Ayam Cemani

[Tex452]

My son works with a guy that raises Ayam cemani chickens, he told my son he has a market for them, he said he would sell me some hatching eggs for 3-$4 an egg.
I’m going to try to hatch some when I get an empty incubator, and he has the eggs.
Has any ever tried incubating them before?
I’m wondering about hatch ability.

 

[SnackMeat]

Should be like regular chicken eggs. Because they have a lighter shell they'll be easier to candle.

I find with different locals, that egg fertility can be between 70-100% (100% happened once and it was someone who shows their birds so they are kept separated in pens to keep the colors and patterns pure.) but 80% seems to be a good amount.

Hatch rate after that depends on you and the incubator. I think between 75-95% is a good ballpark.


So if you get ten eggs, I would expect six to hatch but it could be less or more.

I do think that's kind of expensive per egg though. They're trendy. But $48/dozen for local pickup....that's up to you decide if they are worth it.

I wouldn't get them hoping to breed them for money because it seems like everyone's breeding them, and soon there will be a new trendy bird that people are charging high prices for.

But I would probably buy 4-5 eggs just to have a few in the flock. I have some zombies bred from some ACs and they are some of our most aggressively in your face for food or free time but not human interaction, in everyone else's faces of that hatch bossing them around, while also being distrustful and ambivalent. Very game fowl type vibe for me. But they managed themselves outside very well and seemed to have a higher sense of self preservation than some of the other pure breeds that I hatched out with that same group. I get the impression ACs are like that but maybe you can look up AC threads to get an idea of temperament of a well bred AC.

 

[Tex452]

Should be like regular chicken eggs. Because they have a lighter shell they'll be easier to candle.

I find with different locals, that egg fertility can be between 70-100% (100% happened once and it was someone who shows their birds so they are kept separated in pens to keep the colors and patterns pure.) but 80% seems to be a good amount.

Hatch rate after that depends on you and the incubator. I think between 75-95% is a good ballpark.


So if you get ten eggs, I would expect six to hatch but it could be less or more.

I do think that's kind of expensive per egg though. They're trendy. But $48/dozen for local pickup....that's up to you decide if they are worth it.

I wouldn't get them hoping to breed them for money because it seems like everyone's breeding them, and soon there will be a new trendy bird that people are charging high prices for.

But I would probably buy 4-5 eggs just to have a few in the flock. I have some zombies bred from some ACs and they are some of our most aggressively in your face for food or free time but not human interaction, in everyone else's faces of that hatch bossing them around, while also being distrustful and ambivalent. Very game fowl type vibe for me. But they managed themselves outside very well and seemed to have a higher sense of self preservation than some of the other pure breeds that I hatched out with that same group. I get the impression ACs are like that but maybe you can look up AC threads to get an idea of temperament of a well bred AC.

Thanks for the helpful reply, I agree that the market can become saturated, and from what he told my son it has, he said they use to get $1,200.00/bird and now they get $50.00/bird, I don’t know how true any of this is?
I don’t know how much eggs are worth either.
This is a hobby for me, and would like to try to hatch some.

 

[SnackMeat]

That sounds about right. A good AC rooster that isn't showing quality I was quoted $100 a couple months back.

A good piece of advice I got for breeders was that unless you want to ride the boom/bust cycle of bubble fads, get good quality stock, and then figure out a good average price so you can sell long term versus counting on $100+ a bird.

RRA Indio Gigantes are one of the up and comers and I am seeing $60/chick, $200/hen with a required 2 hen 1 rooster setup which I think is $500 or $600. Can't exactly remember what they were charging. I can kind of see the high prices there because they require a different diet, special care initially to make sure they don't grow too fast. And then there are size requirements for good breeding (I want to say 36+" height for males?) versus an AC which might be easier because it just comes down to all black everything including mouth.

But buy birds that you enjoy raising and you can afford to raise instead of gamble on. Especially if you can't inspect the AC hen and rooster to make sure they've got the black inner mouth/tongue.


As an aside, I know Sandhill Preservation Center has some valid criticisms, but they do have a line of ACs that are very reasonably priced (I want to say $10-15/chick.) They largely undercharge. If you find someone who wants to split a 25 bird package of different breeds (I think that's the minimum) then you can get AC chicks for good diversity and maybe compare what you hatch to Sandhill's line.