Show Me Some Ayam Cemani Mixes, Y'all!

FarmerGirl101 · Aug 28, 2018

So the Turken or Naked neck is my oldest Ayam Cemani cross. The other chick didn't make it but was another Ayam Cemani cross with an unknown parent.

Henrik Petersson · Aug 28, 2018

Broodygranny said:
They all are different. I have lots of different kinds of hens. What type of mix are your chickens going to be? What type of hens do you have? My purebred ayam cemani does have a big comb. Thankfully it is cold here in winter, but not too cold.

It says in the first post. Mostly chickens with big combs. Hmm, I might need to rethink this...

EggWalrus said:
Henrik, you can always take a sharp pair of sissors and dock their combs. If you will Google " dock combs wattles " you'll see it's a quick and easy procedure that does no harm to the birds. Good luck up north there.

I do not believe that it doesn't harm the birds, I believe it feels like cutting the ears off a human.

Sneebsey said:
Henrik, a great way to sort out frost-bite in your combs is to breed away from large single combs. I'm working toward pea and rose combed birds in mine, as here in the damp UK we see a lot of frost-bite come winter. Both rose and pea are dominant genes; one copy will get those big combs gone, so breed your Ayams to Wyandottes, Brahma, Araucana, some gamefowl; a myriad of options available. Best of luck.

I know, which is why this project maybe isn't the best idea...

EggWalrus said:
Down here in South Alabama I have noticed that the only birds up and running around playing and foraging in the heat of the day (98° in the shade) are the large single combed birds. The rest of them seek shade or go down to the creek where is cooler.
Could it be that those huge combs acts like big cooling radiators on their heads.

Yeah, it could be.

It gets hot here in summer (my chickens walk around panting). So I want a breed that sheds its comb in autumn and grows it again in spring, haha...

Sneebsey · Aug 28, 2018

I'm blessed with a fairly temperate climate, but we had a little heat-wave July-August. The Leghorn hens did the best by far, completely unfazed by it, so @EggWalrus may have a point regarding the heat-shedding abilities of large combs.