A 9-spur cock is the specialty of Tan Son in Phu Tho province and many people seek to purchase this cock for Tet parties. A 9-spur cock is called ‘legendary cock’ as it is associated with the Son Tinh Thuy Tinh Legend.

Son Tinh and Thuy Tinh, the two men who wanted to marry My Nuong Princess, were told to bring wedding presents to the king which included a nine tusk elephant, a nine spur cock, a nine color hair horse, 100 pots of glutinous rice and 100 banh chung (square rice cakes).

Nine-spur cocks are favored not only because they have delicious taste, but are also believed to bring luck and prosperity. However, the cocks with eight or nine spurs are extremely rare, so it is very difficult to buy these clocks, which are priced at tens of millions of dong.

Pham Ngoc Khanh, the owner of a nine-spur cock farm in Tan Son, Phu Tho, said he receives many orders for cocks every Tet.

“They are called nine-spur cocks, but they mostly have 4-8 spurs only. Real 9-spur cocks are extremely precious. There are 1-2 9-spur cocks for every thousand of cocks,” he explained.

Khanh said in order to produce 9-spur cocks, he has to spend a lot of time and effort to select purebred chicken genetic resources from households in the village to propagate.

At first, Khanh found it difficult to sell the cocks because people were still cautious. He had to bring his cocks to many places to advertise them.

However, this cock species has become better known among people in the last five years. “The supply is not high enough to meet the demand,” he said.

This Tet, Khanh has roosters with nine spurs, purple red, about two years old. The value of the roosters not only lies in their beautiful legs, with enough toes, but also in beautiful feathers and imposing appearance, weighing nearly 2.5 kg.

According to Khanh, these cocks are products of premium quality, the best in his farm. However, these cocks are not sold based on numbers of kilograms, but based on their beauty, VND9-10 million a cock on average.

Meanwhile, the rooster weighing 2.2-2.5 kilogram, and hens weighing 1.6-1.8 kilograms, with 6-8 spurs, are priced at VND800,000-1.2 million.

“We have over 1,000 merchandise cocks this Tet season and most of them have been sold. There are only 200 cocks left with the selling prices of VND280,000-300,000 per kilogram.

Khanh revealed that he expects revenue of VND1 billion from the cocks and VND 300 million in profit. 

Nhat Thanh

Bustling Hanoi street gears up for upcoming Tet holiday

With just under one month to go until the start of the Lunar New Year, known locally as Tet, shops on Hang Ma Street in Hanoi downtown have been making meticulous preparations for the upcoming festival 

Dien Pomelo – the meaningful valuable gift for Tet holiday

Every December each year, the pomelo orchards in Phuc Dien ward are bustling with fruit harvesters and trucks lining up waiting to be loaded with pomelo.