Orusthöna
Gallus gallus domesticus
✨ Fait Amusant
Orust is famous for shipbuilding — the island has been building wooden boats since Viking times and is Sweden's primary pleasure-craft manufacturing centre today. The Orusthöna shared its island home with boatwrights who saw chicken breeding as a secondary occupation, and the breed developed alongside Sweden's maritime traditions.
A Swedish landrace chicken from the island of Orust on the west coast of Sweden, north of Gothenburg. Orust is Sweden's fourth-largest island, and its relative isolation allowed a distinct local chicken type to develop over centuries. The Orusthöna is a medium-sized, robust bird with a single comb and clean legs, adapted to the damp, windy coastal conditions of the Bohuslän archipelago. Its plumage is variable — birds can be white, black, grey, speckled, or patched — reflecting its unimproved landrace heritage. Orusthönas are excellent foragers, able to survive on the thin, rocky soils of the Bohuslän coast where vegetation is sparse and the weather unforgiving. The breed was rediscovered in the 1980s by Swedish poultry conservationists and has since been stabilised through the national gene bank. Registered in DAD-IS and maintained by a small group of Swedish breeders.
🏷️ Race
Orusthöna
💭 Tempérament
Active, hardy, excellent forager, independent, salt-tolerant
📏 Taille
Medium (2.3-3.2 kg)
⏳ Espérance de vie
5-8 years
🎨 Couleurs
Variable — white, black, grey, speckled, or patched (landrace diversity)
🌍 Origine
Sweden — Orust island, Bohuslän; traditional landrace, rediscovered 1980s
🏠 Habitat
Free-range essential; adapted to coastal, rocky, windswept island terrain
🍽️ Alimentation
Standard poultry feed; exceptional forager on sparse coastal vegetation
🎯 Usage
Dual Purpose
🥚 Couleur des œufs
Tinted
👑 Type de crête
Single