Analysis of the Economic Benefits of Raising Eight-Black Chickens and an Interpretation of Profits
Black-boned chickens have a long history of being raised in China and are renowned worldwide for their unique medicinal and tonic functions. Among the black-boned chicken family, including the black-boned chicken (white silkie) and the Black Phoenix chicken (black silkie), the Eight-Black chicken is truly a rare black-boned chicken breed excellent for both medicinal use and tonic benefits. Testing has shown that the Eight-Black chicken contains 18 amino acids, with a total content of 81.9%, which is 37.7% higher than that of squab. The total amount of 13 major amino acids is 21.1% higher than that of the black-boned chicken and the Black Phoenix chicken, and it also contains 10 amino acids that the human body cannot synthesize, as well as the essential amino acids lysine, leucine, methionine and histidine. This chicken also contains various trace elements and multiple vitamins, and has extremely low cholesterol content. It is a high-protein, low-fat premium or nutritious tonic, health-strengthening, disease-preventing and disease-treating meat food, and its tonic and medicinal functions are the greatest among black-boned chickens.
The Eight-Black chicken is also known as the medicinal chicken or Baohei chicken. The black black-boned chicken originated in the Ming Dynasty and has long been a palace delicacy. It is a natural black medicinal and tonic rare poultry and a precious rare breed resource in China. The Eight-Black chicken has unique nutritional, tonic, medicinal, culinary and ornamental value.
The Eight-Black chicken has a handsome appearance, with black flaky feathers that are close-fitting, glossy black, and a compact body structure. It is named for being black all over; its feathers, skin, meat, bones, comb, beak, organs and toes are all black. According to breeding evidence from the Eight-Black chicken farm of the Jilin Province Ji'an City Horticultural Specialty Research Institute, this chicken has strong foraging ability, tolerance of coarse feed, low consumption, a liking for green feed, strong disease resistance, high feed conversion rate, wide adaptability and high economic benefits, and it can be raised in both the north and the south. The Eight-Black chicken grows quickly in the early stage. Commercial chickens can be sold at 90 days of age, reaching a body weight of 1.2 kg, consuming only 4 kg of feed, with a survival rate of more than 95%, and annual egg production as high as 200 eggs. It reproduces quickly, has a gentle temperament, and can be raised either free-range or in cages. The Eight-Black chicken has stable genetic performance and pure quality, and is a rare medicinal-and-meat dual-purpose rare poultry in China.
The meat of the Eight-Black chicken is tender, delicately fragrant and sweet, and delicious, similar to soft-shelled turtle and better than pigeon meat. It is especially famous worldwide for its medicinal, tonic and ornamental value, and is a well-known multi-purpose quality chicken breed at home and abroad. It contains melanin with extremely high tonic and medicinal value, and has unique effects such as nourishing yin, tonifying the kidney, enhancing essence and fighting cancer. It is a traditional precious Chinese medicinal material and has been highly valued by physicians through the ages. Since ancient times it has been praised as "superior to soft-shelled turtle for tonic benefits, better than white pigeon for healing injuries, and like pearls for beauty." Modern medical records state that the Eight-Black chicken has remarkable effects in treating headaches, stomach ailments, chronic gastritis, chronic hepatitis, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, cerebral thrombosis, bronchitis, cervicitis, edema, duodenal ulcers, uterine bleeding, osteomyelitis, postpartum weakness, diabetes, cancer and more, and has unique functions in beauty care, body strengthening and prolonging life. Its tonic benefits are especially significant for the elderly, children, women and those weakened by long illness, and it is the best nutritional supplement for people with cardiovascular disease. Every part of the Eight-Black chicken is valuable. According to records in the Compendium of Materia Medica, chicken comb blood, chicken blood, chicken fat, chicken heart, chicken liver, chicken gallbladder and chicken eggs all have relatively high medical value.
As a rare delicacy among black-boned chickens, the Eight-Black chicken can be processed into medicines, health foods, longevity beverages, body-strengthening tonic wines and various nutritional health products, and will be a preferred breed for the specialty poultry farming, health care, beauty, pharmaceutical, food and beverage industries at home and abroad. The Eight-Black chicken and its medicinal foods conform to today's global trend of black foods. Because the number raised is small, market demand is large and export potential is great, its development prospects are extremely broad.