The first time you see a Swedish Black Hen, the feathers get your attention.

They're black. Really black. Often with that gorgeous green or purple sheen that makes a black chicken nearly impossible to photograph without standing around waiting for exactly the right patch of sunlight.

But then you look closer.

The skin is dark. The legs are dark. The beak is dark. Even tissues inside the body can be heavily pigmented.

And suddenly this isn't just a black chicken anymore.

This is the Swedish Black Hen, or Svarthöna, a small Swedish landrace with fibromelanosis, an uncertain history, and a preservation story that's considerably more complicated than simply breeding the blackest chickens we can find.

More Than Black Feathers: What Is Fibromelanosis?

The Swedish Black Hen gets its dramatic appearance from fibromelanosis, a genetic trait that causes extensive dark pigmentation throughout the body.

This isn't simply a black feather-color gene. The pigmentation extends into the skin and tissues throughout the bird. In Swedish Black Hens, the legs and beak range from slate-gray to black, while the skin, skeleton, and meat are also dark. Combs and wattles can range from black to black-red and, in some birds, may even be red.

Most Swedish Black Hens have completely black plumage, but that doesn't mean every single bird is an identical black silhouette.

And that's where understanding that this is a landrace becomes important.

Swedish Black Hen vs. Ayam Cemani: They Aren't the Same Chicken

It's almost impossible to talk about Swedish Black Hens without someone asking about Ayam Cemani.

The comparison makes sense. Both are known for fibromelanosis and the striking dark pigmentation that comes with it.

But a Swedish Black Hen is not a Swedish version of an Ayam Cemani.

Ayam Cemani are a standardized breed with a much more defined appearance. Their feathering and body type are different, with a more upright, athletic silhouette that can look almost gamebird-like.

Swedish Black Hens have a different build. They're a landrace with a small but sturdy, practical farm-chicken body, with more of a dual-purpose shape than the upright build we associate with Cemani.

The breeding goals are different too.

With Swedish Black Hens, we're not supposed to chase maximum black pigmentation at the expense of everything else. The Swedish breeding framework allows for natural variation. Some red may appear in the comb and wattles, underlying color can occasionally show through the plumage, and even white feathering can occur.

Those traits don't automatically mean the chicken isn't a Swedish Black Hen, and they don't automatically mean someone crossed an Ayam Cemani into the flock.

There may be a distant historical relationship between Scandinavian black chickens and black chickens from Asia, but exactly where the Swedish Black Hen came from remains uncertain. Two chickens sharing fibromelanosis isn't enough to prove that one descended directly from the other.

They are different chicken populations with different histories, different body types, and different approaches to breeding and preservation.

So Where Did Swedish Black Hens Come From?

Here's where things get interesting.

We don't entirely know.

Black chickens were being described in European literature as far back as the 17th century. Historical references include unusually dark chickens, but those old descriptions don't prove that the birds being described were the same population we now know as Swedish Black Hens.

The origin of the black landrace chickens found in northern Bohuslän, Dalsland, and possibly neighboring parts of Norway remains uncertain.

There are theories about black chickens arriving through historical trade and travel, potentially with distant connections to fibromelanistic chickens from Asia. They're fascinating possibilities.

But possibilities aren't proof.

And honestly, sometimes "we don't know" is the most accurate answer we have.

What we do know much more about is the flock behind the Swedish Black Hens being preserved today.

The Family Flock Behind Today's Swedish Black Hens

The modern gene-bank population traces back to Rune Andersson of Gregeröd, who obtained black chickens in 1958 from two unmarried brothers living in Bullarebygden in northern Bohuslän.

But those brothers didn't start the flock.

The two brothers had inherited the flock from their mother, who came from Norway and married a Swedish man in 1899. According to the breed history, she received these particular black hens as a bridal gift. This wasn't the broader bridal-gift tradition associated with Hedemoras. It's a specific part of the family history behind the Swedish Black Hen gene-bank population.

Think about that for a second.

A woman receives black chickens as a wedding gift around the turn of the twentieth century. Her family keeps them. Decades later, those chickens become part of the foundation for preserving an entire Swedish landrace.

That's the kind of history that disappears pretty damn quickly when nobody bothers to preserve the chickens along with it.

What Does a Swedish Black Hen Look Like?

Swedish Black Hens are relatively small chickens with a sturdy, robust build.

