The Maltese black breed

Abstract

The Black Maltese is a rustic, egg-type breed of Mediterranean poultry. The Black Maltese was formerly widely raised in the Maltese Islands under backyard or semi-intensive conditions for its prolific production of large white eggs (Mallia, 1999). Since the 1960s, the role of family poultry farms, i.e. part-time farmers that were formerly largely responsible for the local production of fresh eggs, has steadily dwindled. Local egg production has now been entirely replaced by intensively reared hybrid strains of poultry, particularly those derived from the White Leghorn and Rhode Island Red. Family part-time poultry farmers have switched to raising commercial lines of meat-type poultry. The Rhode Island Red commercial strains have also replaced the Black Maltese from the remaining backyard laying flocks in Malta, mainly because the supply of chicks is more reliable (Mallia, 1999).