Kinds Of Chickens
Chicken has been man’s favorite bird since its domestication. They are mainly kept for their meat and eggs besides being kept for either small scale production or large scale production of their products.
There are over 1000 different kinds of chicken across the globe which can be classified as either indigenous or hybrid. In the recent past, research has established that the indigenous kinds of chicken are at a higher risk of becoming extinct as hybrids come with more advanced traits. These traits include higher resistant to diseases, faster maturity rate which results to higher productions and thus high profits especially to large scale farming.
Chicken farming can be purely for meat production, eggs production or both. This is also another important aspect used while classifying chickens. Here, various types of chicken can be classified as either layers or broilers. Broilers are purely kept for meat production while the layers are majorly kept for egg production. However, chicken can also be kept as ornamental fowls.
Some of the most common kinds of chicken include:
The Bandara
It’s a very common hybrid chicken which was developed by the Montazah and Gimmizah Poultry Research Stations. These kinds of chicken are identified with their white color, a shanking beak with a yellowish white skin. It is mainly used for meat production. In addition to these traits, it’s also known to be distinguished by the red ear lobes and a duplex comb.
The Cochin
These kinds of chicken exist in four major varieties which are distinctively identified by their colors. The four varieties include the black Cochin, the buff Cochin, the partridge Cochin and the white Cochin. They produce eggs with a brown shell.
All these varieties of cochins have a yellow skin and they are believed to have originated from China and US where a more advanced breeding took place. Currently, they have gained popularity in other parts of the world as well.
They have fluffy feathers and most of them are bigger in size as compared most chicken species. Cochins are good examples of birds kept as ornamental fowls. Their feet have feathers and they are normally confined.
Other than being kept as ornamental chicken, they’ve also proved to be good layers although they it’s just for a short period of time. They are also good mothers as they can effectively brood.The last kinds of chicken in this list are the Jersey Giant.
The Jersey Giant
The Jersey Giant was developed by the Black brothers in New Jersey around 1870’s and hence its name. They are the most popular chicken in America which has been established as the largest specie. They have a longer maturity period of about six months as below this time frame their meat isn’t pleasing at all. They have a yellow skin colour with their eggs having a brown shell. These kinds of chicken exist in two forms; the white jersey giant and the black jersey giant. The Jersey Giant is a consequence of cross breeding the langshans, the orpingtons and the javas which are also very popular kinds of chicken.
