The Delaware Blue Hen or Blue Hen of Delaware is a
blue
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...
strain of
American gamecock. Under the name Blue Hen Chicken it is the
official bird of the
State of Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey to its northeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state' ...
. It is the emblem or mascot of several institutions in the state, among them the sports teams of the
University of Delaware
The University of Delaware (colloquially known as UD, UDel, or Delaware) is a Statutory college#Delaware, privately governed, state-assisted Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Newark, Delaware, United States. UD offers f ...
.
History
The Blue Hen is not a recognized chicken breed. There are a number of different accounts of the origins of the Blue Hen name, which dates from 1775. According to one story, during the
Revolutionary War, the men of the 2nd company of the
First Delaware Regiment under Captain Jonathan Caldwell, recruited mostly in
Kent County, took with them blue
game chickens which acquired such a reputation for their fighting ability that the men also came to be known as "Blue Hen's Chickens"; another tale is that Caldwell had two gamecocks hatched from a certain blue hen, and that the men called themselves the "Sons of the Blue Hen". It is also possible that the men of the company acquired a nickname of this sort because their uniforms were reminiscent of the plumage of a fighting cock.
The Blue Hen Chicken was adopted as the
official bird of the
State of Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey to its northeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state' ...
on April 14, 1939.
The sports teams of the
University of Delaware
The University of Delaware (colloquially known as UD, UDel, or Delaware) is a Statutory college#Delaware, privately governed, state-assisted Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Newark, Delaware, United States. UD offers f ...
are called the
Blue Hens, and their
mascot
A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, sports team, university society, society, military unit, or brand, brand name. Mascots are als ...
,
YoUDee
YoUDee (pronounced yoo-dee) is a mascot of the University of Delaware, along with Baby Blue. It is an anthropomorphic "fighting Blue Hen", and its species is the blue hen, as the state bird of Delaware. While YoUDee appears masculine and can have ...
, derives from the bird. In the 1960s,
S. Hallock duPont, who bred Blue Hens (though not derived from the original Kent County stock), gave twelve birds to the University, which keeps a small flock at its College of Agriculture & Natural Resources; in 2007 this numbered approximately forty birds.
The Blue Hen is also the emblem of the
166th Airlift Wing and its
142nd Airlift Squadron, stationed in Delaware.
Characteristics
The birds kept by the University of Delaware have been
cross-bred with birds of the
Blue Andalusian breed from Spain, and have acquired many of its characteristics. They are Mediterranean in appearance, and no longer resemble the original fighting birds. The body is different in both shape and size, there is less gold coloration on the
neck hackles, and the earlobes are white rather than the original red.
See also
*
List of Delaware state symbols
*
List of U.S. state birds
References
{{Chicken breeds of the United States , state=expanded
Symbols of Delaware
Chicken breeds originating in the United States
Cockfighting