Deer Garden Chicken

Deer Garden Chicken

　　Deer Garden Chicken is a specialty of Luyuan Town, Zhangjiagang City, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. It features adaptability to free-range conditions, strong foraging skills, broad adaptability, tolerance for coarse feed, strong disease resistance, and good quality of both eggs and meat.

　　Deer Garden Chicken is a traditional, premium, and distinctive product of Zhangjiagang City, named after Luyuan Town where it is produced. It is said to have a breeding history of two hundred years. The breed has yellow feathers, skin, beak, and feet, with scattered black feathers in the neck hackles, tail feathers, and wing feathers. Roosters have tall and sturdy legs, stand proudly upright, and can weigh over 4 kilograms, earning the nickname "Nine-Jin King." Hens have thick, short legs, a robust build, and weigh over 2 kilograms. They lay between 140–200 eggs annually, averaging 54 grams per egg. The chicken's meat is tender, rich, fragrant, and full of flavor. Legend has it that Weng Tonghe, teacher to Emperors Tongzhi and Guangxu during the Qing Dynasty, often brought Deer Garden Chicken as a specialty to the capital to give to relatives and colleagues. It was once listed as an imperial tribute and gained fame across the regions south of the Yangtze River.

　　Today, Zhangjiagang is actively developing its tourism industry. The city’s beautiful scenery, delicious cuisine, and Yangtze River culture attract tourists from home and abroad. Beyond enjoying local flavors on the spot, visitors also often choose exquisitely packaged Deer Garden Chicken from Zhangjiagang as their top choice of local specialty gift to bring back for family and friends.

　　[Variety Type and Origin]

　　It is a dual-purpose breed for meat and eggs. It originated in Luyuan Town, Zhangjiagang City, Jiangsu Province.

　　1 Main Characteristics: The breed is large in size, with a strong physique, a deep chest, and a straight back. Its head is small. The beak is medium in length, yellow, with some having a slate-gray base. It has a single small and thin comb, with small wattles and earlobes. The comb, wattles, and earlobes are red. The eyes are medium-sized, with black pupils and pink irises. Roosters have richly colored feathers, with saddle feathers, cape feathers, and small sickle feathers in golden yellow and large sickle feathers in black, all glossy. Hens have grass-yellow or yellow-hemp colored feathers, predominantly grass-yellow, with black markings on the primary wing feathers and tail feathers, and usually black spots on the neck feathers. Their shanks and toes are yellow without feathers. Chicks are covered in yellow down feathers.

　　2 Conservation Method: Gene bank preservation. The National Local Chicken Breed Gene Bank (Jiangsu) introduced the breed for off-site conservation in 1996, but by 2002, the original population was at risk of extinction.

　　[Production Performance]

　　1 Adult Weight and Meat Production: Average adult weight is 1878 grams for roosters and 1581 grams for hens. At 6 months old, the average semi-eviscerated slaughter rate is 83.4% for roosters and 82.6% for hens; the average fully eviscerated slaughter rate is 72.6% for roosters and 71% for hens.

　　2 Reproductive Performance: Hens begin laying eggs at an average age of 180 days. They produce an average of 144 eggs per year, with an average egg weight of 54 grams. The average eggshell thickness is 0.33 mm, and the average egg shape index is 1.32. Eggshells are brown. Roosters reach sexual maturity at 150 days. The recommended breeding ratio is 1 rooster to 15 hens. The average fertilization rate of hatching eggs is 94.3%, and the average hatching rate of fertilized eggs is 87.23%.

　　[Development and Utilization]

　　Deer Garden Chicken is an outstanding yellow-feathered chicken breed in China with a long history. Its meat is tender, flavorful, and well-marbled, and the carcass is aesthetically pleasing with a high dressing percentage, showing prominent meat-type characteristics. The breed also has a relatively consistent appearance and possesses essential qualities for breeding. It has stable hereditary traits and a high feed conversion rate. Therefore, with continued strict selection and breeding, it holds great promise for becoming China’s own premium meat chicken breed. It also serves as an excellent parent breed for economic crossbreeding. With fast growth, efficient feed utilization, and the potential for high returns for breeders, it boasts significant market potential.

　　As early as the Qing Dynasty, Deer Garden Chicken was served as a tribute to the imperial court. The famous Changshu “Beggar’s Chicken” is made using plump, young Deer Garden hens and is renowned throughout the regions south of the Yangtze River. Meanwhile, the time-honored Hongyongzhai restaurant’s braised oil chicken made from Deer Garden Chicken is especially popular.