Breakfast too Eggspensive?— Well, The Farm Clown’s Laying Ability is Nothing to Crack Up About. We Vote the White-Faced Black Spanish the Best Egg-Laying Chicken Around.

The White-face Black Spanish Chickens are listed as critically endangered by The Livestock Conservancy.

With more and more and big factory farms reporting cases of Avian Influenza and losing millions of laying hens this year alone, the price of eggs has been skyrocketing. Many people have been seeking out hens to start their own backyard flock, hoping to help buffer the cost of this baking essential. 

With this surge in the chicken farming frenzy, first-time flock owners--and even many experienced ones--are unsure of the what breed to add to their flocks to fulfill their egg-laying needs. 

A young flock of White-Faced Black Spanish.

Newsflash: Not all laying hens are created equal by far.  Hens can lay anywhere from just 70 eggs a year to a whopping 300+ --and they all cost about the same to feed. So why add just any old chicken breed to your flock instead of a heavy layer? 

We're here to make a breed suggestion for the best egg-laying chicken we feel there is: the critically endangered White-Faced Black Spanish. Hopefully, you'll thank us later.

The White-Faced Black Spanish are not only great egg-layers, but also foragers as well.

Often nicknamed “The Farm Clown”, the White-Faced Black Spanish were admitted to the American Standard of Perfection in 1874, making them the oldest breed in the Mediterranean class. Since their arrival in the United States in 1820, the White-Faced Black Spanish were incredibly popular in the Northeast because of their ability to lay a large chalk-white egg almost every day. Their laying cycle was considered so prolific that they were voted the top laying breed in the country, with the birds commonly used in production houses. This breed even displayed record egg weights, with a hen laying a 4.25 oz egg, drastically surpassing the average weight of a “large” egg (2 oz). The White-Faced Black Spanish remained popular in the minds of egg sellers up until 1895, when the White Leghorn was introduced to production houses as a new breed of abundant layers. Today, the White Leghorn remains an egg farm favorite, but not because of its laying abilities. Instead, the White Leghorn replaced the White-Faced Black Spanish due to their egg shells being brighter in color, giving them a cleaner appearance. 

The White-Faced Black Spanish lay a large white egg.

If you really want to judge based upon appearance, The Farm Clown definitely will add far more variety and color to your egg-laying flock. With large white faces and earlobes, this bird’s uncanny appearance has been rumored to have influenced the works of Salvador Dali. This unique breed dates back as far as the Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. However, in recent years the numbers of the White-Faced Black Spanish have significantly depleted, causing the breed to be labeled as “critically endangered” by The Livestock Conservancy. To receive this label, a chicken breed must have less than 500 breeding flocks in the United States– there are currently only 11 White-Faced Black Spanish registered breeding flocks in the country. 

Despite their lost popularity, the White-Faced Black Spanish still have the ability to rival the White Leghorn and the Deathlayer, making them an eggcellent choice if you're looking for new laying hens. 

Created with AI in the likes of Salvador Dali just for fun.

If you’re looking to add a unique-looking layer to your backyard flock, the White-Faced Black Spanish definitely fills the bill. Help save yourself money on eggs, and raise this critically endangered breed’s population.  What could be better than that?

You can order some of our prize-winning White-Faced Black Spanish hatching eggs here:

https://www.blackwitchchickens.com/product-page/6-white12-face-black-spanish-fertile-hatching-eggs

Or you can skip the eggs and order chicks here: https://www.blackwitchchickens.com/product-page/white-faced-black-spanish-chicks

Keywords: best egg-laying hen, the chicken with the most eggs, what chicken lays the most eggs?