[3] In the past the hen was probably bred in all alpine regions, ranging from the Danube river to Adriatic sea, as well as the Pannonian Basin.

[3] The breed's numbers declined rapidly after the end of Second World War as agriculture experienced a revolution and the concept of modern poultry husbandry in the form of industry was introduced.

[5] In Slovenia a conservation of the breed started after the end of Slovenian War of Independence, when zootechnical experts from the Biotechnical Faculty of University of Ljubljana began collecting the remaining purebred birds still bred by rare farmers and amateur poultry breeders to form an initial flock of birds, that could be used for re-establishing the Altsteirer Hen.

A rooster's medium-sized and accurately toothed comb is simple (single) and set upright, while its wattle is intensively red and can reach short to medium sizes.

Females have a horizontal back and a heavily built frame of the body with a deep chest and a pronounced belly.

Partridge-coloured hens have feathers without any shine, their back is brown, chest is of salmon colour, buttocks are gray and their belly is lighter.

Red-brown, which was the most numerous colour variant in the past, was divided into a partridge-like type with a golden neck (resembling wild red junglefowl), reddish brown birds with somewhat lighter feathers and darker neck and light wheat coloured (yellow) hen raised in the valley of the river Sulm.

[5][6] When the conservation of the breed started after 1991 experts found mostly birds of the partridge-coloured type resulting in a majority of recent animals being of this colour variant.