About Swedish Flower Chickens

Swedish Flower Chickens’ name is inspired mottling of their feather tips that resemble a field of blooming flowers. Their base coloring varies from black, yellow, red or blue. All of these variations contain the mottling pattern.

Domestic chickens were introduced to Sweden about 2000 years ago, brought to the country by traders, settlers and even Viking marauders. Today it is unknown what or how many varieties of chickens were brought to Sweden’s shores in those early days, but that unknown mix of birds propagated over the next two-thousand years, developing into what are now considered the country’s native breeds.

They are a landrace breed. This means that they developed naturally over hundreds of years. As a Darwinist creation, human intervention and selective breeding never played a role in the development of the breed. Chicks hatched from random pairings of the strongest, hardiest birds in each flock to create a genuinely robust breed of chicken. The Swedish Flower Hen or Skansk blommehona, developed in the southern part of Sweden over the last 500 years. As the weather is generally mild in these areas providing favorable conditions for the development of the breed, the Swedish Flower Hen became the largest of Sweden’s native breeds. Farmers considered it a dual purpose chicken, favored for both its ability as an egg layer and for its meat.  

Named for its colorful, spotted plumage, Skansk blommehona literally translates to “bloom hen.” The white-tipped feathers make the birds look like a field of blooming flowers. The base color of the birds can be black, blue-gray, reddish-brown, off-white, red or yellow. Almost all of the color variety will have white on the tips of the feathers, giving the bird the spotted appearance. Some blue-gray based birds show more of a darker lacing around the feather edges as opposed to the white markings, but those tend to be the exception to the “spotted” rule. White-based birds often have darker markings on the feathers, but can also be predominately white.  

While flocks of Swedish Flower Hens were quite prevalent throughout the villages in the southern part of the country for hundreds of years, the breed began to fade out in the late 1800’s with the introduction of imported chicken breeds bred specifically for high egg production or greater meat yield. By the mid 1900’s, the Swedish Flower Hen was a rarity in the country of its creation.  

Swedish Flower chickens were was close to extinction in 1970, when a group of enthusiasts discovered 3 remaining flocks in Sweden. A breeding program was established to help grow the population. In 2010 the breed was introduced to America.