Catalog
1.Habitat
2.Morphological Characteristics
3.Main Species
4.Breeding Techniques
5.Economic Value
1.Habitat
Living Conditions
Adult Gallus gallus domesticus likes to be dry and humid, tolerates high temperatures, is resistant to cold, and has a strong ability to resist disease. The adult guinea fowl is dry and humid, resistant to heat and cold, and strong in disease resistance. In -20 ~ 40 ℃ can still live. However, if the temperature is a little lower after the shell of the chick pearl chicken, it is easy to get cold, diarrhea or death.
Group living
Pearl chickens usually 30 to 50 a group of living together, never separate, artificial domestication, still like group activities, also fled and hid in groups after the scare, so the pearl chicken is suitable for large groups of rearing, in addition, the pearl chicken has a strong homing, evening nesting, often back to their houses, occasionally separated from the group can be returned to the nest.
Reproductive ability
Pearl chickens adult weight 2.2 ~ 2.5 kg, 12 weeks of age weight 1.2 kg, 28 weeks of age weight 1.9 kg; female pearl chicken.
28 ~ 30 weeks of age to start laying, laying 35 weeks can be 165 ~ 195 breeding eggs, egg weight 42 ~ 50 grams, shell brown, with a few spots.
Survival ability
Pearl chickens still retain the characteristics of wild birds, preferring to roost on high ground, and its activities can be seen at night. Especially the chicks have greater activity, often drilling around and causing death. This habit should be given enough attention in rearing. Pearl chickens are gentle, timid, alert, the environment has an abnormal or movement, can cause the whole flock to panic, the hen issued a piercing cry, the flock will have a chain reaction, screaming one after another. If you replace the red drinker with a yellow drinker, the chickens will be afraid to approach the drinker for a long time.
Feeding
Grains, bran, cakes, fish bone meal, grasses, vegetables and leaves, fruits, etc. can be used with the food.
Flying ability
Good flying, love to climb, good activities
Pearl chickens have two wings developed and powerful, 1 day old has a certain ability to leap. During the day, it can walk around almost non-stop. When resting or at night, they love to climb up to high places to roost.
Sound characteristics
Pearl chickens are scattered on the land surface, often planing out a mound on the ground to provide themselves with sand bath conditions. For sand bathing, sand is spread evenly between the feathers and skin. Pearl chicken rhythmic and coherent ear-piercing chirping, really a big feature, this chirping on the human rest is very disturbing, but also has several roles, one is the night this loud chirping sound strong suddenly have the role of the alarm, and the second is that this chirping once the reduction, or once the intensity of the sound is weakened, it may be a harbinger of disease.
2. Morphological characteristics
Pearl chicken head smaller, body length 50 to 55 cm, the front of the beak is yellowish, the back of the red, below the left and right each have a red beard, the face is a light greenish purple, hairless around the eyes, the neck is long and thin, the whole body feathers of the bottom color of blue-brown, dense white spots. Male and female guinea fowl feathers are the same, generally male individuals are slightly larger than females, high legs, male meat crown rises higher, meat beard is also slightly larger, close to the sexual maturity of male guinea fowl call short and exciting. Pearl chicken and pearl bird are two completely different animals. Pearl chicken looks like a female peacock, head is very small, light greenish purple face, strong and pointed beak, beak tip yellowish, red after the beak, in the back of the beak below the left and right there is a heart-shaped meat pendant. The eyes are glabrous around the eyes, and there is a ring of white markings extending straight to the upper part of the neck. The neck is slender, with a ring of purple-blue pin feathers. The feet are short, red when young, and grayish-black as adults. Walking quickly. Pearl chicken body feathers gray, and regular round white spots, shaped like a pearl, so there is a pearl chicken of the name. The pearl chicken is round and short, no crown, the top of the head is hairless, but there are keratinized protrusions, called helmet, tail feathers are harder and slightly drooping.
The adult weight of the chicken 2.2 ~ 2.6 kilograms, 12 weeks of age weight 1.2 kilograms, 28 weeks of age weight 1.9 kilograms; female pearl chicken 28 ~ 30 weeks of age to start laying, 35 weeks of laying eggs can be obtained breeding eggs 165 ~ 185 eggs, egg weight of 42 ~ 50 grams, the shell is brown, with a few spots.
