Lakenvelder

This article is about the chicken breed. For the breed of cattle, see Lakenvelder cattle.

Lakenvelder

Conservation status	GEH, Germany: III, endangered
Other names	German: Lakenfelder
Country of origin	Netherlands Germany
Use	eggs
Traits
Weight	Male: up to 2.5 kg[1] Female: up to 2 kg[1]
Skin colour	white
Egg colour	white to tinted
Comb type	single, five-pointed[2]: 58
Classification
APA	Continental[3]
PCGB	rare soft feather: light[4]
Chicken Gallus gallus domesticus

The Lakenvelder /ˈlɑːkənvɛldər/ or Lakenfelder is a breed of domestic chicken from the Nordrhein-Westfalen area of Germany and neighbouring areas of the Netherlands. It was first recorded in 1727.[5]: 159 

History

The origins of the Lakenvelder are not clear.[6] Two different histories are proposed: it may have originated in Holland, where it is documented from 1727, and its name may derive from that of the village of Lakerveld, in the municipality of Zederik in South Holland.[7] An alternative history is that it originated in Germany in the area of Dielingen in Nordrhein-Westfalen, not far from the Dümmer See, where chickens with a black neck and tail and a white body occurred as sports of the local Westfälischer Totleger breed; these black-and-white birds were selectively bred by several breeders, and were first shown in 1835 by one named Wirz, from Haldem [de] in Stemwede.[7][8] They came to be known as Lakenvelder, and enjoyed considerable popularity until the arrival in the later nineteenth century of more productive imported breeds such as the Leghorn, after which numbers declined rapidly.[7]

In Germany, a breeders' association, the Vereinigung der Lakenfelder Züchter, was formed in Hanover in 1907.[8]

The Lakenvelder was first imported into Britain in 1901, and was shown in Shrewsbury in 1902.[5]: 159  In the United States, it was admitted to the Standard of Perfection of the American Poultry Association in 1939.[2]: 57 [3]

The Lakenvelder is distributed in Germany and Holland, and is also present in Australia, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States.[9] Its international conservation status was not listed as being at risk by the FAO in 2007,[10]: 152  and in 2024 was listed in DAD-IS as "not at risk". In Germany it was listed in 2018 in category III, gefährdet ('extremely endangered') on the Rote Liste of the Gesellschaft zur Erhaltung alter und gefährdeter Haustierrassen;[11] by 2024 it had been moved to category IV, Beobachtung ('watch') on that list, and was listed in DAD-IS as "at risk/vulnerable".[12][13] In Holland its status in 2024 was "at risk/endangered", with a breeding population of 402 hens and 80 cocks.[14][9]

Characteristics

The head, neck hackle and tail of the Lakenvelder are solid black, without spots, ticks or stripes; the inner web of the wing primaries and secondaries is black. The rest of the bird is white with a pale blue-grey under-colour. The black-and-white pattern is reminiscent of the colouring of the Lakenvelder breed of cattle, which originated in the same area.[5]: 159 

The eyes are bright chestnut or red, the beak dark horn, and the face, wattles and comb bright red, with white earlobes. The legs are slate-blue.[5]: 159 

Use

The Lakenvelder lays up to 160 white eggs, weighing up to 50 g each, per year.[1]

• 
  Lakenvelder pair (foreground) and Ramelslohers, plate from the Geflügel-Album of Jean Bungartz, 1885
• 
  At a show in Leipzig
• 
  Cock, close-up of the head
• 
  Three-day-old chick

References

1. Rote Liste: Einheimische Nutztierrassen in Deutschland 2013 (in German). Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung. Archived 1 February 2014.
2. Carol Ekarius (2007). Storey's Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds. North Adams, Massachusetts: Storey Publishing. ISBN 9781580176675. p. 57–58.
3. APA Recognized Breeds and Varieties: As of January 1, 2012. American Poultry Association. Archived 4 November 2017.
4. Breed Classification. Poultry Club of Great Britain. Archived 12 June 2018.
5. Victoria Roberts (2008). British poultry standards: complete specifications and judging points of all standardized breeds and varieties of poultry as compiled by the specialist breed clubs and recognised by the Poultry Club of Great Britain. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 9781405156424.
6. Lakenfelder (in German). Gesellschaft zur Erhaltung alter und gefährdeter Haustierrassen. Archived 17 April 2001.
7. Ruud Kreton (June 2007). Lakenvelder. Aviculture Europe. 3 (3): section 4. Archived 18 December 2011.
8. Lakenfelder (in German). Gesellschaft zur Erhaltung alter und gefährdeter Haustierrassen. Archived 8 March 2017.
9. Transboundary breed: Lakenvelder. Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed December 2024.
10. Barbara Rischkowsky, Dafydd Pilling (editors) (2007). List of breeds documented in the Global Databank for Animal Genetic Resources, annex to The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Rome: Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. ISBN 9789251057629. Archived 23 June 2020.
11. Liste alter einheimischer Geflügelrassen in Deutschland (in German). Gesellschaft zur Erhaltung alter und gefährdeter Haustierrassen. Archived 21 September 2018.
12. Liste alter einheimischer Geflügelrassen in Deutschland (in German). Gesellschaft zur Erhaltung alter und gefährdeter Haustierrassen. Archived 14 December 2024.
13. Breed data sheet: Lakenfelder / Germany (Chicken). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed December 2024.
14. Breed data sheet: Lakenvelder hoen / Netherlands (Kingdom of the) (Chicken). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed December 2024.