A chicken breed that is 100% black, from feathers to organs? Many of us don’t believe that this exotic creature exists. But it does, humans. It’s a rare and beautiful chicken breed of Indonesia named Ayam Cemani, referred to as the “Lamborghini of poultry.”
Ayam Cemani is black from the inside out, making it one of the most unique and mysterious breeds on the planet. This chicken has black feathers, black skin, black comb, black flesh, black organs, and black bones!
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Regarding the striking black appearance, this breed has a mutant fibromelanistic gene that causes the excessiveness of black pigment. And, this makes the skin and tissues black.
Despite its rare beauty, Ayam Cemani is a friendly bird that is easy to handle.
Ayam Cemani is a medium-sized bird. Roosters and hens weigh 4.5-6.5lb and 3.5-4.5lb respectively. The hens lay about 60 to 100 cream-colored eggs their first year. But they will stop laying for three to six months.
In Asia, Ayam Cemani is known as a symbol of wealth and social status. This spectacular chicken breed also has magical powers that are said to connect the living and the spirit world. It’s used as a sacrificial bird to please the gods.
Additionally, the charcoal-colored blood and other parts of the bird used to be added to traditional medicine preparations.
If the last section, we talked about two chicken breeds who are truly black, both from the inside as well as outside. If any chicken breed can lay black eggs, it should be them. But do they? Let’s find out what their eggs look like.
The Ayam Cemanis are said to lay black eggs. This, however, is not true. The eggs of the Ayam Cemani hens are creamy-white in color, occasionally acquiring a sky-blue tint. Each egg weighs about 45 grams. The Ayam Cemani’s egg-production capability can be considered fairly poor since they can lay about 80 eggs in a year.
Just like the Ayam Cemanis, the Kadaknath chickens don’t lay black eggs either. Instead, the color of their eggs is light brown with a pinkish tint to it. These chickens are better than their supposed siblings as far as their egg-laying capacity is concerned. A Kadaknath hen can lay about 120-130 eggs in a year.
Thus, we have proved that the myth of black chicken eggs is just that: a myth. In reality, there are no chicken breeds that can naturally lay black eggs. If any of you have ever seen a black chicken egg, it has probably been spray-painted or dyed to look like that.
Now that we are sure that chickens cannot lay black eggs, are you interested in knowing about any other bird who can lay black eggs? If you are, check out the next section.
Emu: the only bird that lays black eggs
Emu is the second-largest bird living on the planet, after its flightless relative, Ostrich. Native to Australia, these birds have soft feathers that can’t help them in flying.
They have long neck and legs that make them a great runner. The male Emus are hot-headed and fight among themselves quite frequently. Unlike other animals and birds, young emus are raised by their fathers and not their mothers.