3. Main varieties
There are three main types of varieties: one is the large beaded chicken distributed in Somalia, Tanzania. Its main characteristic is only a few feathers with white dots on its back. The second is the feather-crowned beaded grouse, which is distributed in the tropical forests of Africa. The third is the gray-topped guinea fowl, which consists of two types with blue and red meat whiskers. The gray-topped guinea fowl has been bred into many varieties such as gray guinea fowl, white guinea fowl, lavender guinea fowl and hybrids between them. Among them, the gray pearl chicken is the largest breeding varieties, China is usually referred to as the pearl chicken mainly refers to the gray pearl chicken type, such as the French Isha pearl chicken.
4. Cultivation Technology
The stage of the chicks after the de-warming to the sexual maturity is called the young chickens. During this period, the feathers begin to plump up, start to grow feathers covered with pearl-like white dots, adaptability gradually increased, appetite, rapid growth. In the feeding management, the chicken is mostly raised in a flat way. It can also be caged, and the feeding density should not be large. Pearl chicken has a strong homing nature. In the mountains, rural areas and other conditions can be used to free-range methods, so that the pearl chicken to the field during the day to forage for food, and then back to the nest at night to roost, feeding 3-4 times a day. Pearl chickens in 2 months of age before the call less, 2 months of age after the call increased, and even day and night call.
1. Shelter
Flat young chickens of the chicken house and breeder house similar to the house, in the house to feed and feed water, and placement of perches. Pearl chickens like to climb high perched, from a young age, we must train them to rest on the perch habit, in order to make the chicken feet less contact with chicken manure, which can reduce the occurrence of chicken feet disease. The house outside the sports ground and net for chicken activities. Reserve breeder should be used flat raising mode, flat raising chicken can have enough place to move, and can always get light. This way, young chickens have a strong constitution and few diseases, which can produce excellent production flocks.
2. Feed
In order to obtain a good growth rate, the metabolizable energy of early feed should be higher than 12,130 kilojoules kilograms. Gradually reduce the metabolizable energy with increasing age. The protein level in the feed also decreases with increasing age. The feed can be commercially available full-price feed for domestic chickens with similar nutrient composition, and young chicken pellet feed for 30-60 days of age. According to the information from Guangdong, the use of self-prepared feed for young chickens after 2 months of age can reduce the energy and fat levels, thus avoiding the loss of the flavor of wild birds by depositing more fat before sale, and preventing the reserve chickens from becoming too fat and affecting the egg-laying performance. Self-prepared feeds should be made into slightly larger crumbly feeds, as guinea fowl are not very fond of overly pulverized feeds. Pearl chicken also like to eat young grass, green vegetables, and grasshoppers and other insects. Eating greens can make the color of feathers bright, but also help to reduce feed costs. However, it should be noted that pesticide-tainted greens can not be used to feed chickens, so as not to cause poisoning.
5. Economic value
Pearl chicken as a meat bird, has a high economic value:
①Pearl chicken meat is tender, nutritious, delicious flavor. Compared with ordinary broilers, it has high protein and amino acid content, and very low fat and cholesterol content, making it a special bird with wild flavor.
②High slaughter rate, edible part. Pearl chicken skeleton is slender, small head and neck, chest and leg muscles developed, the body is nearly oval. Live weight of 1700 grams of pearl chicken, slaughter weight of 1544 grams, accounting for 91% of the live weight, 1415 grams of half-clearance, accounting for 83% of the live weight, which can be seen in its slaughter rate and meat rate are higher.
3 Pearl chickens have higher production performance. Breeding hen since 28 weeks of age to start laying, an egg-laying period can produce about 160 eggs, providing chicks about 110, each breeder egg-laying the whole process of material consumption of about 40 ~ 44 kilograms. Commodity meat pearl chicken best slaughter time for 12 ~ 13 weeks of age, live weight up to 1300 ~ 1500 grams, meat ratio of 1:2.7 ~ 2.9.
4 pearl chicken adaptability, disease resistance, equipment and premises requirements are simple, roughage, easy to feed, so engaged in pearl chicken rearing industry investment, quick turnover, high efficiency. In addition, the individual size of the pearl chicken is moderate, neither as big as turkey need to be divided and sold, nor as small as quail. Both suitable for ordinary families to eat, but also on the feast of high-grade meat birds.