Blue Hen chicken, the state bird of Delaware

The legend of Caldwell’s Gamecocks

The Blue Hen’s story begins in the Revolutionary War. Delaware raised a regiment for the Continental Army, and one of its companies, from Kent County, was led by Captain Jonathan Caldwell. According to tradition, Caldwell’s men carried gamecocks descended from a celebrated blue hen and staged cockfights with them in camp. The birds were said to be fierce fighters, and the Delaware soldiers earned a similar reputation in battle. They became known as “Caldwell’s Gamecocks,” and the “Blue Hen’s Chickens” became a nickname for Delaware’s troops and, eventually, for Delawareans in general.

The blue hen appeared on campaign materials and in publications for many years. In 1939 the General Assembly made it official, naming the Blue Hen chicken the state bird on April 14.

What a Blue Hen looks like

The Blue Hen is not a recognized breed. It is a blue strain descended from English gamecock stock. Its typical color is a deep steel blue over the body, not a pale sky blue. Roosters show the strongest color in their neck feathers and in the long saddle feathers along their sides, and they carry curved sickle feathers in the tail; hens lack the saddle and sickle feathers.

The blue color is tricky to keep. It does not breed true: when two blue birds are paired, roughly half the chicks are blue, a quarter are black and a quarter are white “splash” birds. That makes keeping a flock of Blue Hens a job for dedicated breeders.

Where to see one

The best-known flock belongs to the University of Delaware. About 60 birds, descended from birds donated by S. Hallock du Pont in the 1960s, live on the farm of the university’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and appear at events such as Ag Day. The flock is closed but is occasionally refreshed with outside birds to keep it genetically healthy.

The university has called its athletic teams the Fightin’ Blue Hens since 1911, and its mascot, YoUDee, is a Blue Hen.

A bird without a wild range

Because the Blue Hen is a domestic animal, it has no wild range and no conservation status. It lives wherever breeders keep it and eats ordinary poultry feed. That makes Delaware’s state bird unusual: Delaware and Rhode Island are the only states whose state birds are chickens.

The governor’s Blue Hen

The bird appears on the state’s official emblems too. The governor’s flag, adopted in 1955, is carried on a staff topped by a model of a Blue Hen’s fighting cock.