Sulmtaler

The Sulmtaler is an Austrian breed of domestic chicken. It originates in the Sulmtal, the valley of the Sulm river, in southern Styria, in the south-east of Austria, and takes its name from that valley.^[3]

Sulmtaler

Sulmtaler hen
Country of origin	Austria
Standard	SSO (Austria, in German)
Use	dual-purpose, eggs and meat
Traits
Weight	Male: 3–4 kg[1] Female: 2.5–3.5 kg[1]
Egg color	cream to light brown[1]
Classification
PCGB	rare soft feather: heavy[2]
Chicken Gallus gallus domesticus

History

Like the Altsteirer, the Sulmtaler derives from the country chickens raised in Styria, particularly in the Kainachtal, the Lassnitztal, the Sulmtal and the Saggautal.^[4] In the second half of the nineteenth century these were subjected to massive cross-breeding with imported Cochin, Dorking and Houdan stock to create heavy meat birds for fattening.^[4] In about 1900 some breeders brought together the small remaining stock of chickens of the former type, and the original breed was reconstituted.^[1]

Characteristics

Sulmtaler is a hardy dual-purpose breed, kept both for eggs and meat. Cocks weigh 3–4 kg and hens 2.5–3.5 kg. Hens are non-sitters, and lay 130-180 eggs of about 55 g in weight per year.^[1]

The Sulmtaler is raised almost exclusively in the gold wheaten colour variety,^[5] and this was the only colour standardised in 1958.^[1] A white variety was created in the German Democratic Republic after the Second World War.^[1] Silver wheaten and blue wheaten varieties were accepted in Austria in 2013.^{[citation needed]} Silver-blue wheaten is not yet accepted.^[1]