Silkie

A distinctive chicken breed, also called the Silky or Chinese silk chicken, that originated in China and is named for its atypically fluffy plumage, soft to the touch like silk or fur; it also carries black skin and bones, blue earlobes, and five toes on each foot rather than the usual four, a trait called polydactyly. Its exact origin is unclear, but the earliest Western account comes from Marco Polo, who described a furry chicken during his thirteenth century travels in Asia, and the breed is thought to have reached the West along the Silk Route and by sea; it was accepted into the American Standard of Perfection in 1874. Silkies come in bearded and non-bearded varieties across several recognized colors, are relatively small, European standard-sized males weighing around 1.8 kilograms, and their soft plumage comes from feathers that lack functioning barbicels, which leaves the birds unable to fly. Today Silkies are kept mainly as ornamental and companion birds, valued for a friendly temperament suited to handling, and they are also prized as broody hens frequently used to incubate and raise the eggs and chicks of other poultry.