Blue egg layers in China

[Kabootar]

⑥WenShang Luhua chicken
First of all, I want to say, "Luhua" in Chinese means the flowers of reeds. Chinese people like to name animals with something similar once. Though they look very much like barred rock chicken, but I'm sure they are not the same breed.

Wenshang Luhua chicken has a long history. They come from the northern China of Wenshang County in Shandong province. As early as the Ming Dynasty, local people began to feed a large number of this chickens. During the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, there were records of "Wenshang Luhua Chicken" on the records of the people and Wenshang County.

Although they were very popular in ancient times, they almost disappeared in 1949 after the founding of New China. When people discovered this, they were less than pandas.

Later, as many foreign breeds came into China, the cost of raising Luhua chickens became higher and higher. Take barred rock, which is similar to them, for example, Luhua grew slower, thinner, smaller and p
layed fewer eggs than barred. As a result, most chicken farmers slowly eliminated Luhua chickens and turned to foreign breeds or hybrid breeds (including barred rock, a substitute for luhua). Very soon, the origin of Wenshang is also hard to see Luhua chicken.

Until 2004. The turning point came when Luhua Chicken Association was established in Wenshang, a national conservation farm and a standardized chicken house were established, and the most advanced hatching equipment in China was used. Since then, pure Luhua Chicken has been truly preserved.

But now, most people still think their barred is Luhua.However, I think the color of the Luhua should be cockoo, not barred. Though they are very similar.

Luhua chicken has 130-150 eggs per year, up to 180. Their eggs are pink or white. 5% of the Luhua chicken has blue eggs.Now China's chicken lovers have chosen specialized breeding of luhua chicken with blue eggs. And has succeeded. They get nearly 100% of the blue eggs.

Most of the Luhua chickens are white with skin, feet, and beak.
Their tail feathers are upturned to make them look like China's ingots. At the same time, Luhua comb is very special, rooster comb is not big, but the hen comb is not small.

Their tail feathers are upturned to make them look like China's ingots. At the same time, Luhua comb is very special, rooster comb is not big, but the hen comb is not small.

this is Luhua chicken:View attachment 1588811 View attachment 1588812
View attachment 1588819
View attachment 1588820
ROO&Hen:View attachment 1588821hen:
View attachment 1588822
eggs:View attachment 1588823 View attachment 1588824

Beautiful birds, their pattern look more like Dominique and less like barred rocks, but maybe it's just me. Ofcourse they have single comb like barred rocks. I am thoroughly enjoying your thread, even though it's older.

 

[Kabootar]

Good grief! Do you live at the chicken farm? That's a lot of chickens and eggs!!! But. Thank you for the info. Just curious. Does anyone ship eggs or chickens from China? Don't get me wrong. I'm only interested in history. I'm allergic to eggs...Long story. Yes, I have two rescue chickens but I generally don't eat the eggs. I give them to family. On the other hand, I find it disturbing that there is so little information out there about chickens, etc of other countries. I don't like to travel but am always really curious. The background of your home, etc. looks so lovely. I live on Oahu and there are places here that the mountains and mist sometimes look like that. You are lucky.

Importing livestock from the old world (Europe/Asia/Africa) to USA though possible, is extremely complicated business. Mainly because of the prevalence of livestock diseases like foot and mouth disease (FMD), bird flu, swine flu, Avian influenza, bovine TB, mad cow disease, anthrax etc in the old world. You will need to file an application to the Food and Drug Administration. They reject vast majority of the applications, however if the application is accepted then the applicant will have to pay a fee to FDA, then it will purchase the livestock and keep them in one of their quarantine facilities the applicant will have to pay FDA for the food and housing of the livestock. After the quarantine period is over the livestock will be handed over to the owner.

 

[Kabootar]

I don’t think you can. It is illegal to bring most things, such as fertilized chicken eggs, out of China. They would be confiscated going through customs. But wouldn’t it be nice to have those beautiful chickens!

I can't say about China, but exporting and importing livestock from India is easy. Europeans, Australians and other's often import animals from India. Importing livestock and animal products in India is also easy. We import animals from China often. We just need to pay the appropriate tarrif. That being said I don't think it would be easy to import live animals into the States.

I think United States policy regarding livestock import from old world is reasonable. I am sure you don't want those diseases. Better safe than sorry.

 

[yakitori]

Sorry to perform a thread resurrection, but I just wanted to stop by and say thank you for the information!

Before I had chickens, I stopped by a friend’s place with my mom and they had barred rocks, and then my mom got all excited and said, look it’s Luhua chickens!

Well it turns out they were not, but the name has stuck with me ever since. My grandma grew up in Shandong and I think Luhuas were their prized breed of chickens. I did a bit of searching on google, and it saddened me to not be able to find much information on it in english on the internet

 

[Perris]

thanks for a very interesting thread - I love that some of these breeds lay multi-coloured eggs! The pinks are especially pretty and novel.

 

[BleuSaphir]

They are so unique!

 

[HunterWilda]

I'm sorry to bring back an old post but the anyi grey chicken color, how is it inherited? Is it inherited recessively like lavender? If you cross with another breed do you ever end up with grey offspring?