The Pavlovskaja chicken is one of the oldest Russian breeds. The ancestors of Pavlovskaja hens came to the territory of Russia supposedly from Persia more than 300 years ago. In 1895 it was mentioned in the literature as “an extreme rarity.” In the 1980s a couple of cock birds were found by a poultry breeder and crossing these with some other crested breeds, the Pavlovskaja Hen as been saved from extinction. There is now a Russian standard for the breed. Its name comes from the village of Pavlovo in the province of Nizhniy Novgorod.
Source: feather site and granlundaliv.se
The Egg Farm was lucky to find a source of fertile Pavlovskaja eggs and the first three hatched on July 3, 2014. They are adorable little chicks with a beard extending around the front of the neck to the back of the head.
Two of the chicks that hatched have four toes while the third has three toes. From my research on this breed they must have at least four toes but five is alright as well to be considered to conform to “standards.”
We are real excited to begin working with this breed and look forward to the next hatch in a few days. Please keep checking back for progress reports.
Rachael Wolfe says
Hi
We have a flock of paves. We have “Yuri” one of the original roosters that GFF imported. We also have 5 hens from different lines. If you would like some of our Pav eggs just let us know. We are always happy to help increase the number of Pavs that we have in the USA.
Mary says
Thanks Lee Ann Aspen! I am anxious too. The chicks are so funny looking. I am looking forward to seeing how they progress. When a chick starts out looking like these one has to wonder what they will look like at the “ugly stage.” 🙂
Aspen says
Oh my! How precious! I’m excited to watch them grow! Fingers and toes crossed for your other batch!
Blessings –
~ Aspen
Lea Ann (Cooking On The Ranch) says
I love that that little Russian chick is being so patriotic amongst our stars and stripes. And they’re adorable. Bravo about that extinction thing, and I’ll look forward to updates. How exciting.