Campine Chicken

Campine Chicken is a breed of domestic chicken originating in the northern part of Belgium, developed as a distinct breed from a smaller regional Braekel variant in 1904, though the two lines were later reunited under the Braekel name in Belgium itself in the mid-1920s even as Campine remained the name used abroad. The breed was imported to England around 1899 and subsequently to the United States, where it was recognized by the American Poultry Association in 1914. Two color varieties are recognized, silver and gold, both showing a white or gold head and neck with black barring and a beetle-green sheen across the body, on a relatively small framed bird. Campine Chicken historically had a reputation as a reliable everyday layer of large white eggs, though it is now among the rarest domestic chicken breeds, listed as at risk by the United Kingdom's Rare Breeds Survival Trust and kept today mostly for exhibition.