Ancona Chicken

The Ancona is an Italian breed of chicken named for the city of Ancona in Italy Marche region, though it was bred to its present type mainly in the United Kingdom during the nineteenth century. It has black plumage mottled with white, with about one feather in three carrying a v-shaped white marking, yellow legs mottled with black, a yellow beak marked with black, orange-red eyes and white or cream ear-lobes. A rustic, lively and hardy Mediterranean breed that ranges widely and takes flight easily, it is a good layer of white eggs, averaging about 220 a year, with little tendency toward broodiness and pullets that may begin laying at five months old. As of 2025 the breed is considered at risk, with fewer than 800 birds reported worldwide, most of them in Australia.