The Smithies, the $5 "Ayam Cemani" black meat bird

[DCchicken]

After patiently waiting for 7 months for birds I had purchased in December, I finally received my pair for this breeder in New York:





They were supposed to be Ayam Cemani from a line that imported by the Smithsonian and carried on by this guy named Mike in New York. Being quite familiar with other FM breeds like Ayam Cemani, Ogye, and Svart Hona, I thought it might be a good idea to have another line for diversity. So I paid my $150 and waited for 7 months. What I received was not what was advertised.

But all is not lost. I have decided to start a new breed. I am calling them "Smithies". The idea is to breed them and make a $5 Ayam Cemani-ish bird. If anyone wants to join in, I will be sending out eggs as soon as they are laying which should be in about 3 months.

The goal of this breed are simple:

1. Keep the price low. $5 sounds good for a day old chick, straight-run of course.
2. Breed them as close to black as possible. They are supposed to be meat birds.
3. Increase the size which is always a good thing with meat birds.

Please join me in this effort. Or just leave comments and suggestions.

 

[chick dude]

a smithies is better than nothing. I reciently order some cemani eggs and they were a NO HATCH .. 12 eggs and 420.00 later I have nothing.. I also ordered another bird for 560.00 for a dozen and yep you guessed it another NO HATCH >> NO GROWTH .. so I would suggest to everyone unless you have money to waste .. get with me to find out where NOT to order your eggs from
learn from my mistake .. not sure where to post this on here to where EVERYONE can read it but please pass the word.

I guess on a positive note I have a 1000.00 story to tell ... lol

 

[dretd]

This is a very interesting idea and should be well-received.

I was talking to a lady just the other day who has some cemani eggs she got from a friend and asked about color--apparently there was more red than expected in the parent stock. I do recall reading that there are different qualities of the cemani and they are graded by their color somehow. I think over-paying for stock that is not the quality you were expecting is very frustrating and unfortunately all too common.

I might be interested in sharing your black chicken adventure if you are still feeling generous when they start laying! Are you thinking of outcrossing to increase size/meatiness? Maybe taking the culls from your other Fm chickens and mixing them in to try to increase vigor> or just maintain purity of the Smithies? Hmmm or culls from other pens...a blue egg laying Fm chicken...

 

[dretd]

Quote:
I looked up the Smithsonian's namesake James Smithson. He changed his name to Smithson from Macie (born James Lewis Macie, he was illegitimate and that was his mother's last name)

So I think that Macie would be a charming counterpart to Smitty!

 

[bstromgren]

You need more than one pair to get this started. Does
anyone else have birds from the same source? How about mixing in the 'Ayam Cemani hybrid' that someone is selling on ebay?
I have a small flock of EEs and Ameraucanas and have been looking for a project bird. Your Smithies sound interesting and just what I was looking for.

I have 2 roos and one hen that I bought from a gentleman in the same state with the same first name in Feb. My birds look strikingly similar to the Smithies. One roo is being bred to a jet black Iowa blue hen and the other will be with the "ayam Cemani" hen. They were advertised as 90% Cemani, but all have a fair amount of color. Count me in for helping develop the Smithie breed. My hen is still young at about 14 weeks. I want to get my investment back, so I won't be giving eggs away, but they will not be an arm and a leg either. I'm going to incubate all of the eggs for a while, chicks will be available also ... reasonably priced.

 

[maranfarmer563]

The only black egg I ever saw was a duck egg,

 

[DCchicken]

It's not too far fetched an idea that some Ayam Cemani would possibly lay black eggs, because if you can get chickens which produce very dark brown eggs, why not brown so thick it's basically black, too? I reckon it's not an impossibility but I haven't seen any sure cases of it either.... At this stage I guess it's just rumors but some hearsay turns out to be true, time will tell.

If it lays black eggs, it is not Ayam Cemani. The Indonesian and Dutch Standard calls for lightly tinted eggs. But that is besides the point. The rumor was started by some scammer that wants to sell chickens for enormous prices. The only poultry that comes close is a duck.

 

[enola]

If it lays black eggs it is not a chicken !!!

 

[bluenkimchi]

In fact, AC and any other black boned breeds, are no more than just a meat chicken to somebody.

A chicken by any other name, is still a chicken and I or some one/body/thing will eat them

 

[HugHess]

The two in and by the left corner (w/yellow) are Black and Mottled Java...the rest are the ACx babies. I did not expect to see them as dark as they are. Will be interesting to see how the darkest grow out...