What Kind of Chicken Is the Sanhuang Chicken? A Full Analysis of Its Breed Characteristics
The Sanhuang chicken is one of the most famous native chickens in China. Its name was personally bestowed by Zhu Yuanzhang, and it ranks first in the authoritative text of the Ministry of Agriculture of China, "Chinese Poultry Breeds." It is raised naturally by free-range farmers. Its meat is tender, its flavor is delicious, and it is rich in nutrients. It enjoys a high reputation at home and abroad, with excellent characteristics such as a small body size, the "three yellows" appearance (yellow feathers, yellow feet, yellow beak), strong survivability, high egg production, and tender meat. An adult chicken weighs about 3-4 kg.
The Sanhuang chicken's entire body is densely covered with yellow feathers. The rooster's neck feathers are golden yellow, the main wing feathers are red mixed with black, and the tail feathers are black. The hen's main wing feathers are half yellow and half black, the tail feathers are black, and the neck feathers are mixed with speckled black-gray feathers. The beak is yellow, with a single comb; the rooster's comb is relatively tall, with 5-7 comb points. The comb and wattles are bright red, the eyelids are thin, the iris is orange-yellow, and the ears are pale yellow. The shanks and feet are yellow and featherless. The body is compact, well proportioned, and small and neat, with a straight back, wings held close to the body, and tail feathers held high, shaped like a "yuanbao" (gold ingot). The head is moderate in size.
For the Sanhuang chicken, the adult body weight of the rooster (at 22 weeks of age) is 1600-1800 g, and that of the hen is 1250-1400 g. The age at first laying is 130-150 days, the body weight at first laying is 1150-1200 g, the egg weight is 42-46 g, the number of eggs laid at 500 days of age is 180-200, the male-to-female ratio is 1:12-15, the fertilization rate is 88-91%, the hatchability of fertilized eggs is 90-93%, the slaughter rate is 88.5%, the eviscerated yield is 65%, the leg muscle rate is 25.0%, and the breast muscle rate is 18.8%.
The Sanhuang chicken includes many breeds and is also widely distributed. In Guangdong, there are mainly the Sanhuang bearded chicken, Qingyuan partridge chicken, Xinghua chicken, Zhongshan Shalan chicken, Yangshan chicken, Wenchang chicken, and Huaixiang chicken, as well as the Pudong chicken of Shanghai, the Xiaoshan chicken of Zhejiang, the Beijing You chicken, the Putian chicken of Fujian, and the Shouguang chicken of Shandong. These Sanhuang chickens are deeply welcomed by consumers in the domestic market, Hong Kong, China, Macao, China, Taiwan, China, and Southeast Asia.
The Sanhuang chicken is suitable for farming in hilly areas, mainly through free-range raising. It eats green grass and vegetables, and can be supplemented with some staple grains such as wheat, corn, and rice. It is mainly distributed across Guangdong and Guangxi, Fujian, and Hubei Province. It is an authentic native chicken of China. Later, due to reasons such as the inability to scale up and good quality not fetching a good price, the Sanhuang chicken gradually faded from the market. As consumers' awareness of nutrition and health continues to strengthen, the Sanhuang chicken market has slowly "returned to its place," and many companies have set their sights on this traditional brand.