and many feather-legged chickens are still considered easy keepers, even with these problems.

A little extra vigilance and dedication will go a long way towards keeping your chickens comfortable. Anyway, what’s a few niggles when you’ve got frizzles and giggles to make up for them?

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03/13/2024 10:04 am GMT

Fluffy-Footed Feathered Friends

Chicken breeds with feathered feet don’t just look cool, most of them have pretty cool behavior to boot.

Whether you opt for a child-friendly Faverolle or a dual-purpose Brahma, those feathered feet will turn a few heads and add a comic element to your backyard flock.

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5 Comments

  1. I love the light chicken breeds the best. They are so pretty. Bob was a great rooster. Wish I still had him. I like a dual purpose chicken breed. This is the best one. If no one is broody I incubate the eggs every couple months. Size makes them great for arthritic hands when bundling for freezer camp!

    1. Hey Jo!

      Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting.

      I agree with you!

      Dual-purpose chicken breeds are the best for homesteaders.

      I live in bitter-cold Massachusetts, so Dominique and Rhode Island Reds are two of my favorite dual-purpose breeds.

      (They are nice size, produce many delicious eggs, and can handle the cold weather better than most.)

      Thanks again for your feedback.

      Have a good day!

      Cordially,

      Mike

  2. Very interesting. I am new to chicken keeping, and I’m set on finding a buff bantam Cochin, but if I’m not able to find one, or maybe there’s a better breed for our family, this article is helpful. I have read that cochins have thin fragile shells.. and this article informed me about issues that can arise with feathered feet, and alternate breeds. My chickens MUST have feathered feet,… Chicken feet creep me out after a bad Chinese food experience… Anyways, thanks for the info!!

    1. Just to let you know, we had a Cochin, free range in our garden (with other hens), she loved having a cuddle with the children, lay perfectly normal eggs, and also made a wonderful broody hen once a year. She was lovable and much missed. She was full sized, and I would always have a full size, bigger cuddles, and bigger eggs :).

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