Dong Tao Chicken – The Dragon Chicken Breed

The Dong Tao chicken (also known as the Dragon Chicken) is probably one of the most unique chicken breeds that you are ever likely to see. You will probably never be able to find Dong Tao chickens for sale. This is because it is exceedingly rare and, when you can find it, it is incredibly expensive.

Let’s take a look, shall we?

Dong Tao Dragon Chicken Facts

Temperament	Friendly and Calm
Eggs	60 per year
Egg Shell Color	Tinted
Use	Meat
Weight	Male: 13lb (6kg) Female: 10lb (4.5kg)
Country of origin	Vietnam
Status	Rare
Foraging	Good

Where Do The Dragon Chickens Come From?

The Dragon chicken originates from Vietnam.

In fact, even to this day, the Dong Tao chicken can mostly be found in Vietnam.

It is likely that the Dong Tao chicken was never specifically bred. Instead, it just resulted from the people in this region of Vietnam just breeding chickens together whenever they could.

For a long while, the Dong Tao chicken was much coveted by royalty around the world (you will see why in a short while) and, nowadays, because it is such a rare chicken breed with a pretty unique trait, it is still favored by the restaurants that cater to the rich.

The Look of the Dong Tao Chicken

This is a hefty chicken breed. The Dong Tao roosters can easily reach 13lb (6kg) in weight, and hens tend to cap out at 10lb (4.5kg).

However, beyond the size, it doesn’t look any different from a standard chicken. Well, at least until you get to the legs.

The Dong Tao chicken is sometimes referred to as the ‘Dragon Chicken’ and once you look at the legs of the bird, it really isn’t hard to see why.

The legs are incredibly thick. By far the largest of all chicken breeds out there.

This is why the Dong Tao chicken is so highly prized for chicken lovers. They absolutely love the legs.

The Dong Tao Dragon Chicken for Show

This doesn’t seem to be a show chicken breed. We are sure that there are chicken shows out there for this breed. However, they do not seem to be all that popular.

This is because this is a very, very difficult chicken to breed. It also doesn’t do well in countries outside of Vietnam.

You may think that this is going to be a brilliant chicken if you want to have a beautiful chicken running around your yard. You are correct.

It would be a beautiful chicken for that. However, in the United States, you would easily be paying several thousand dollars for a couple of chickens.

We bet that there are a lot more things you can do to spruce up your backyard than buying these chickens!

The Dragon Chicken Meat

By all accounts, the Dong Tao chicken is one of the best-tasting chicken breeds in the world.

This is why this breed is so loved in some of the richest restaurants in the world.

Because let’s face it, chicken is quite a cheap meat to produce. Your average Michelin-starred restaurant will never use chicken.

However, if you can have a top-quality chicken breed? They would probably go for the Dong Tao chicken.

The legs, as you can probably guess, are the most prized delicacy from this chicken.

People love chicken legs at the best of times, so when you have even thicker ones, on a chicken that supposedly tastes better than every other chicken around, you know people are going to want the chicken legs.

On average, it should take about 6-months for this chicken to reach slaughter weight. This means that while it is not the fastest-growing chicken in the world, it is still fairly fast-growing.

Obviously, the Dragon chicken breed isn’t a chicken that is ever going to be raised commercially for meat.

It is too difficult to raise, and it is too expensive. We can’t imagine that the average homesteader would be introducing the Dong Tao chicken into their flock, basically.

The Dong Tao Chicken for Egg Laying

Now, this is where we run into difficulty.

The Dong Tao chicken does lay eggs. It can lay 60 eggs per year.

The problem is that it can only lay those 60 eggs per year in very, very specific conditions.

This means the area where it is raised. If there is even the slightest change in temperature, the Dong Tao chicken stops laying eggs.

This is why the breed really has not been successful outside of Vietnam, and it is why the price is so high. Basically, if you had a Dragon chicken chicken in the United States, it would probably never lay an egg.

The trouble doesn’t just stop here, though. The chicken is tough to breed too.

This is because the Dong Tao is not a broody chicken at all.

However, it is also a heavy chicken with massive feet. Therefore, it is not uncommon for the Dong Tao to crush eggs in the area.

This means that if you did try to breed it, the eggs would have to be removed almost instantly and stored in an incubator.

Raising the Dragon Chickens

Since this is such a rare breed of chicken, there isn’t actually that much information out there about raising this breed. Current breeders don’t need to share much because they are the only breeders.

This means that we cannot tell you anything about the personality of this chicken breed.

What we can tell you, and the thing that we mentioned before, is that this chicken is going to need to be living in a temperature-controlled area if you want it to breed.

You cannot just put it outside and hope for the best. A change of even 1-degree could stop the chicken from breeding.

There will also need to be a lot of space indoors for your chicken to wander around in too!

This is also a breed of chicken that is going to be eating a huge amount of food. So, not only are you going to be paying a lot for this chicken initially, but it is going to be one of the most expensive chicken breeds to raise too.

All in all, this is a chicken breed that you are not likely to encounter. If you do, you shouldn’t be attempting to raise them. They are hard and expensive.