Hello!
Today we will go with you to Vietnam to get acquainted with a very rare breed of Ga Dong
Tao chickens.
This is what a chicken of this breed looks like.
The name of these chickens indicates the place of origin of the breed, Ga is a chicken, and
Dong Tao is a large Vietnamese village where cockfights have been practiced for centuries.
The most noticeable and important feature of this breed is the legs.
These thick, painful-looking legs do not actually prevent the bird from actively moving around.
Chickens do not experience any inconvenience due to their unusual appearance.
The paw of an adult rooster can reach the thickness of a child's wrist in girth.
Ga Dong Tao have a rough, massive and slightly loose physique.
Comb nut-shaped, red.
The neck is short and massive.
The body is muscular, wide.
These thick-legged birds can sell for over $2,000 each.
It takes a lot of effort to raise each bird.
It can take years to nurture and take special care of them.
The best specimens even participate in beauty contests throughout Vietnam.
So what does it take to raise a Ga Dong Tao chicken, and why are they so expensive?
Ga Dong Tao is a rare breed of domestic chickens, one might say exclusive, that lives in a small
village on the outskirts of Hanoi, in the Vietnamese district of Khoai Chau.
Most of these chickens are still raised in this village.
This breed is also called elephant chickens.
The elephant chicken breed is recognized as a national treasure of Vietnam.
Work on the restoration of the livestock of this breed is funded by the state.
In Vietnam, Ga Dong Tao is highly valued and in high demand for its amazing meat.
Only paws of young birds at the age of 4-6 months are used for food.
The legs of both females and males are covered with reddish scales.
They have extremely large and thick paws, the legs look
very powerful.
All this gives them a resemblance to dragons, which is why the locals often call the Ga
Dong Tao chicken the dragon chicken.
Due to the size of her legs and feet, Ga Dong Tao are very clumsy with their balls.
Although this breed only lays two or three eggs a week, most of the eggs are destroyed
due to the hen's own carelessness.
They are notorious for being really bad mothers.
Therefore, it is not surprising that this particular breed is extremely rare and valuable.
All of this forces Ga Dong Tao breeders to be especially vigilant when looking for eggs
and transporting them to safe hatcheries.
Special care gives breeders a much better chance of producing healthy chicks.
Buying a breeding pair of Ga Dong Toa chickens costs about $2,500.
For example, farmer Giang Tuan Wu, who raises third-generation Ga Dong Tao chickens, has
been caring for them for over 20 years.
He reveals that he has been passionate about raising Ga Dong Tao chickens from a very young
age, since the fifth grade of elementary school.
Over the past 10 years, he has managed to build a farm where he raises chickens on a
large scale.
This project turned out to be very successful, since there is no such breed of chickens in
any other place in Vietnam.
Now Dong Tao commune has become very famous.
The farmer said that when he first started raising chickens, his chickens were often
sick, but he learned how to treat them and they began to get sick much less often.
Now, because he knows how to predict and maintain their health in the future, he can sell some
chickens as soon as they are born.
He described the growing process as quite complex.
You need to have knowledge of when and how to properly vaccinate newly hatched chicks.
He said he releases them into the garden with other chickens when they reach just over 2
pounds and feeds them like normal chickens during that time.
He gives them a mixture of different foods from a very young age.
Chickens are quite sensitive to the cold, so they need time for their plumage to fully
grow.
As soon as all their feathers grow, they will be able to walk perfectly even in the snow.
Chickens are sensitive to weather changes.
A rare breed of chicken feeds on crickets, their favorite food, and at the same time
their weight reaches from 6 to 16 pounds.
Chickens are raised for sale on the market from 8 months to one year.
In past centuries, the Dong Tao chicken was bred in Vietnam only for the royal family
and their mandarins (bureaucrats), as well as for ritual offerings.
Although the exact origin of the breed is unknown, they have been around for hundreds
of years and were originally thought to have been bred for cockfighting due to their thick
and strong legs.
Today, Ga Dong Tao chicken is served in luxurious restaurants.
It is valued for its tender and tasty meat, which is why it is very popular in Vietnam.
The farmer supplies up to 2 tons of chickens to Ga Dong Tao annually.
