Ayam Cemani's: Questions About The U.S.'s Most Expensive Chicken

[massoumicyrus]

Hello,

I'm considering buying some Ayam Cemani's. Originally I thought to buy less "exotic" chicken just for a DIY thing to do around the ranch, but since I came across these I'm left with quite a few questions and I was hoping for answers from the -experts-?

Greenfire Farms is the only place I have found that sells Ayam's and they are $2,500 each.
1. Is there a place to buy Ayam's cheaper (Being a normal U.S. resident without any special certifications)
2. How quickly can the Ayam's breed, let's say I buy 3 hens and 1 rooster, how quickly could I theoretically make an "Ayam Farm" of sorts
3. Do you foresee the price of these dropping vastly now that they are in the states and breeding will happen, or will the price remain relatively stable? (Not dropping below $500 a bird)
4. Could you cross-breed the Ayam Cemani with the Swedish Flower Hen to create a new breed of all black chicken?
***5. I was under the impression that this breed was only recently imported to the United States for the first time. Is this inaccurate? After some search of BYC, info suggests that there are a variety of breeders, if there are, why is the price still so high?

Best,
CM

 

[JMarch]

I've seen hatching eggs on ebay-

 

[Michael OShay]

Watson Ridge Ranch in Texas sells Ayan Cemanis, but I have no idea what they cost or when they will have them in stock. You can contact them at http://watsonridgeranch.webs.com/

 

[dheltzel]

You can spend hours reading about this breed on this site, and you should before you consider buying any. Will you be able to make a profit from them? Maybe, but what if your roo dies or something else bad happens? It's a big risk, and I would only advise people to buy these if they can lose thousands of dollars overnight and not be bothered by it (and there are people like that, I just don't know anyone personally).

GF is not the only supplier of these, they have been in the US for years, just closely held by the breeders and not widely sold. I expect that will change because the people buying these now are going to try to get some of their investment back. It's pure speculation about what the prices will be like in a year or 2. Depends on supply and demand and you have about as much chance of knowing that as knowing the price of Apple stock in a year. It's all a gamble, make sure you're ok losing the money before you place a bet.

 

[arulnathan]

You can check the alternative of "Ayam Cemani" the "Kadaknath" Chicken which are much cheaper.

The birds are completely black: black plumage with a greenish shine, black legs and toe nails, black beak and tongue, black comb and wattles, black meat and bones and even dark organs.

Check the info here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kadaknath

Link here:
http://fancychickens.weebly.com/kadaknath.html

 

[tridentk9]

You can spend hours reading about this breed on this site, and you should before you consider buying any. Will you be able to make a profit from them? Maybe, but what if your roo dies or something else bad happens? It's a big risk, and I would only advise people to buy these if they can lose thousands of dollars overnight and not be bothered by it (and there are people like that, I just don't know anyone personally).

Well there is the old saying: How do you make a small fortune in dogs/horses/whatever?

Start with a large fortune.

 

[DCchicken]

Hello,

I'm considering buying some Ayam Cemani's. Originally I thought to buy less "exotic" chicken just for a DIY thing to do around the ranch, but since I came across these I'm left with quite a few questions and I was hoping for answers from the -experts-?

Greenfire Farms is the only place I have found that sells Ayam's and they are $2,500 each.
1. Is there a place to buy Ayam's cheaper (Being a normal U.S. resident without any special certifications)
2. How quickly can the Ayam's breed, let's say I buy 3 hens and 1 rooster, how quickly could I theoretically make an "Ayam Farm" of sorts
3. Do you foresee the price of these dropping vastly now that they are in the states and breeding will happen, or will the price remain relatively stable? (Not dropping below $500 a bird)
4. Could you cross-breed the Ayam Cemani with the Swedish Flower Hen to create a new breed of all black chicken?
***5. I was under the impression that this breed was only recently imported to the United States for the first time. Is this inaccurate? After some search of BYC, info suggests that there are a variety of breeders, if there are, why is the price still so high?

Best,
CM

1. There are several Ayam Cemani breeders in the U.S. Most of us know each other. So if one of us does not have any pairs for sale, they may be able to put you in touch with some breeder that does have them available at the moment.
2. The pullets will start laying in about 5 months. However, it is not that easy. This is not like any other breed. You should be prepared to breed for several generations with culling sometimes all but a few of each batch. People will only buy the perfect ones. They must have black mouths, black combs, black tongues, black skin, black vent, black under the wing, black feet, black toenails. That is difficult to do. You will need to build lots of pens and grow out lots of birds to have even just a few perfect ones. So don't expect to make money selling this breed. Most people will not.
3. No for reasons above. They don't lay like Leghorns. I think Greenfire said they get between 60-90 eggs for their lines.
4. It does not work that way. If you cross out, the skin will not be black. There is a lot of genetics involved. It is what makes them so expensive and difficult to breed.
5. The price is high because demand is high and the breed is difficult and expensive to breed. And yes there are a lot of Ayam Cemani breeders in the country. Most of the breeders know each other. We hope to work together to improve the breed. The price will come down a little but for reasons stated before, it is not going to come down for many years to come.

 

[DCchicken]

You can check the alternative of "Ayam Cemani" the "Kadaknath" Chicken which are much cheaper.

The birds are completely black: black plumage with a greenish shine, black legs and toe nails, black beak and tongue, black comb and wattles, black meat and bones and even dark organs.

Check the info here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kadaknath

Link here:
http://fancychickens.weebly.com/kadaknath.html

Unfortunately chickens cannot be imported to the U.S. from India right now. There is a ban in place by the USDA. So the Kadaknath will remain in India for now.

 

[DCchicken]

Well there is the old saying: How do you make a small fortune in dogs/horses/whatever?

Start with a large fortune.

You also need knowledge of genetics with this breed. This is not like breeding other chicken breeds which are based upon appearance and not the underlying genes. In fact, each line of Ayam Cemani looks different because the focus is on the effects of the FM gene, not necessarily the shape of the back or tail.

 

[tridentk9]

Unfortunately chickens cannot be imported to the U.S. from India right now.  There is a ban in place by the USDA.  So the Kadaknath will remain in India for now.

I read an article last week that said CDC, the Center for Disease Control, no longer had a ban on importing chickens from Malaysia, etc. Woopie, I thought. More access to rare birds. Sigh, thought that too soon. Further on it said- but USDA still has a ban so nothing has changed.