Green-legged Partridge

Overview

The Green-legged Partridge is not a bird, but an old Polish breed of domestic chicken characterised by its unusual reseda green shanks. It is maintained solely for conservation purposes due to its poor egg-laying performance and unsuitability for intensive management.

Identification

• Reseda green colouration of the shanks.
• Poor egg-laying performance compared to other breeds.
• Subject to cannibalism and feather-pulling when kept in intensive conditions.

Habitat

Historically raised in approximately 70% of Poland in the 1930s, the breed's population declined significantly in the 1960s and 1970s. Today, two closed strains exist: the ZK strain at Felin near Lublin and the Z11 strain at the National Research Institute of Animal Production in Chorzelów.

Diet

The breed is well adapted to extensive management and forages well. It is resistant to disease but suffers from behavioural issues such as cannibalism when confined in intensive systems.

Did you know?

Between 1946 and 1954, this breed was crossed with American Plymouth Rocks to create the Polbar, a hybrid whose female chicks can be distinguished from males at one day old by a longer black eye-stripe.