Bian

The Bian chicken, often rendered from Chinese as Bian ji, is an indigenous chicken type recorded among China's local poultry genetic resources. It is better understood as a regional landrace than as a tightly standardized exhibition breed. Bian birds have been kept for household meat and eggs in northern Chinese farming areas, and flock appearance can vary with locality, selection history, and crossbreeding pressure. That variation makes source information more important than a single advertised color.

In practical keeping, Bian chickens should be treated like hardy farm chickens rather than high-output commercial layers. They need secure night housing, balanced feed, clean water, and enough outdoor space to express normal foraging behavior. Anyone breeding them for preservation should keep groups identified by origin and avoid mixing unrelated Chinese landraces under one name. Outside China, buyers may find little formal registry support, so photos, hatch records, and the seller's explanation of the line are especially useful.

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