Common Chick Breeds and How to Select High-Quality Chicks
Chicks are actually young chickens, generally referring to chickens within 50 days of age. Many regions now raise chickens, so what are the common chick breeds? How do you select high-quality chicks? Let's learn about them below.
What are the common chick breeds?
1. Xinghua chicken
Because it originated in Xinghua Township, Fengkai County, Guangdong Province. The Xinghua chicken has thin skin with evenly distributed subcutaneous fat and is suitable for making white cut chicken; the finished skin has a glossy color and is crisp and tasty (the so-called "glass skin"), which suits the habits of the people of Guangdong and Guangxi, who demand fresh and delicious food and emphasize original flavor.
2. Qingyuan partridge chicken
The Qingyuan partridge chicken originates in Qingyuan, Guangdong, and is also a local home-raised native chicken there. It is very common, but among the common there are also excellent ones. The hen of this partridge chicken has many tiny black spots on the feathers of its back. Its skin is thin and its meat is tender. Although it is small in size, the fat under its body surface is especially well developed, and the chicken's bones are soft and crisp, giving it an excellent taste. It is a very popular poultry meat.
3. Hetian chicken
The authentic origin of the Hetian chicken is Hetian Town in Changting, Fujian, and it can be said to be one of Fujian's traditional excellent poultry. This chicken is a rare and precious breed and is also one of the world's five famous chickens. It is the result of years of selecting the best from the best in Hetian Town. The Hetian chicken is rich in protein, has moderate fat content, and has an excellent taste. The body feathers of the Hetian chicken are a mix of yellow and brown, and the tail feathers appear black. It is the best bird for painters to copy.
4. Jinyang silkie chicken
The Jinyang silkie chicken is produced in Jinyang County, Liangshan, Sichuan. Its feathers are silky, soft and white, and it has long been known as the "pine feather chicken." Besides white feathers, this chicken also has two other colors, black and mixed, for a total of three body colors. The Jinyang silkie chicken is small in body size and mostly lives in woodland areas, grassy slopes and fruit forests. It likes a free-range environment.
5. Silkie black-bone chicken
The silkie black-bone chicken is a top-grade among black-bone chickens. Its specialty production area is Tahe Wushan in Jiangxi, so its local name is "Wushan chicken." The feathers of the black-bone chicken are pure in color, and its whole body meat and limbs are all black. It has extremely high nutritional and medicinal value, and for this reason it is famous throughout the world. The silkie black-bone chicken is a unique breed of our country, and its appearance is also relatively beautiful, giving it a certain ornamental value.
How do you select high-quality chicks?
1. Choose a manufacturer with a good reputation
When purchasing chicks, try as much as possible to choose chicks from large manufacturers with high visibility and a good reputation. These farms have relatively strict requirements for the hatching process of young chickens, the chick quality is high, and it also helps farmers with later feeding management.
2. Examine the purification level of breeding chickens
Many chicken diseases are vertically transmitted, such as Marek's disease, big liver and spleen disease, reticuloendotheliosis, reovirus and other diseases. If there are many cases of Marek's disease or reticuloendotheliosis in a batch of chickens, it may be a problem with the chicks, and it is best not to choose chicks from that hatchery or hatched from the same batch of breeding chickens.
3. Chick transportation time
A short transportation distance causes little stress to young chickens, while an excessively long distance causes excessive stress to the chicks. The longer the transportation time, the greater the adverse effect on the young chickens. When the transportation time exceeds 24 hours, it will affect the body weight of the young chickens in the first week, which will be detrimental to the growth of the young chickens. Therefore, when choosing chicks, chicken farmers should try not to choose chicks from hatcheries whose transportation distance exceeds 24 hours.
4. Identify whether chicks are good or bad
Good chicks have 6 characteristics: 1. Clean, glossy down feathers. 2. Lively and active, with bright eyes. 3. Crisp calls. 4. Struggles vigorously when held in the hand. 5. No bleeding marks on the abdomen, well healed. 6. The flock is highly uniform, with little difference in size.
There are many chick breeds, so when choosing, we should select breeds suitable for local breeding. In addition, some chickens are suitable for confined raising and some are suitable for free-range raising. We must pay attention to all of these and choose suitable breeds and suitable raising methods.
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