I was reading on the Ayam Cemani forum here and one thing that bothered me is that now, people are breeding them so much more easily that a few years ago but the chance of getting a non-pure bred is so much higher than before. I will stick to the basic chicken especially since I am in it for the eggs. But theyare beautiful...The chicken you are referring to are called Ayam Cemani. They are from Indonesia. The reason they are so expensive is that importing birds from Indonesia is currently banned. Technically you could import the birds to Europe and then import them into USDA quarantine. The costs for doing that would exceed $5000 per chicken. Add to that you must pay per day during the mandatory quarantine time plus all the vet bills, permit fees, etc. So you would easily spend $5000 per chicken to import it.
The other issue with Ayam Cemani is that they only produce around 60 eggs per year. So even with the ones that are legally imported, there are just so few chicks born. The birds are not being purchased by the rich suburban keepers. They are being purchase by people hoping to cash in the on the high prices. That is artificially driving the prices up. Give it time and just like the Silkies, the prices will go down. Silkies can be purchased for $5 each here in Maryland. They have actually become as common as Rhode Island Reds here.