Euskal Oiloa

The Euskal Oiloa, Spanish: Gallina Vasca, is a breed of domestic chicken from the autonomous community of the Basque Country in north-eastern Spain and south-western France.

It is the traditional rural chicken of the area, a rustic dual-purpose breed of Atlantic type, and differs from Mediterranean Spanish breeds such as the Castellana Negra and the Minorca in several respects: it has yellow legs and feet, red earlobes, and lays brown eggs.

It was distributed throughout the historical territories of Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, and gave both meat and brown eggs.

Selective breeding of the Euskal Oiloa was begun in 1975 as part of the conservation programme for indigenous chicken breeds of the Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria, the national public agrarian research institute.

[8] Five colour varieties are recognized: Beltza (black), Gorria (red), Lepasoila (naked-necked, red-brown), Marraduna (golden cuckoo) and Zilarra (black-tailed white).