MUZIChinese Matrix
Poultry and Eggs · FFET10449
A local chicken breed from Taihe, Jiangxi, with a crest, beard, feathered legs, and black skin, flesh, and bones.
Chicken, duck, goose and other poultry, with their eggs and egg products.
Taihe black-bone chicken is a local breed from Taihe County, Ji'an, Jiangxi, distinguished by its crest, beard, feathered legs, five toes, and black skin, flesh, and bones. Local practices include raising chickens beneath trees, collaborative breeding, and disease screening of core breeding flocks.
Taihe black-bone chicken is a local breed from Taihe, Jiangxi. It has black skin, flesh, and bones, along with a crest, beard, feathered legs, and five toes.1
The available evidence does not establish the earliest record of Taihe black-bone chicken. One report says the birds have been raised for more than 2,200 years, but no checkable early text supports this. Modern breeding work has a clearer date: a 2025 report describes a joint breeding center developed locally with Zhejiang University since 2021.1,2
The breed comes from Taihe County in Ji'an, Jiangxi. Reports identify Wangpi village as its place of origin.1,2
Local practices include raising chickens beneath trees. Breeding work includes disease screening of core breeding flocks.1,2
Its identifying features extend beyond black bones to black skin and flesh, together with a crest, beard, feathered legs, and five toes.1
Local activity centers on breed conservation, farming, and processing. A June 2026 report gives about 15 million birds raised and about 12 million sold in 2025, along with one national conservation farm, 73 large farms, and more than 20 processors; it also states that Taihe black-bone chicken holds national geographical indication and national livestock genetic resource certification.1
A local tale in Taihe says that its black-bone chickens were sent to the Qing court as tribute and that the Qianlong emperor named them Wushan chickens. This is presented as a local tale. The report says local gazetteers record it, but the available material does not include the original gazetteer passage for verification.
Told in: Told in Taihe, Jiangxi, and retold in a 2025 report; the cited gazetteer passage is not supplied.
