Tyrolean chicken

The Tyrolean chicken was a nice, medium-sized variety. There is only one modern photo of the chicken and it is even not sure if this is really the Tyrolean. The photo shows, in the background of a Grey Cattle bull, a black "pointed hood" chicken on a farm in the Upper Inn Valley. The breed was widespread throughout the Tyrol, Salzburg and Bregenzerwald, but especially around Innsbruck. The Tyrolean chicken were very good foragers and equipped with a large physical resistance to disease and weather conditions. Oral history tells that the black colour variation was maintained especially on remote farms, because the hawks left it in peace (the reason: Hawks thought they were crows fighting with the raptors). Pure gold and gold-speckled were however less well recognized by the fox, as they can hardly see red-brown (Bambi camouflage).

Tyrolean hen in the Thesis of Siegfried Drexel (photo cutout)