He sends regular orders to restaurants in Hang Yen City, including Van Hanh, which is
famous for its Ga Dong Tao chicken dishes.
Chickens are often ordered for special occasions such as Tet, the Vietnamese New Year.
For this holiday, in order to make a worthy gift, one breeding pair is chosen from hundreds
of parent chickens.
For Tet, the farm prepares between 500 and 700 chickens.
You can only get 3 to 5% of the total number of chickens that meet all the criteria for
sale as holiday gifts.
This means that out of 500 chickens, only 15 can be sold as gifts.
The rest are sold as marketable chickens at prices ranging from $8 to $10 per kilogram.
So what criteria do these chickens need to meet to be worth thousands of dollars?
The distinguishing features of an expensive chicken are the appearance of its legs and
body, as well as a special attitude towards it that is not manifested in any other breed,
from washing its feet to following an individual diet.
Sun exposure only at certain times during the day.
A class A chicken will have a pair of red fleshy legs.
He has a large foot size and excellent appearance.
For example, its weight is from 4.5 to 5 kg.
He has a tall build and majestic appearance.
From the first glance at the Ga Dong Tao chicken meat, it is clear that it is completely different
from the meat of chickens of other species, it has completely different taste qualities.
The color of the meat is darker and more similar to the color of beef.
No other breed of chickens in Vietnam has this color.
Many visitors are said to come from England, mainland Europe, Japan and the US to purchase
Ga Dong Tao chickens for research, breeding and marketing.
The cost of breeding stock can average $4-5 per hen.
A couple pounds of GaDong Tao chicken meat can cost $17-$19.
Ga Dong Tao females are beautiful all white or white with a touch of light brown, while
roosters are chestnut, red, grey, white and black.
Chicks are white with black wings.
Chickens have their knees bent inward, which may seem uncomfortable, but it seems to help
them balance between their very large legs and very large feet.
Ga Dong Tao hens lay 10-15 eggs for about 2-3 weeks, then rest for a few weeks, and
then do it again.
The research team has recently developed a feeding formula suitable for Ga Dong Tao chickens,
which lists 8 feeding materials.
It also calculates the percentage of each ingredient that is most appropriate for the
age of the chicks in the 4 categories.
These ingredients include corn, rice bran, fish meal, bone meal, and a premix of vitamins
and minerals.
While many birds are sold on holidays for meat, the really expensive chickens are often
left behind by farmers and entered in beauty pageants.
The longer the chicks live, the larger their features, and thus Ga Dong Tao Grade A chicks
can live six or seven years.
When preparing chicks for sale or competition, a lot of
work goes into caring for them.
About a month before the event, they are fed a special high-protein diet and their feet
are gently washed with a mixture of tea and salt.
Appearance is not only legs.
Every part of their appearance is equally important when it comes to classification,
from symmetrical earrings and earlobes, to evenly covered glossy black feathers.
The rating will determine the rarity of the chicken and subsequently affect its price.
A high ranked chicken will have a very high value.
Often, its cost reaches the high price of $ 2,000.
Breeding and selecting chickens for such competitions is a complex business.
This experience is passed down from generation to generation.
You need to know well what the diet should be, how much time per day the chicken should
be in the sun and which foods are good for which parts of the body.
The competition "the most beautiful chicken" attracts a lot of spectators.
Chickens, contestants are numbered for easy identification.
A strong candidate is discussed by many fans.
The competition has 3 main categories: the most beautiful couple, the most beautiful
rooster and the most beautiful hen.
Right at the competition, a price tag of 8 million dong or 345 US dollars was hung up
for one cage with chicken.
Many pairs of chickens are presented only so that people and tourists can visit them
to better understand the beauty and unusualness of this expensive breed of poultry.
While chicken's popularity is still largely limited to Vietnam, interest in it
is growing around the world, and
in April 2018, 802 Ga Dong Tao chicken eggs were seized by police at Istanbul's Ataturk
Airport after they were found in smuggled into the country in a
custom suitcase.
These eggs were valued by
the police at $2,000 each.
This shows that regardless of the price of these chickens, there will always be those
who want to purchase such chickens.
That's all.
If you liked this video please like and subscribe to the channel.
See you again.