Chicken Breed Focus - Aseel/Asil

[varidgerunner]

One of my asil hens laid and set a clutch of eggs one December... the middle of winter. I was going to toss the eggs, but decided it didn't hurt leaving them in there and tossing them out as they froze. Well she hatched out 5 chicks for Christmas and raised them all to adulthood. Excellent mothers is an understatement. Have had hens that set and raised 3 clutches of chicks over the summer... nothing funnier then seeing an asil momma try to cover a half grown Thai chick on the roost . Great personalities, and while they do take some extra care, the rewards far outweigh the extra work required to raise them.

Are those birds Hyderabads?

 

[NOEL LUM]

I am interested in having about 4 or 5 to free range. would they be better for this than say some rirs ? I have had trouble with fox in the past and wondered how well aseels would handle them any input helpful

 

[varidgerunner]

If you free range adult Asil females, they might get along for a while if they are siblings, but once they go broody and raise chicks they won't appear to know each other any more, and that can turn ugly. Get some RIR hens and an Asil cock. He will keep an eye on them and be a pleasure to have. No chicken is a match for a fox, but their instincts and alertness would give them an edge over most other birds. At the same time a fox would need to be really hungry to make it worth losing an eye to his dinner. He will most likely be met head on after the hens are told to go inside, if my bird's antics with my dogs are any indication.

Another peculiarity that makes them unsuitable for beginners, it is not as simple as putting a male with a female, if a female Asil does not think that a male is suitable, she will kill him, or at least re-arrange his face a little. So don't buy an Asil hen and try breeding your silkie to her, it probably will end poorly.

 

[cubalaya]

i put cubalaya stags in with asil hens to teach them manners. they are much better cocks for it. when you breed a pair of asils the hen will always fight the cock. attention should be given to the maturity of both birds or you will have deaths. 1 to 2 years is best for hens although they will be good mothers for the rest of their lives. 18 months to 5 years is good for cocks. more pics:








youngsters; note the pearl eyes, yellow legs, square shanks, and upright stance

 

[prariechiken]

Are those birds Hyderabads?

While in the US "Hyderabads" is used to describe asil by a recognized color, in their original homeland, many asils are named as per location of origin, Hyderabad being a region of India. I simply refer to all of my asils as .. asils ... I guess they could be called Kansa asil .

I would recommend the book "Oriental Gamefowl" by Horst Schmudde for those interested in any of the Oriental breeds.. great, informative book.

 

[varidgerunner]

Your Kansas Asil are nice, Prariechicken. I like the Pumpkin. Like the American Games, it is easy to get caught up in names.

 

[NOEL LUM]

If I wanted to get a male aseel where would I start looking?

 

[varidgerunner]

If I wanted to get a male aseel where would I start looking?

If you searched this site or others like it I am sure you could find someone with one to offer. This is a good time of year to find them as people are whittling down their flocks for winter and spring and summer hatched birds will be needing to be penned. I will have some available but it will be a while before I can ship, I have done my pollurum testing, waiting on paperwork, need to be getting a few more eggs before I can get my AI testing done, shooting for spring. Cubalaya can ship you one if he has any to spare. Be prepared to pay more than feedstore chicken prices for any authentic Asil, they aren't all that easy to mass produce.

 

[varidgerunner]

The good news is, if you do spend the money on one, they have the potential to live a long time, and with their easy to get along with attitude, they shouldn't need replacing.

It would be interesting to see someone devise an intelligence test for chickens. These things are pretty sharp, I have 5 foot square dome pens with welded wire, I drag them around to fresh ground. Most chickens you put in there you have to be careful because when you drag them around they will get a leg under the pen, or they will flip out and start flying against the wire. Not the Asil, they just walk up to the fresh grass and stay away from the sides. If you put them in a cage with swing in doors, they back up for you to open the door and then walk out. I see an overall low incidence of the stupid things that some chickens do, it's probably not really intelligence, more like they just don't get excited about things and end up in predicaments.

 

[Akrnaf2]

If you free range adult Asil females, they might get along for a while if they are siblings, but once they go broody and raise chicks they won't appear to know each other any more, and that can turn ugly.  Get some RIR hens and an Asil cock. He will keep an eye on them and be a pleasure to have. No chicken is a match for a fox, but their instincts and alertness would give them an edge over most other birds. At the same time a fox would need to be really hungry to make it worth losing an eye to his dinner. He will most likely be met head on after the hens are told to go inside, if my bird's antics with my dogs are any indication.

Another peculiarity that makes them unsuitable for beginners, it is not as simple as putting a male with a female, if a female Asil does not think that a male is suitable, she will kill him, or at least re-arrange his face a little. So don't buy an Asil hen and try breeding your silkie to her, it probably will end poorly.

See this pic.!