Hens generally weigh around 1 to 1.5 kg, or approximately 2.2 to 3.3 pounds. Roosters are generally 1.5 to 2 kg, or approximately 3.3 to 4.4 pounds.

Their legs are smooth rather than feathered, with slate-gray to black coloring, and they normally have four toes. The beak also ranges from slate-gray to black.

Earlobes are usually black, although white or traces of white and red can occur. Hens generally have small to medium single combs, while roosters have medium to large single combs that may lean slightly to one side.

The combs and wattles themselves can be black or black-red, but some birds may have red combs and wattles.

That last part tends to surprise people who have gotten used to judging fibromelanistic chickens by how completely black they appear.

With Swedish Black Hens, some variation is normal.

Wait, Swedish Black Hens Aren't Always Completely Black?

Most have completely black plumage.

But not every feather on every Swedish Black Hen is guaranteed to cooperate with the name.

Underlying wild-type coloring can occasionally break through the black, particularly in the neck and saddle feathers of roosters. White feathers can also occur.

That doesn't mean breeders should deliberately try to create increasingly colorful Swedish Black Hens.

It also doesn't mean a bird with a little unexpected color should immediately be treated as some sort of genetic disaster.

There's a difference between allowing natural variation to remain in a landrace and intentionally selecting for a trait until you've changed the population.

That's a theme we're going to come back to.

What About Woolly Swedish Black Hens?

Swedish Black Hens normally have smooth feather structure, but woolly feathering can occur within the population.

And woolly Swedish Blacks are pretty damn cool.

But cool doesn't automatically mean breed the hell out of it.

The Swedish preservation guidance warns against repeatedly selecting both males and females for woolly feathering because concentrating that trait can eventually change the character of the landrace. Similar caution applies to consistently selecting for white feathering.

The presence of those traits isn't automatically the problem.

Making the unusual trait the entire breeding program is.

That's a very important distinction in preservation breeding.

How Many Eggs Do Swedish Black Hens Lay?

On paper, Swedish Black Hens are respectable layers. The Swedish breeding information puts production at approximately 150 eggs per year for a hen that hasn't been broody.

And that last part deserves some emphasis, because in our flock, "hasn't been broody" is doing a whole lot of work.

Their eggs generally weigh around 45 to 50 grams and range from off-white to light beige.

If you're looking strictly at their potential production, 150 eggs isn't bad for a landrace chicken whose historical job description involved considerably more than turning feed into the maximum possible number of eggs.

In the real world here at Cluck It All Farms, though, their enthusiasm for going broody knocks those egg numbers down considerably.

Do Swedish Black Hens Go Broody?

Oh, yes.

The Swedish breeding information estimates that approximately 30 to 40 percent of hens may go broody when given the opportunity.

Our experience at Cluck It All Farms has been considerably more dramatic.

Swedish Black Hens are the broodiest breed we raise. Our girls go broody frequently, and once they've decided they're having babies, good luck changing their minds. They are notoriously difficult for us to break, and some seem perfectly happy to spend a ridiculous portion of the year plotting their next nest takeover.

That absolutely affects the number of eggs we get from them. A hen sitting on a nest isn't laying eggs, and a hen that repeatedly goes broody can end up producing considerably fewer eggs over the course of a year than that approximately 150-egg potential suggests.

So while Swedish Black Hens are capable of respectable production, we would not personally choose them if maximum egg production were the goal.

If you're interested in natural hatching and hens with strong brooding instincts, however, ours have taken that assignment VERY seriously.

For a preservation breeder, that broodiness isn't necessarily a bad thing either. These chickens historically needed to function as chickens. Reproduction, mothering ability, health, flock behavior, and the ability to thrive under local conditions all mattered.

Those characteristics still deserve attention.

A Chicken Built to Function, Not Just Look Cool

It's very easy for Swedish Black Hens to become the cool black chicken.

We get it.

Look at them.

But historically, these weren't chickens whose only job was to stand around looking gothic.

The Swedish breeding framework describes them as adapted to the relatively poor conditions of northern Bohuslän and emphasizes maintaining their functional qualities. Appropriate body weight, reasonable production, parental characteristics, flock behavior, health, and the other qualities that allowed the landrace to persist all matter.

That's the part that can get lost when a visually dramatic chicken becomes desirable.

Once everybody wants the blackest bird possible, it's tempting to make blackness the entire breeding goal.

And that's where preservation can start going sideways.

