Looking for Sumatras & dark skin chicken in Fresno

[falco]

Hi,

I live in Fresno, California. I am looking for some Sumatras. Juveniles and adults would be awesome.

I am also looking for any chicken that has black/blue skin/meat and not a silkie. I have a pair and was hoping to find some more to start a breeding program. The feathers should be straight or normal and not like a silkie. I have nothing against silkies. I apologize for the bad terminology.

Hopefully I am not offending any purest on this site. As I am new to the chicken forum thing.

Thanks

 

[Nupine]

No sumatra or black skinned chickens, but to my knowledge, silkies are the only recognised one. But,

 

[Dipsy Doodle Doo]

Hi and welcome!
Would something like this work for your project?

Naked Neck dark-skinned youngsters:

Dark-skinned pullet:

They are a mix of several breeds and the dark skin does come from Silkie in the original cross.
The ones pictured are [{(Naked Neck x Silkie) x Ameraucana} X Jersey Giant].
I'll be breeding the next generation of these in the fall (and should have eggs for hatching available).
The silkie feathering *shouldn't* show up again unless they are crossed to a Silkie or another bird carrying the silkie feather gene.

Lisa

 

[falco]

Hi,

Yes, I agree that silkie are the only recognized breed with dark skin, in the US. There is another breed found in Indonesia called Cemani Kedu. The skin, meat and organs are black, not just dark. This chicken is used for ceremonial purposes and highly prized and not allowed outside of Indonesia. A few Europeans imported some eggs, but that appeared to be in the early 90's. I don't know what happened after that. The updates to the breeding program ended then.

It appears that this dark melanin is rare and might have happened once....according to this Euro guy. He states that it occurred in Java...that a jungle fowl had this dark melanin mutation. I assume this is the ancestor of the Cemani and silkie.

It appears that the few chickens that I have with dark skin and the ones that Dipsy Doodle doo have are part silkie.

Dipsy, I assume that if I wanted darker skin, adding a silkie back into the line will give me darker skin. My pipe dream is to create a new breed that breeds true to the dark skin. The other physical features are secondary. My community of asians don't like the silkie for meat because "they claim" it has a certain smell. I guess another trait would be no silkie smell and straight feathers. Nothing personal. I was thinking that Sumatra (beautiful long feather) and asil (heavy meat; color variation??) would be desirable traits + silkie's dark skin. Any pointers would be helpful.

Thoughts and opinions on creating a new breed would be greatly valued, especially from poultry folks like you. Plan B is just to breed the dark skin and not worry about creating a breed.

Thanks

 

[Chickies-duckies-etc]

I happened to see this site last night when I should have been off the puter.

It is interesting, I think

http://home.planet.nl/~stev7596/australa.htm

 

[falco]

Great article.

the guy who is hosting the article Jan Steveink is the European dude that I was talking about. Check his other links and you will find the other articles about Cemani Kedu.

I believe the US still allow people to import eggs from other countries.

Well, I will keep my ideas in the backyard and let everyone know how things are going. I don't think I want to get as technical because I don't have enough time to do all the research.

Thanks

 

[prariechiken]

Sent ya a message.....good luck on your search....

 

[Nupine]

Nice site, I just didn't like the ''eating silkies'' part, i am a terrible farmer. Trying to have dairy goats and chickens and staying away from using them for meat is hard.

 

[falco]

No problemo. I will only eat my own silkies.

Sorry, could not resist. I respect everyones own feeling on the subject even though I do differently.