Quality refence and discussion on our new Ayam Cemani Hobby

[Ayla_noemi]

The purpose of this thread is #1 so others who are curious about what a batch of Cemani chicks looks like can get an idea ( it’s so hard to find pictures of culls). Also #2 I’d like to hear what others have to say about these chicks or their own experience.


Ok so my husband got some Ayam Cemani eggs December 2017 out of curiousity. We are a homestead/hobby farm so the price on these eggs shook me. I can’t recall the price but I do remember I was not happy. Lol. I didn’t know anything about this breed. He showed me pictures and I was intrigued so I started light research. Sadly when our eggs hatched the quality was beyond disappointing to both of us. Some of the chicks were pink skinned and some had white feathers. There were others with white toes, nails or toungues but we were expecting that. Needless to say all but one were culled and we decided to buy adults next time. Well fast forward a few months and we made a 3 hr trip to buy a rooster for our lone survivor that turned out to be a hen, ended up getting another hen as well. Winter 2018 we got our first few fertile eggs and we were relieved to find no pink bodies or white feathers. We did however get middle nails, toes and mouths that were not completely black. We also got a few new oddities like “feather-ish legs” (I’ve already forgotten the term) and naked chicks that were supper slow to feather out. We decided to let everyone grow up in order to see what the degree of change with age is. Figured it would be a cool experience and an interesting dinner in the end but there were so few eggs in December before the frost we decided to experiment again in the spring.


1)We found that the pale nails do darken but retain a telling lining around the edge of the nail.

2)We found that the pale toes also darkened but not enough to match the black skin.

3)We found that tissues of the mouth to include the tongue also became darker but it’s hard to really notice how little or how much because of the struggle of looking in a chickens mouth under good lighting.

4)We found that those feather nubs do not go away.

5)We found that even the naked chicks will feather in they just take forever!


So anyway please enjoy pictures of the good and bad chicks we hatched this year so far.

 

[Ayla_noemi]

 

[nicalandia]

Ayam Cemani are not a recognized breed, they are like landrace, I would say that their Only standard is "Pitch Black" colored birds, so try to breed towards that anything that is not dark as sin should not be used for breeding(at least until you get to that point).

Beside being black inside and out and commanding an absurd amount of money per hatching eggs, what are Cemani good at? How many eggs do they lay per year? How productive they are?.

 

[ejtrout31]

there normally used for meat but there decent egg layers i think

 

[nicalandia]

there normally used for meat but there decent egg layers i think

Really? I am sure its more for asian medicinal purposes(Black Skin, Silkies and Silkie crosses are also used that way) than anything else as they don't seem to have much meat in them.

 

[ejtrout31]

some people would rather have little meat but black skin

 

[ejtrout31]

OK so i read there are not good egg layers 80 per year but they are great mothers

 

[nicalandia]

some people would rather have little meat but black skin

True.

 

[Ayla_noemi]

Ayam Cemani are not a recognized breed, they are like landrace, I would say that their Only standard is "Pitch Black" colored birds, so try to breed towards that anything that is not dark as sin should not be used for breeding(at least until you get to that point).

Beside being black inside and out and commanding an absurd amount of money per hatching eggs, what are Cemani good at? How many eggs do they lay per year? How productive they are?.

After our purchased eggs hatched it turned into an intriguing experiment to me, like seeing the colors on my ND goats at birth. I guess the only difference to me is with the AC I’m rooting for all black. Honestly After my experience I would never recommend buying eggs online, you just never know. I never purchased chicks but I’ve read so many negative reviews that I wouldn’t recommend that route either unless the price per chick was reasonable.

Keeping in mind that I am new to AC and my small flock is not enough to determine breed characteristics this is my opinion.

Besides having a unique bird to show friends and visitors my AC are friendly and curious. They are a lighter sized bird and they love free ranging so they’re not expensive to keep when compared to Orpingtons etc. I find them to be hardy birds.They lay well in temperatures ranging from 103-25 without loosing fertility. The only weather pattern I’ve noticed affects them is heavy to very heavy rain (I live in North Florida so currently my hens aren’t laying much). They are great broody hens and stellar mothers. My hens are quick to adopt any chicks I give them. I find that the roosters are too easygoing and get beat up by roosters of other breeds A LOT!

They are NOT a productive bird. The most eggs I have collected in 1 week from 1 hen was 4 eggs, usually it’s more like 3 eggs per week per hen. With the way the weather has been here lately last week I got a whopping 4 eggs total from 4 hens! Since they lay so few eggs I can’t say it helps keep breakfast on the table and since they are smaller birds they do not make for family friendly portions (at least not my family of plump bellies). When you take into account the steep cull rate the only way I see AC being profitable is through absurd prices for good quality birds or uncouth breeding and selling practices.

 

[Ayla_noemi]

there normally used for meat but there decent egg layers i think

In my experience the # 1 reason people want them is as a novelty. The # 2 reason is animal flipping for profit. The # 3 reason is for religious or natural medicine purposes. There is very little meat to these birds but it is more palatable to me than regular chicken. As far as egg laying goes I know my girls have had a fantastic week if I get 4 eggs from one hen.