Beijing You

Beijing You, also written Beijing Youji and sometimes translated as Beijing fatty chicken, is a traditional Chinese chicken from the Beijing area. It is a dual-purpose native breed valued for meat quality and eggs rather than rapid broiler growth. Typical birds have yellow or buff-gold plumage, yellow skin and shanks, and a rounded body; many lines show a crest, beard or muffs, and feathering on the shanks, traits that distinguish them from the plain white commercial layers also associated with Beijing.

Today Beijing You chickens are kept by preservation farms, specialty meat producers, research stations, and smallholders interested in regional Chinese poultry genetics. They mature more slowly than industrial broilers, so feeding and marketing plans should allow for a longer growing period. Feathered shanks call for dry bedding, and breeding flocks are usually selected for the characteristic head and leg feathering, body size, fertility, and table quality. Because similar yellow-feathered crosses may be sold under familiar local names, source and flock history are worth checking.

Colors: Barred, Birchen, Black, Blue, Brown, Buff, Columbian, Crele, Cuckoo, Duckwing, Gold, Gold Laced, Laced, Lavender, Mille Fleur, Mottled, Partridge, Penciled, Porcelain, Red, Silver, Silver Laced, Spangled, Splash, Wheaten, White