The Ixworth is an English

breed A breed is a specific group of domestic animals having homogeneous appearance (phenotype), homogeneous behavior, and/or other characteristics that distinguish it from other organisms of the same species. In literature, there exist several slig ...

of white domestic

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

. It is named for the village of

Ixworth Ixworth is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk, England, north-east of Bury St Edmunds on the A143 road to Diss and south-east of Thetford. The parish had a population of 2,365 at the 2011 Census. History Ix ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

, where it was created in 1932. It was bred as fast-growing high-quality meat breed with reasonable laying abilities.

History

The Ixworth was created in 1932 by Reginald Appleyard, who also created the Silver Appleyard Duck, at his poultry farm in the village of

. It was bred from white

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

, white

Minorca Menorca or Minorca (from la, Insula Minor, , smaller island, later ''Minorica'') is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. Its name derives from its size, contrasting it with nearby Majorca. Its capita ...

, white

Orpington Orpington is a town and area in south east London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is 13.4 miles (21.6 km) south east of Charing Cross. On the south-eastern edge of the Greater London Built-up Area, it is south of St Ma ...

, Jubilee,

Indian Game The Indian Game is a British breed of game chicken, now reared either for meat or show. It originated in the early nineteenth century in the counties of Cornwall and Devon in south-west England. It is a heavy, muscular bird with an unusual ...

and white Indian Game chickens, with the intention of creating a dual purpose breed, a fast-growing high-quality meat bird with reasonable egg-laying ability. An Ixworth bantam was created in 1938; Appleyard thought it better than the standard-sized bird. In the 1970s the Ixworth almost disappeared; it has since gradually recovered. It is a

rare breed In modern agriculture, a rare breed is a breed of poultry or livestock that has a very small breeding population, usually from a few hundred to a few thousand. Because of their small numbers, rare breeds may have a threatened conservation statu ...

: in 2007 it was listed by the

FAO The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...

as "endangered-maintained". In 2008 it was listed as "Category 2: endangered" by the

Rare Breeds Survival Trust The Rare Breeds Survival Trust is a conservation charity whose purpose is to secure the continued existence and viability of the native farm animal genetic resources (FAnGR) of the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1973 by Joe Henson to prese ...

, and in 2014 was on the Trust's list of native poultry breeds at risk.

Characteristics

The plumage of the Ixworth is pure white. The

comb A comb is a tool consisting of a shaft that holds a row of teeth for pulling through the hair to clean, untangle, or style it. Combs have been used since prehistoric times, having been discovered in very refined forms from settlements dating ba ...

is of pea type; it and the face, earlobes and wattles are brilliant red. The eyes are bright orange or red. The beak, shanks, feet, skin and flesh are all white. In a comparative study conducted at the

Roslin Institute The Roslin Institute is an animal sciences research institute at Easter Bush, Midlothian, Scotland, part of the University of Edinburgh, and is funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. It is best known for creati ...

in 2003, Ixworth hens were found to reach a live weight of at 55 weeks, and to lay on average 0.74 eggs per day, with an average egg weight of The meat commands premium prices.

References

Chicken breeds Chicken breeds originating in the United Kingdom Animal breeds on the RBST Watchlist Ixworth {{poultry-stub