What color eggs do Crevecoeurs lay?

**White** (to lightly tinted) eggs, medium to large, at a moderate rate of roughly 120–150 a year. The Crèvecœur is a heritage breed rather than a high-production layer.

Are Crevecoeurs good for showing?

Yes, for breeders who value rare stock. They are exhibited in the APA's **Continental** class in a single **Black** variety, judged on the full crest, the V-shaped comb, the beard, and clean slate-blue legs. Entries are few because the breed is so rare, so a well-conditioned bird stands out.

How hard are Crevecoeurs to hatch?

The eggs themselves incubate like any chicken egg — **99.5–100°F, lockdown day 18, 21-day hatch**. The harder part is fertility in the breeding pen: the full crest and beard can obstruct vision and mating, so trimming feathers around the eyes and vent of breeders improves hatch numbers.

What does a Crèvecœur chicken look like?

A compact, solid **black** bird with green sheen, carrying a full **crest**, a **beard and muffs**, and a distinctive **V-shaped (horn) comb**, on slate-blue legs with reddish-bay eyes.

How rare is the Crèvecœur?

Very. It is one of France's oldest breeds but was nearly wiped out around the World Wars and is tracked on The Livestock Conservancy's conservation priority list. Most keepers raise it to help preserve the breed.

Crèvecœur: France's Old Black Crested Breed

Verified September 2026White eggs

The short version

The Crèvecœur is one of France's oldest standard-bred chicken breeds — a solid black crested bird with a full crest, a distinctive V-shaped comb, and a beard and muffs. It is admitted to the APA in a single Black variety (recognized 1874) and lays white eggs. Slate-blue shanks, reddish-bay eyes, and a compact Dorking-like body round out its type. It is critically rare and listed by The Livestock Conservancy — a breed you keep to preserve as much as to show.

APA class: Continental

Egg color: White

Broodiness: Rarely broody

Varieties: 1

Egg-color genetics

The Crèvecœur lays a white to lightly tinted shell — there is no blue or brown pigment overlay, so the egg is white through the full thickness of the shell. Shell color is not a selection focus in this breed the way it is in blue- or dark-brown layers; breeders keep it clean and white and put their selection pressure on type, crest, and the V-comb instead.

A very old — and very rare — French breed

The Crèvecœur takes its name from a village in Normandy and is described by The Livestock Conservancy as one of France's oldest standard-bred chicken breeds, with documentation reaching back centuries. It was imported to the United States in the mid-to-late 1800s and the Black variety entered the American Standard of Perfection in 1874.

Once a popular French table bird, the breed's numbers collapsed around the World Wars, and it remains critically rare today. The Livestock Conservancy tracks it on its conservation priority list, so most keepers approach the Crèvecœur as a heritage-preservation project first and an exhibition or dual-purpose bird second.

What color eggs does a Crèvecœur lay?

White to lightly tinted, medium-to-large eggs, at a modest rate — reported around 120–150 eggs a year. This is a heritage breed, not a modern production layer, so egg numbers are moderate and the appeal is the bird's history, type, and ornamental crested head rather than the basket.

Breeding notes

This is a single-variety breed in the APA — Black only — so there is no color-mating puzzle: the whole program is about fixing type, a full even crest, a clean V-comb, and slate-blue legs on a solid, beetle-green-sheened black bird.
Guard against comb faults. The breed's hallmark is the V (horn) comb, but 'leaf' and 'stag' combs turn up in some lines; cull toward the clean two-spike V rather than reproducing standard text.
Because the breed is critically rare, the first job of any breeder is numbers — hatch generously and keep genetic diversity wide before selecting hard, or you breed the last birds into a bottleneck.
Select for a well-balanced crest that does not blind the bird. An overgrown crest that buries the eyes hurts fertility and welfare; a tidy, upright crest with visible eyes is both more functional and more showable.
Watch the beard and muffs — a Crèvecœur should carry a beard as well as the crest, and lines that lose the beard drift toward a plain Polish-type head.

Showing notes

The Crèvecœur is exhibited in the APA's Continental class (the class for the French and other continental-European breeds), in its single Black variety.
Judges look for the signature head: a full, round, upright crest, a small V-shaped comb, and a beard — on a solid black body with green sheen, slate-blue shanks, and reddish-bay eyes.
Condition the crest and beard carefully and keep the black plumage free of purple barring or brassiness in the sun; because the breed is so rare, show entries are few and a well-conditioned bird stands out.
Faulty combs (leaf or stag instead of the clean V), a sparse or lopsided crest, and any loss of the beard are the giveaways that pull down a Crèvecœur on the show table.

Hatching & incubation

No special incubation requirements — treat Crèvecœur eggs like any chicken egg: roughly 99.5–100°F forced-air, lockdown day 18, 21-day hatch.
As a crested, bearded breed, adult fertility can suffer when the crest is so full it obstructs vision or when beard/muff feathering around the vent gets in the way; trimming feathers around the eyes and vent of breeding birds improves mating success and hatch numbers.

Recognized varieties

Black

Frequently asked questions

What color eggs do Crevecoeurs lay?: White (to lightly tinted) eggs, medium to large, at a moderate rate of roughly 120–150 a year. The Crèvecœur is a heritage breed rather than a high-production layer.
Are Crevecoeurs good for showing?: Yes, for breeders who value rare stock. They are exhibited in the APA's Continental class in a single Black variety, judged on the full crest, the V-shaped comb, the beard, and clean slate-blue legs. Entries are few because the breed is so rare, so a well-conditioned bird stands out.
How hard are Crevecoeurs to hatch?: The eggs themselves incubate like any chicken egg — 99.5–100°F, lockdown day 18, 21-day hatch. The harder part is fertility in the breeding pen: the full crest and beard can obstruct vision and mating, so trimming feathers around the eyes and vent of breeders improves hatch numbers.
What does a Crèvecœur chicken look like?: A compact, solid black bird with green sheen, carrying a full crest, a beard and muffs, and a distinctive V-shaped (horn) comb, on slate-blue legs with reddish-bay eyes.
How rare is the Crèvecœur?: Very. It is one of France's oldest breeds but was nearly wiped out around the World Wars and is tracked on The Livestock Conservancy's conservation priority list. Most keepers raise it to help preserve the breed.

Sources

Crèvecoeur Chicken (breed history, characteristics & conservation) — The Livestock Conservancy (Reference)
Crevecoeur Chickens (breed overview & egg color) — Cackle Hatchery (Hatchery)
Crevecoeurs (breed overview) — Murray McMurray Hatchery (Hatchery)

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