Le Merlerault

An exceptionally rare French dual-purpose breed from the town of Le Merlerault in the Orne department of Normandy. Developed in the 19th century, Le Merlerault is a large, upright white bird with a single comb, clean legs, and white skin — the classic profile of a Norman farm butcher's chicken. The breed was prized in Normandy's horse-breeding country, where stud farms kept large poultry flocks and Le Merlerault was the chicken of choice. Hens lay white eggs and are good sitters, and the breed produces a notably fine-textured meat. The collapse of traditional farming in rural Normandy after 1950 nearly drove the breed extinct, and by the 1980s only a handful of birds survived. Recovery efforts by SCAF have slowly rebuilt the population, but Le Merlerault remains one of France's rarest chicken breeds. Recognised by the EE Europastandard.