The Good Eggs

Pure breeds developed for egg laying. This month: The Welsummer

OVERVIEW/ SUMMARY

The Welsummer is renowned for the dark coloured, speckled eggs it lays combined with the very typical rich warm ‘jungle fowl’ plumage it exhibits. Well known as a layer of many eggs, some strains are also capable of supplying a reasonable amount of meat for the table.

ORIGINS

The Welsummer takes its name from the village of its origin, Welsum, which sits on the River Ijssel in the Netherlands. The precise chicken breeds it was created from are not fully known with evidences of Malay, Brahma, Orpington and Leghorn amongst a number of ones mentioned. Standardised by the Dutch during the mid 1920s, it was exported to other countries from the 1930s onwards.

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