The Blackest Chicken Isn't Necessarily the Best Swedish Black Hen

This may sound strange when we're talking about a chicken literally called the Swedish Black Hen, but hear me out.

Color cannot become more important than the chicken underneath it.

The Swedish breeding guidance specifically emphasizes maintaining appropriate size, reasonable egg production, good parental characteristics, functional flock behavior, and variation within the breed framework. Color shouldn't overshadow those other characteristics.

So imagine we have two possible breeding birds.

One has absolutely incredible black pigmentation but poor health, lousy body structure, and traits we don't want to keep pushing forward.

The other isn't quite as dramatically black but is healthy, appropriately built, productive, and otherwise represents the functional landrace beautifully.

If we're preserving Swedish Black Hens rather than trying to win a contest for the world's blackest chicken, that decision shouldn't be based on color alone.

That's the difference between preservation and chasing a look.

Preserving Variation Without Losing the Swedish Black Hen

Preserving variation doesn't mean anything goes.

We're still breeding Swedish Black Hens.

But it does mean recognizing that traits already present within the historical population shouldn't automatically be eliminated just because they don't match someone's mental picture of the perfect black chicken.

A little red in the comb doesn't automatically make a bird wrong. An occasional white feather doesn't rewrite its pedigree. Woolly feathering can occur naturally within the population.

At the same time, deliberately pairing woolly birds generation after generation because they're cute would be selecting the population in a new direction.

The same goes for obsessively breeding only the birds with the most extreme pigmentation.

Preservation requires more restraint than that.

Sometimes the hardest part isn't deciding what trait you want more of.

It's knowing when to leave the damn population alone.

Why Swedish Black Hens Matter to Us

At Cluck It All Farms, Swedish Black Hens aren't here just because they're rare or because black chickens look fantastic in photographs.

We're preservation breeders.

That means our responsibility isn't to reinvent this landrace according to whatever traits happen to be popular right now. It's to maintain the characteristics, variation, health, function, and genetic diversity that make Swedish Black Hens what they are.

There's also something pretty incredible about raising descendants of a chicken population with this kind of history.

The flock behind today's gene-bank birds survived because ordinary people kept them. A Norwegian bride received black hens as a wedding gift. Her family kept them. Two brothers continued the flock. Rune Andersson recognized that those chickens were worth preserving. Then generations of breeders after him decided the same thing.

Now we're part of that chain.

That's the part that matters to us.

Are Swedish Black Hens Right for Your Flock?

Swedish Black Hens can be a fascinating choice if you want something beyond a conventional production breed.

They're small, striking chickens with an incredible history, natural variation, useful egg production when they aren't busy being broody, and strong brooding instincts in our experience. They're also a landrace whose value goes far beyond their dramatic appearance.

They're especially interesting if the preservation side of chicken keeping appeals to you.

But if your primary goal is maximum egg production, our experience says this probably isn't the breed we'd point you toward. And if your only goal is owning the blackest chicken possible, we'd encourage you to learn about the differences between fibromelanistic breeds before choosing one.

Swedish Black Hens are much more interesting than a color.

Want to Raise Swedish Black Hens?

We raise Swedish Black Hens here at Cluck It All Farms as part of our preservation work.

If you'd like to add them to your flock, you can check out our Swedish Black Hen hatching eggs or Swedish Black Hen chicks to see what's currently available.

And if one of your chicks eventually develops a little red in the comb or throws you an unexpected feather?

Maybe don't immediately accuse the mailman of swapping your chicken.

Landraces like to keep things interesting.

Final Thoughts

The Swedish Black Hen gets attention because it's black.

It deserves attention because it's so much more than that.

Behind the fibromelanosis is a small Scandinavian farm chicken with an uncertain origin, a remarkable family history, natural variation, useful production when broodiness doesn't get in the way, and generations of adaptation behind it.

Our own flock has also taught us something the numbers on a breed sheet can't quite convey: these girls can be seriously committed mothers. That's part of living with a landrace. The traits that made these chickens useful historically don't always line up perfectly with what modern chicken keepers consider convenient.

Preserving Swedish Black Hens means preserving the whole chicken, not simply breeding toward the darkest bird we can possibly produce.

Because once we start changing an old landrace to fit our idea of what it should be, we're no longer preserving it.

We're creating something else.

And there are already plenty of chicken breeds in the world created to fit a standard.

This one deserves the chance to remain what it is.

 

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Black from beak to toes
Old secrets under feathers
Sweden keeps them safe