Cemani

[Resolution]

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The Ayam Cemani is a colour morph of the Ayam Pelung. Cemani hatch from Ayam Pelung; the Pelung hatch from Cemani.

Besides the ink black morph there are two other colour types-

That a wild-type chick hatched is very fortunate. It means that the breeder is scrupulous. He knows that a founder group of only one colour morph will eventually stop reproducing or at least the females will no longer produce viable eggs. When you have stock that still produces one or both the other colour types consider yourself fortunate.
They are Ayam Cemani, Ayam Pelung or Ayam Cianjur Kab

Ayam Pelung is an ancient breed derived of the female Indonesian Red Junglefowl Gallus bankiva. Versus the South East Asian Red Junglefowl Gallus spadiceus.
This is notable for the fact that Indonesians domesticated the Indonesian Red Junglefowl . Their domestic fowl were strictly ceremonial creations. They were initially a fighting breed. This domestication event was significantly earlier than that of the South East Asian Junglefowl.

Other genetic founders of the Ayam Cemani are the female Austronesian Game Fowl Gallus giganteus and the Ayam bekisar.
In this usage the term genetic founders relates to the ancestral base- the four corners if you will. Other local breeds may have contributed since the inception in one village or region or the other. Nevertheless, the roots of the breed are quite unlike most Asiatic fowl. The hypermelanism is inherited from the Green Junglefowl and the massive size of the Ayam Cemani and Pelung is inherited from the primitive ancestor of those giant fighting games like the Ga Noi, Malagasy Game ; Malay and Saipan, Shamo.
This doesn't mean that any of the mentioned breeds are included in its makeup, but rather, shared a common recent ancestor- and by recent we are talking three to five thousand years ago.

The rounded hackles are reminiscent of the Indonesian Red Junglefowl but the texture and pattern reveals that Ayam Bekisar males were also important founders in this ancient breed lineage.


Later, breeds like the Sumatran and the Silky came to pass and these represent - a guild of sibling lineages that includes the Ayam Cemani, Koeyoshi, Tomaru, Japanese White Silky and Mapuche Huastec. All these black boned birds share a common ancestral bleu print. They are not identical but so close that one can appreciate the slightest diversion from more genetically homogeneous stock/ breeds. When a bird with frizzle or a naked neck hatch you know that you have birds descended from the original line.
The original Austronesian Gamefowl exhibited frizzled feathers and an at least seasonally naked neck. But that breed also had a knob of a comb and a slight crest.
At any rate,some of the most ancient breeds on Indonesia are the Astronesian Game, the Ayam Bekisar and the Ayam Cemani/Pelung. Silkies and Sumatrans were bred from the

 

[Eifelhexe]

hello,
thanks for the reply
i am not sure if i understand this right cause my english is not that good.
are you saying, that it is a good thing that there are some chickens wich are not completely black?

like i wrote above this breeder called me and said,that he had mixed Tomaru breed in there and that in his opinion this breed fits very nicely.
rather then some other breeders do like mixing Marans with Ayam Cemani wich he has seen before and he says thats a crime in his eyes

because only 4 hatched,he send me some more eggs wich should hatch in 13 days.

these 2 mixed colored ones are very agressive by the way
already at 2 days of age they started fighting like little Rambos lol must be roosters i guess

 

[Resolution]

Marans X Cemani? That seems incredulous to me. Where is this supposed to have happened?


What would be the point>? The Tomaru is descended of the same ancestors as the Ayam Cemani and as such is a much more appropriate breed to composite with.

The chicks with the white faces are going to be Tomaru-looking birds. If you have chicks that are brown and beige with blue slate legs and bill, then you will have Ayam pelung phenotype.

It's all good. The founders of your cemani flock should be as genetically diverse as possible without crossing into unrelated breeds.

 

[Eifelhexe]

well he told me that he had contacted some other breeders about getting fresh bloodlines and that there was one who mixed them with copper neck Marans.
i guess that person was from Germany also i didnt ask him though.

well thanks alot for your answers really helped me a lot and i am happy now that i got the eggs from this breeder

 

[wclawrence]

I don't care what anyone says. You don't get fibromelanosis from thin air. If you want dark chickens, breed dark chickens.

This rooster has one copy of fibromelanosis, he is the one I will be breeding to the Tomaru hens to get some of you started towards a pseudo-cemani.
I understand that there are some problems using this rooster, but I know of no other that will work better. I certainly do not think that a black silkie is a good choice, unless you can find one without all the extra feathers. muff beard crest legs etc.

 

[Resolution]

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There are already birds with Ayam Cemani blood in the USA. Starting from the beginning would likely require more generations than any of us have left in our relatively short lifetimes to reach.

It could be problematic if people started using the term Cemani to describe birds that have no Cemani blood. Even the birds that are only partially Cemani should probably not be called Cemani.


