Complete Guide to Common Chicken Breeds: How to Tell Each Breed Apart

Chicken meat is tender, delicious and suitable for many cooking methods; it is nutritious and has tonic and health-giving properties. Every part of the chicken can be eaten, and it is rich in nutritional benefits and found everywhere, so folk tradition also calls the chicken a "universal remedy." There are likewise many chicken breeds, and different regions have breeds with different characteristics. So which chicken breeds are commonly seen? Let's take a look together.

1. Sanhuang Chicken

The Sanhuang chicken gets its name because its feathers, beak and feet are all yellow; the name "Sanhuang" was personally bestowed by Zhu Yuanzhang, and it ranks first in the Chronicle of Chinese Poultry. The Sanhuang chicken has strong survival ability and high egg production. Adult chickens weigh about 3 to 4 kg. Its meat is tender, delicious and nutritious. It enjoys a high reputation both at home and abroad and is recognized worldwide. For this reason, the Sanhuang chicken is also one of the most famous native chicken breeds in China.

2. Partridge Chicken

The Partridge chicken is a native Chinese breed and is dual-purpose for both eggs and meat. Partridge chickens have extremely strong adaptability and a very broad food chain. Wild grasses and flowers in the mountains, moths, insects, fly maggots and earthworms can all serve as its food. Partridge chickens are highly active, good at climbing and capable of long flights. As a result, they have relatively strong disease resistance, well-developed muscles and a fit physique; the meat of the Partridge chicken is firm, delicate and chewy. Tender and smooth without being greasy on the palate, it is a low-fat, low-cholesterol meat with high levels of amino acids and trace elements and high egg production; it is a pollution-free green food with huge market demand, and its price is one or two times that of ordinary domestic chickens. In addition, the Partridge chicken has a very strong homing instinct: no matter how far it wanders to feed during the day, it returns to the nest at night, making it very suitable for free-range rearing.

3. Silkie

The Silkie has a long history; it is distinctive not only because its whole body of feathers is black, but also because its skin, meat, internal organs and bones are all black. Its meat quality and nutritional value are much higher than those of ordinary commercial chickens. It also has extremely high medicinal value; for example, the Wuji Baifeng Wan pills that many people have taken are made mainly from Silkie. Silkie chickens grow and develop quickly, but their ability to digest crude fiber is relatively weak, so their feed should be easy to digest, high in nutritional value and low in crude fiber. Silkie chickens have relatively poor disease resistance and body temperature regulation, and are susceptible to various diseases. Therefore, during rearing it is even more important to provide a suitable environment to ensure their healthy growth.

4. Green-Shelled Egg Chicken

The Green-Shelled Egg Chicken is named mainly because the eggshells it produces are green, and it is raised primarily for egg production. Its disease resistance and adaptability are stronger than those of ordinary poultry, it likes to eat green grass and vegetables, and its feeding and management are basically the same as those of ordinary poultry. Its annual egg production is around 180 eggs, and the eggs are nutritionally rich, containing 17 amino acids essential to the human body, multiple vitamins, and minerals such as selenium and iron. Its amino acid content is seven to ten times that of ordinary eggs.

5. Guinea Fowl

The Guinea Fowl, also known as the pearl fowl, mountain fowl or Guinea bird, is called "Guinea Fowl" because its whole body of feathers is gray with regular round white spots, like pearls. Its wings are well developed and powerful; at 1 day of age it already has some leaping ability, and it can walk about ceaselessly throughout the day. It is timid and easily startled; if one hen lets out a piercing call, the whole flock will react in a chain reaction. Guinea Fowl meat is tender, nutritious and delicious. Compared with ordinary broiler chickens, it has higher protein and amino acid content and lower fat and cholesterol content, making it a specialty poultry with a gamey flavor.

6. Tianshan Snow Chicken

The Tianshan Snow Chicken feeds mainly on grass, has a relatively small body size, a robust constitution and quick, sharp reactions, snow-white feathers and dark meat, and has high edible and medicinal value. Artificially domesticated Tianshan Snow Chickens have lost their original ability to fly, but they tolerate cold and heat and have strong disease resistance, and they can be raised in different seasons across the country. The Tianshan Snow Chicken is a high-protein, low-fat chicken breed with the unique flavor of wild game birds.

7. Seven-Colored Pheasant

The Seven-Colored Pheasant, commonly known as the wild pheasant and also called the ring-necked pheasant, is named the Seven-Colored Pheasant because its feathers are a brilliant riot of colors. It is a precious game bird valued for meat, ornamental purposes and medicine all at once, and enjoys such reputations as "king of game" and "animal ginseng." It has been included in the List of Terrestrial Wild Animals under State Protection That Are Beneficial or of Important Economic or Scientific Research Value.

8. Hybrid Broiler Chickens

Among hybrid broiler chickens, the common ones include Gushi chicken, the 817 hybrid broiler and small high-quality white-feathered chickens. Most of the chicken we buy in supermarkets and butcher shops is generally one of these types.

The above is a complete introduction to chicken breeds. China has a very long history of raising chickens, and chicken is also a meat we commonly eat in daily life. Of course, there are more than the eight chicken breeds above; these eight are simply the ones we see relatively often in daily life. So what other chicken breeds do you know?

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