An early description is in the De avium natura of the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner of 1555.

[5][6] Chickens of this type were described and illustrated in the Monstrorum Historia of the Bolognese naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522–1605), published posthumously in 1642 with text by Bartolomeo Ambrosini.

[4]: 423 [7]: 562  In his The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication of 1868, Charles Darwin writes that creeper chickens were among the types described in a Chinese encyclopaedia compiled from earlier sources and published in 1596.

[8]: 247 The Krüper was traditionally found in the former Duchy of Berg (now known as the Bergisches Land), and also in Westphalia and Saxony.

[5] The silver and gold animals have a typical broad feather lacing called "Dobbelung", which only occurs in the three Berg chicken breeds.