The Delaware chicken was developed in 1940 by a man named George Ellis. He used a Barred Rock male with a New Hampshire female. This created a beautiful chicken that is mostly white, but their tail and neck feathers are striped with black bars. Delaware was admitted to the American Standard of Perfection in 1952.

George Ellis originally developed this breed for meat. They were the leading chicken for broilers until the late 50’s when the Cornish became popular. Another advantage to Delaware is that they are ample producers (180-260 per year) of well-developed eggs. These traits make Delaware a great dual-purpose chicken to raise for the local farmer or backyard chicken owner who wants both meat and eggs.