[6] Its range extends from the Pays de Herve in Wallonia to the French département of Ardennes, and includes the Fagnes, the Famenne, and the valleys of the Amblève, the Ourthe and the Semois.

The first description is that of Victor La Perre de Roo in 1882,[8] at a time when the breed was already becoming rarer.

A poultry breeders' club, the Union Avicole de Liége, was formed in 1893, and under its protection the Ardennaise enjoyed almost thirty years of success.

Following the First World War, mass importations of yellow-legged birds from Italy, with much higher laying abilities, were a new threat.

[7] A tail-less variant, sometimes treated as a separate breed,[9] the Dutch: Ardenner Bolstaart or French: Sans-queue des Ardennes, is identical to the standard breed in all respects, except for the absence of the coccygeal bone and the tail, caused by the dominant Rp gene.