Coucou des Flandres

A rare Flemish dual-purpose breed from the French-Belgian border region, distinguished by its handsome cuckoo-barred plumage and impressive size. Developed by crossing local Flemish farmyard hens with Brahmas and Langshans in the early 20th century, the Coucou des Flandres is a robust, heavy bird well-suited to free-range systems on the flat, damp Flemish lowlands. Hens are good layers of large brown eggs, and cockerels produce generous, well-textured meat. The breed was extremely popular between the two World Wars but was decimated by industrial poultry farming after 1945, when the Flemish agricultural sector pivoted to intensive systems that favoured hybrid layers. Now critically rare, the Coucou des Flandres is maintained by a handful of Belgian and French conservation breeders. Recognised by the EE Europastandard.