Association for Promotion of Belgian Poultry Breeds

A black Liège game rooster

Origin : At the end of the nineteenth century people in the Liège region tried to make the Bruges game an even better fighter. To achieve this goal it was crossed with Asian gamefowl, probably Malays and this resulted in a new Belgian breed, the Liège game.

Characteristics : Compare to other game fowl, the hens of the Liège game are very good layers. They produce about 150 cream-shelled eggs per year. In older hens the eggs may even weigh as much as 70 grams. Brooding occurs rarely. Besides an impressive number of eggs, the Liège also produces a large quantity of very fine and tasteful meat.

A pair of blue Liège game

Appearance : The Liège is a striking bird because of its large and powerful appearance. An adult rooster weighs about 5 to 5,5 kg and an adult hen about 4 kilos. The main difference between the Liège and the Bruges game is that the Liège has a very sloping back. In general the Liège is also somewhat longer and thinner and its legs are a bit longer. This makes the Liège game one of the giants amongst gamefowl breeds. The thighs are very muscular and the slate-blue shanks are very powerful, thick and rather long. In contradiction to most other breeds, spurs are desired in the hens. The head is very powerful and shows very prominent eyebrows. The face and the comb are heavily pigmented and purplish red till almost black in color. The comb is triple and preferred as small as possible.

Varieties : The Liège game comes in several varieties but mostly in birchen and yellow birchen. Other recognized varieties are black, white, black-red, silver duckwing, golden duckwing, blue golden duckwing, blue birchen and blue yellow birchen.

State : Rare, even though it is the most popular of all three large Belgian gamefowl breeds. For the moment it is also gaining some popularity in Germany.