An Introduction to Chinese Ornamental Chicken Breeds and Their Main Characteristics
Chickens are a poultry everyone is familiar with. Many rural households raise native chickens, but the meat chickens people usually keep are quite ordinary looking and not particularly attractive, while the good-looking ones are all ornamental chicken breeds. So what ornamental chicken breeds are there in China? Let's take a look below at China's beautiful ornamental chickens.
1. Silkie
The Silkie is a precious ornamental chicken breed in China. It is world-famous for the beauty of its silky feathers, and is also called the silky black-bone chicken or Taihe chicken. Its typical appearance has ten major features: mulberry comb, tassel crest, green ears, beard, five toes, feathered feet, silky feathers, black bone, black skin, and black meat.
2. Golden Pheasant
The Golden Pheasant, also called the golden chicken, is an ornamental bird unique to China. The city of Baoji in China is named after it. The Golden Pheasant has a delicate build and a light step. The male can reach 1 m in body length, with a super-long tail, and its body is clad in feathers of red, green, blue, yellow and purple, making it look handsome and noble.
3. Dragon-scale Chicken
The Dragon-scale Chicken, also called the frizzle chicken, is a high-quality ornamental chicken breed. Its feather pattern resembles the scales of the legendary dragon, and it also has a crest and a frizzled tail and other features. Its curved feathers look like chrysanthemum petals, so it is also called the chrysanthemum chicken.
4. Red Junglefowl
It is the wild ancestor of the domestic chicken. The male's upper body is golden yellow, orange-yellow or orange-red with a metallic sheen, and has brown feather shafts. It feeds on the ground but is a strong flier, and roosts in trees at night.
5. Yuanbao Chicken
The Yuanbao Chicken was formerly called the seven-color chicken. It has a short body and low stature, with legs about 6 cm long and five toes, and is super cute. The Yuanbao Chicken's feathers come in many colors. Some are black all over, looking glossy and dazzling, and with the tail feathers curving upward and inward, it closely resembles a shiny black gold ingot, hence the name "Yuanbao Chicken."
6. Dwarf Camellia Chicken
Also called the Linglong chicken, New Year picture chicken or dwarf chicken, it is the cutest and smallest ornamental chicken and pet chicken. The Dwarf Camellia Chicken has a graceful posture, chest out and tail up, and bright colors. It likes contact with people and can play on a person's shoulder or arm, and is deeply loved by people of all ages.
7. Long-tailed Chicken
It is an ornamental chicken breed developed in Japan by crossbreeding domestic chickens with wild pheasants. China introduced and raised it very early on. This chicken has weak reproductive capacity and extremely low meat and egg production, and is kept purely for the male's long tail to catch the eye and for viewing pleasure. Its tail feathers can reach 6-7 m long, with a charm much like "the wind blows the immortal's sleeves fluttering aloft."
8. Princess Chicken
The Princess Chicken has a peculiar appearance, with three combs, five toes and black-and-white mottled feathers as its most typical features. The hen's head feathers are especially luxuriant, shaped like the feather hats worn by European noblewomen, hence the name "noblewoman chicken," which later gradually became "Princess Chicken."
9. Blue Eared Pheasant
It is a national first-class protected animal, and its price is higher than that of the Yuanbao Chicken. The head feathers are pure white, the beak is pink, and the body feathers are peacock blue. Its tail is very distinctive, much like light blue reeds drooping down. This chicken likes cold places and likes to move in flocks. This chicken is found only in China.
The most striking thing about ornamental chickens is their appearance, which is very peculiar compared with ordinary chickens and therefore especially attractive. They are raised in many regions, and some ornamental chickens can also be eaten, with very high food value, such as the Silkie.
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