Are Sultans good for showing?

Yes — showing is essentially the point of the breed. Sultans are exhibited in the APA's **All Other Standard Breeds** class (White recognized since **1874**) and carry a crest, beard and muffs, V-comb, five toes, feathered legs, and vulture hocks. They need **extensive grooming** to present clean white plumage and intact furnishings.

How hard are Sultans to hatch?

No harder than any chicken to incubate — **99.5–100°F, lockdown day 18, 21-day hatch**, with no breed-specific quirks. The catch is that hens are **non-setters and rarely go broody**, so you'll usually need an incubator or a broody hen of another breed to hatch them.

What makes the Sultan so unusual to look at?

It carries almost every ornamental trait at once: a **crest, beard and muffs, a V-shaped comb, five toes, feathered shanks and feet, and vulture hocks**, all on pure white plumage with slate-blue legs. Few other breeds combine this many features in one bird.

Yes. The Livestock Conservancy lists the Sultan as **Threatened**, with a small global population. Good breeding stock can be hard to find, which is part of why keeping and breeding them supports the breed.

Are Sultans friendly?

Very. They're consistently described as docile, calm, and people-friendly, which makes them good ornamental and pet birds. Their gentle nature also means they're easily bullied, so keep them with equally quiet breeds.

Sultan: The Breed That Wears Every Ornamental Trait

Q: What color eggs do Sultans lay?

**White** eggs, and only small ones in small numbers — roughly 50 a year. The Sultan is an ornamental show breed, not a production layer.

Verified September 2026White eggs

The short version

The Sultan is a rare, purely ornamental breed and one of the most heavily furnished chickens in existence — a single bird carries a crest, beard and muffs, a V-shaped comb, five toes, feathered legs and feet, and vulture hocks all at once. It is pure white with slate-blue shanks, lays only small white eggs (roughly 50 a year) and rarely goes broody. White Sultans were recognized by the APA in 1874 and are exhibited in the All Other Standard Breeds (AOSB) class. The Livestock Conservancy lists the breed as Threatened.

APA class: AOSB

Egg color: White

Broodiness: Rarely broody

Varieties: 3

Egg-color genetics

Sultans lay a plain white shell — there is no brown coating and no blue oocyan pigment involved, so the egg is white through the full thickness of the shell. Shell color is not why anyone keeps this breed: the Sultan is a show and garden ornamental, and hens lay only small white eggs in modest numbers.

Why keep a Sultan?

The Sultan is not a production bird and never was. It originated centuries ago in Turkey — the name comes from Serai Täook, 'the Sultan's fowl' — where the birds were reportedly kept as living ornaments in palace gardens. They reached England in 1854 and America by 1867, and White Sultans entered the first American Standard of Perfection in 1874.

People keep Sultans today for exhibition, for their extraordinary looks, and as gentle pet and garden birds. They are docile, friendly, and tolerant of confinement, but delicate and easily bullied by more assertive breeds, so they do best in a calm, dry, predator-safe setup rather than a rough mixed flock.

What color eggs do Sultans lay?

White. Sultan hens lay small white eggs, and only a modest number of them — commonly cited around 50 or so a year — which is why the breed is valued for ornament and show rather than for the egg basket. If you want a white-egg layer that actually fills a carton, this is not the breed.

Breeding notes

The Sultan is the 'everything' ornamental: a correct bird has to show a full crest, a beard and muffs, a V-comb, five toes, feathered shanks and feet, and vulture hocks all together. Because you are selecting for the whole package at once, breed only from birds that carry every trait cleanly — a missing muff or a fourth toe on one foot compounds fast across a small gene pool.
Guard the fifth toe and the vulture hocks. Five toes (polydactyly) and the stiff, downward vulture-hock feathers are defining Sultan features; cull birds that throw four toes or lack the hock feathering so the traits stay fixed in your line.
Keep the white plumage clean and bright. This is a white breed on slate-blue legs, so select against brassiness, straw tint, or stray colored feathers — and note that Black and Blue birds seen in the fancy trace to later Polish crosses rather than the classic White Sultan.
Manage the crest and feathered feet at the coop, not just the show bench. Crest, beard, and heavily feathered feet mean this breed hates mud and wet; dry, clean housing keeps furnishings intact for breeding stock and prevents foot problems.
Plan on incubation. Hens are described as non-setters and rarely go broody, so expect to hatch Sultan eggs under a broody hen of another breed or in an incubator.

Showing notes

Sultans are exhibited in the APA's All Other Standard Breeds (AOSB) class; White is the classic Standard variety and White Sultans have been recognized since 1874.
Grooming is extensive because the bird is essentially all furnishings: the crest, beard, and muffs must be clean and full, the leg and foot feathering intact, and the vulture hocks present. Wash and dry a white bird well before a show and keep it out of mud so the plumage stays bright.
Judges look for the complete ornamental set — crest, beard/muffs, V-comb, five toes, feathered legs, and vulture hocks — on pure white plumage with slate-blue shanks. Missing or split traits (four toes, weak crest, no hock feathering) are the common faults.
Because the breed is delicate and easily bullied, condition and transport show birds carefully; a stressed or picked-at Sultan loses the furnishing quality that the class is judged on.

Hatching & incubation

No breed-specific incubation requirements — Sultan eggs hatch like any small white chicken egg on a standard 21-day schedule (99.5–100°F forced-air, lockdown day 18).
Crested, muffed, five-toed chicks can hatch with extra fluff around the face and feathering starting on the shanks; this is normal for the breed and needs no intervention.

Recognized varieties

WhiteBlackBlue

Frequently asked questions

What color eggs do Sultans lay?: White eggs, and only small ones in small numbers — roughly 50 a year. The Sultan is an ornamental show breed, not a production layer.
Are Sultans good for showing?: Yes — showing is essentially the point of the breed. Sultans are exhibited in the APA's All Other Standard Breeds class (White recognized since 1874) and carry a crest, beard and muffs, V-comb, five toes, feathered legs, and vulture hocks. They need extensive grooming to present clean white plumage and intact furnishings.
How hard are Sultans to hatch?: No harder than any chicken to incubate — 99.5–100°F, lockdown day 18, 21-day hatch, with no breed-specific quirks. The catch is that hens are non-setters and rarely go broody, so you'll usually need an incubator or a broody hen of another breed to hatch them.
What makes the Sultan so unusual to look at?: It carries almost every ornamental trait at once: a crest, beard and muffs, a V-shaped comb, five toes, feathered shanks and feet, and vulture hocks, all on pure white plumage with slate-blue legs. Few other breeds combine this many features in one bird.
Are Sultans rare?: Yes. The Livestock Conservancy lists the Sultan as Threatened, with a small global population. Good breeding stock can be hard to find, which is part of why keeping and breeding them supports the breed.
Are Sultans friendly?: Very. They're consistently described as docile, calm, and people-friendly, which makes them good ornamental and pet birds. Their gentle nature also means they're easily bullied, so keep them with equally quiet breeds.

Sources

Sultan Chicken (breed history, features & conservation status) — The Livestock Conservancy (Reference)
White Sultan Chicken (egg color, laying, temperament) — Cackle Hatchery (Hatchery)
Sultans (breed overview, egg color & features) — Murray McMurray Hatchery (Hatchery)

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