If people are truly interested and this is not another heart-pounding fad poultiers will need to get organized and prepare a breed registry. They will need to be prepared to sign breeder's loans agreements and work together in collaboration to produce Ayam Cemani in the United States.

 

[NateDomRIR]

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I'll work with anyone to get some Cemani blood. I only know of one person and she is sending me eggs soon. Who else has Cemani blood? I'll gladly pay for eggs, chicks, grown chickens.

 

[Resolution]

W.C. Lawrence has or had a Sumatran X Asil and Long Tail Fowl with Ceylon blood. While the genes for black bones are not present or dominant in progeny produced from that composite (using these specific founders), a genetic matrix is created upon which the strands of Cemani blood can be laid. This is step 1 a.
Simultaneously, another poultier can put a Tomaru onto a Black Java hen. This is step 1 b.

Lineage step 1 a.

Lineage step 1 b.


It's important to select for size and conformation first. The melanism of the cemani is something that is fixed a bit later down the line.

Unfortunately, in my experience, in many instances, that when it comes to selective breeding of poultry, the American trait of resolute individualism has been as counter-productive as the English disdain for new ideas.
What I mean to say here is that more often than not, an American poultier will leap into a selective breeding project attempting to reach an objective ( reconstruction of a rare breed) and accept little to no real input. They jump into it with both feet, one might say brashly. Even when the precept of the ceremonial or symbolic value of the breed is not understood. What results eventually is a lineage or stock of birds that can meet some definitions of the concept of the focal breed but when crossed with stock that has been bred according to tradition and using appropriate genetic matrix or foundation, frame and plumbing, if you will, the progeny end up all smashed up.

People think they want the Ayam Cemani. What they need is the Ayam Pelung. One breeds Cemani from Pelung, not the other way around.

WC Lawrence's stock I've mentioned above basically reconstructs the Ayam Bali. This is an important fighting breed from Indonesia. The important genetics in question here is the inclusion of Asil (descended like other giant game breeds of Austronesian Gallus giganteus); and it includes the genetics of an ancient Ayam Bekisar ancestor at the foundation of the Long Tail fowl and also some small but significant % of Ceylon Jf genes. The ancient Sumatran is the black boned descendant of the Ayam Bali.
The Yokohama is a yellow skinned descendant of the Ayam Bali. The Minohiki is a white skinned descendant of the Ayam bali.

But the Pelung/Cemani is but ~ 25% Ayam Bali. One cannot overemphasis the significance of the Ayam Bali composite in the progenitor Pelung/Cemani genes because it lays down the matrix upon which certain traits can 'fixed'.

The original Black Java is an Indonesian fowl that contains ~ 45% of the maternal genetic material of the Ayam Pelung.
The original Tomaru is descended of an Ayam Bekisar paternal ancestor with plenty of white-skinned Korean ancestry, that also has Bekisar in its ancient genes.

The composite between Tomaru and Java brings us to another genetic matrix. This one basically goes backwards and brings us around to something more closely akin to the original stock from which both Pelung and Java are derived.


Step 2 will ostensibly bring the Pelung/Cemani sires into the equation. These sires would be paired onto females produced in step 1a and step 1b .

Step 3 consists of backcrossing sons to mothers.

At this point, breed conformation needs to be studied closely and consensus reached by all collaborative partners on how to best proceed.

Again, the Ayam Pelung reconstruction is necessary to produce Ayam Cemani, especially as there are so few birds in the USA with Cemani blood and these birds are only ~25% Ayam Cemani.

The pedigree of the American Cemani derived stock -is a breed in development. (Manzanar) It is comprised of a single hen whose pedigree is Toh Tenko X Kuro Gashiwa X Ayam Cemani bred to a rooster- whose line is of unknown parentage that was a pet of an American Japanese gentleman who raised bantam chickens in Manzanar and brought these birds with him back to the Sacramento Valley after the war. Judging from photos of the original stock, I would say that the original Manzanar bantam taken to Sacramento look like some sort of bantam leghorn. The pet rooster that sired so much of the Japanese American gentleman's stock was of a grey colour.
When he passed away, his widow entrusted his stock to the Hawaiian Japanese poultry community where Iwamiya bred a rooster onto the Toh Tenko X Kuro Gashiwa X Ayam Cemani hen.
That line was bred interse since the mid 80's and our foundation inherited the stock in the mid 90's.
We've made no attempt to select breed from them- only to the "Manzanar" breed ideal. Nevertheless, the Ayam Cemani genes are obvious in the stock.

