Plymouth Rock Chicken

An American chicken breed that originated in Massachusetts during the 1800s, first seen in Boston in 1849 and developed more formally around 1869 when D. A. Upham crossed Black Java hens with barred-plumage roosters in Worcester, Massachusetts; for much of the early twentieth century it was the most widely kept chicken breed in the United States. It is a dual purpose fowl, raised for both meat and brown eggs, laying about 200 eggs a year, valued for good resistance to cold and for being a good sitter, which suits it well to homestead farming. Plymouth Rocks carry a single comb with five points, yellow legs and beak, and come in seven recognized color varieties in the United States, including the original barred pattern along with blue, buff, Columbian, partridge, silver-penciled and white. In industrial agriculture, white Plymouth Rock strains crossed with white Cornish chickens form the foundation of modern American broiler production.