Unusual chicken

BREEDING ‘PECULIAR’ FOWLS

When I retired from active journalism in 1992, I decided to buy a piece of land in Kidapawan City the following year and went back to farming.

I planted fruit trees, raised goats, ducks and bred chicken for meat and eggs and for competition.

As a goat raiser, I wanted to produce the best goats and it paid off when in 2005, my Boer buck, Rocky, and two of his offsprings were adjudged national champions by the National Goat and Sheep Congress of the Philippines.

I also bred dairy goats and my farm became the source of breeding materials for other goat breeders.

For a while, I also bred native pigs but I had to give them away because they roamed around the farm gobbling up every protein source including my free-ranged chicken.

Now, I am into a new hobby – breeding heritage chicken.

So far, I already have at least seven distinct lines of Heritage Chicken breeds – White Chinese Silkies, Asils, Cubans, Ayam Cemani, Jersey Giants, Ameraucanas and Brahmas.

I got the Cubans from my friend Rocky French of California, the Brahmas, Jersey Giants and Ayam Cemani from Benjie Gotoc of California and the Ameraucanas from April Howington.

The Asils and the White Chinese Silkies have been with me for sometime. The Silkies came from a farmer in Bulacan and from James Gaisano, a friend of President Rody Duterte.

All of these chicken breeds are a collector’s joy especially the Ameraucana which lays Blue Eggs.

For a farm boy like me, having them in the yard brings boundless joy.

(First photo shows the Brahmas distinctive for the feathers growing in their legs; second photo shows the white Jersey Giants; third photo shows the Ayam Cemani of Indonesia and the last photo shows the blue egg producer Ameraucana.)