 

[wclawrence]

Yeah. If I were going to pursue a Cemani project, I would get some real ones if they are available in the U.S. I just don't know where to get any.
By the way, and on the record. If you "make" something that looks like a cemani, but is made out of other stuff, it is not and never will be a real Cemani. It would just simply be a really dark chicken. I have several birds with ceylon junglefowl in them, some of those are FM, I have several birds that are 1/4 Grey junglefowl, and some of those are FM too. They are really cool birds, but you won't have real Cemanis by breeding those to a Tomaru. They will just be dark birds. I personally think the addition of some of the weird feather genetics by the Grey JF enhances the look of these birds a lot.
My aim was never to breed Cemanis. I like pea combs too good. I want my own personal birds to be pure peacombs, and built like an asil.

 

[Resolution]

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It should be clear that our concepts of "breed" are almost alien to the cultures that generated them to begin with. For the landrace/ subraces it's all about the founder genetics.

To many villages around the world, the intrinsic value of their stock is the connection that they have with it. For many any white bird is "" and any red bird is "" as if each colour was its own breed. The secondary delineation of type- fighter; singer; garden stalker etc- is then placed after that colour designation.

The black boned fowl with perfect black plumage is considered an omen of ancestral proportions. It is a revered and sacred creature to some, a valuable commodity to others as Chinese ethnics line up to purchase its perfectly black flesh and bones for medicinal foods and remedies.

Its so ancient its difficult to gain a grasp of when it was first known and it seems as if this was one of the very first plumage mutations amongst domestic fowl.
How does this come to pass?

The flocks where these mutations tend to happen with regularity are closed flocks- and more often than not, in the very isolated regions. They will routinely remove any imperfect specimen hatched- eating or selling it and as such- an entire village is participating in the selective breeding principle/objective. One of the factors that makes this possible is circumstance- Because of the unique make up of the founders - certain mutations tend to emerge and because of selection they become dominant.

This selection is working on them from all directions. Human beings are selecting for a specific type. Predators are selecting against any specimens that don't have complete concealment during frequent rain storms, in perpetual gloom and darkness of the lowland swamp forests of Indonesia- where these poor villages eke out livings along rivers and so on. Nocturnal predators being the most significant as they will often also hunt during the day. And temperature has a great deal to do with the survivability of each successive generational progeny.

But a Cemani morphotype or something quite similar can pop up in any feral Indonesian flock. Let me clarify by saying- the demani morphotype is liable to pop up from time to time in just about any Indonesian feral flocks with overly similar or mirror genotypey. That is, the same or a very similar genetic matrix.
For example, it is far from an uncommon occurrence to see black boned Ayam Bekisar. These birds bring a very high price. Still more valuable is the black-boned bekisar with wholly black plumage and the luminescent comb and singular gular sheet or lappet of the Gallus varius sire.

But these birds will generally not be particularly large, unless their mothers were. An Ayam Cemani is enormous. It's easily as large as a Malay but it has this enormous comb and fan tail -thick at the base to about mid-way and generously fringed with greatly elongated- Chinese Opera looking plumes- it just makes it seem enormous. Its not very heavy- but it looks enormous.

Regardless of the very specific phenotype of these black bekisars, they tend to be traded further afield than those with more typical plumage.
These birds end up 'sweetening' the genotype of some village somewhere in Indonesia overrun with the feral village version of the Black Java and bang!
You have an Ayam Pelung hatch- that is a long crowing bird of enormous size and an oversize comb. Eventually, when and if the f1 roosters breed their own mothers or full siblings of their mothers- or closely inbred daughters of the mother- the mother and father being siblings naturally- the cemani morphotype emerges. That hen or rooster is then taken to the bird market where it sells for a high price. The buyer is going to take that bird to his or her otherwise closed flock cemani morphs that they've been collecting over the years. This is how these landrace/ subraces are generated.

Indonesia is of course, exceedingly hot and exceedingly humid. Large monitor lizards and pythons skulk about every tree in the jungle and along paths - along river banks -

Consequently, there is a selective advantage for the birds to be very long legged, very long in body and full, wide spread tails.
Moreover, the oversized comb and wattles help the birds release heat- and this cannot be underestimated- the value of being able to dissipate heat in an exceedingly hot and humid environment.

Ceylon JF carry two genes responsible for a specific kind of hyper pigmentation of the flesh. The green JF carries five copies - two identical with that of Ceylon- and three unique to the Green Jf.

However, again, its not about the ayam Cemani- its about the Pelung.
Recreate the Pelung and work from there- the genetic matrix will be in place once you get the right founders together.

The major obstacle I see is the problem of the yellow skin gene. This belongs to the Grey JF which is an important ancestor of the Asil.
This counterbalances the hyper-melanism.

The Austronesian breeds ( Malagasy/ Ganoi, Malay, Saipan, etc.) tend to have yellow skin/legs. This is evidence of genetic infusion from the Asil.

The Japanese Shamo has none of this genetic pollution and it is one of the early offshoots of the original Austronesian- that is- before it was contaminated with Grey JF demes ( Grey Jf X Red ="Bengal" ; Bengal X Austronesian = " Asil").