Ayam Merawang: The Rhode Island descent from Bangka Island

The Merawang Chicken or Ayam Merawang is one of landrace chicken from Indonesia. Merawang is a district on Bangka-Belitung Province, Indonesia. It comes from Merawang district, Bangka Island. The scientist pretty sure the chicken is the Rhode Island Red descendent.  The history of the chicken began three hundred years ago. The Chinese tin miner brought the chicken to the Bangka Island.

The chicken farm like raise the chicken because it produces large meat and so much egg.  The hen can lays up to 165 eggs a year. The egg size is medium, weighs 38-45 gram. The pullet start laying at 5,5 month age. It is faster than famous chicken layer such as leghorn.  The color of the shell is brown. It is not good as the Rhode Island but it is better than other Indonesian chicken. The rooster is not heavy as the Rhode Island. Roster weigh 1,9 – 3,1 kilograms while hen weighs 1,35-2,35 kilogram.  The Merawang meat contains lower fat than other chicken. 

The Merawang quality is not good as the Rhode Island Red. I suppose that the decrease the quality of the genetics because of the inbreeding. The farmer raises the chicken at the free range so the chicken can mate with the family. The breeding between the families make the chicken become smaller.

I am sure the chicken will grow like the Rhode Island if the farmer raises it better. They breed the best Merawang with the best Merawang too. They should avoid inbreeding. The farmer also cross the bird with other chicken landrace that

The color is red like the Rhode Island Red and the edge of tail is black in color. The head is big, relative to its large body. The comb is single with 5-9 points like the single comb red Island. The skin is yellow and the shank is also yellow to. Merawang has not shank feather.

White egg laying chicken breed

There are various chicken egg shield color, such as, brown, white, blue and green. Most chicken lays brown eggs. If you want white eggs, you need to raise the certain chicken breed. Here are the chickens that lay white eggs:

White leghorn. The bird comes from Tuscany, Italy. It is a small variety of chicken. The roosters weigh 6 pounds and the hens weigh 4.5 pound. The hen can lay up to 300 eggs yearly. This breed is suitable for commercial farm. The chicken is white solid in color. It has mid size single comb with two witted and white earlobes. The feet are yellow in color.

Brown Leghorn. This is the sister of White Leghorn. Unlike the sister, it cannot produce eggs as many as the sister. The roster is red partridge in color; while, the hen is dark brown in color. The neck and saddle color is red orange. It has single comb with six points, double witted and white earlobes.

This is a light type chicken. The roosters weigh 6 lbs; while, the hens weigh 4.5 lbs.

Californian White

This is a big white layer. The California is the descendent of White Leghorn and California Grey rosters. The Roosters weigh 7 lbs and then hens weigh 5.5 lbs. The performance is almost similar to leghorn. It has comb single with six points, double witted and white earlobes.

Buff Catalans

The bird origin is Catalan, near Barcelona, Spain. It is also called as Catalana, or Catalana del Prat Leonada, or just Prat. This breed is dual purpose chicken. The bird is black tail buff in color. This is a Mediterranean chicken breed that lays white eggs. It has clean shanks and comb middle single with six points.

Like other layer hen, the hens are unlikely to go broody. Therefore, you cannot use this chicken to hatch eggs.

Sumatra Black

Sumatra Black is a chicken breed from Sumatra, Indonesia. Although the chicken is black in color, the chicken lays white eggs. Unfortunately, the hen lays few eggs. This chicken is not suitable for commercial. It is black-greenish in color. The rooster has long feather tail.

Cemani Chicken

This bird origin is Java, Indonesia. Indonesian people call it "Ayam Cemani". It lays white eggs too. The hen can lay up to 250 eggs in a year. Unfortunately, this bird is very rare. Only few people care this bird. It is because the chicken has dark meat.

Norfolk Grey : The Rare Chicken Breed from English

Norfolk Grey is a chicken breed from United Kingdom. The breed was created at the time of the world war by Fred Myhill. The bird was called Black Maria due its black feather color.
The chicken is heavy enough. A rooster weighs 6-7 pounds while the female weighs 5-6 pounds. The Chicken is beautiful with the silver plumage. Either Roosters or hen has silver feather in neck. Surely the Rooster has shimmering color. The Silver feather of rooster is also in its shoulder, back, and saddle. The color of the rooster is silver duckwing. The small chicken has not yet had the silver color or birchen. It just has black soft feather.
No one sure the ancestor about this breed but Wikipedia say that the chicken is the descendant of birchen English Game and Partridge Wyandotte.
The Grey is good to produce meat and carcass due it is also the descendant of game fowl. Surely, this leghorn descendant also lays so many eggs. Unfortunately, I have no reference the egg production of the hens. This chicken population is rare. Only few farmers raise the chicken
This chicken breed is also good for backyard. It is a good forager that can eat the weed and grass in backyard. There is also bantam version of the chicken with one color variation only.
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American Game Fowl
Redcap Derbyshire

Java Super Chicken

As underdeveloped country, Indonesia is left behind United States or United Kingdom that have breed so many chicken breed. Indonesia has so many chicken landrace that is not efficient for poultry farm. The hen just produce 90-150 eggs in a year. It is far from commercial chicken layer such as White Leghorn or Rhode Island Red.
To overcome the problem, some breeder cross RIR, White leghorn, and Java Chicken. The Java chicken is different with Java America that has black color. The Java Chicken is higher than the RIR and white leghorn.

First, the breeder cross the Java Rooster with white leghorn hen to produce female parents. to produce the male parents, the breeders cross Rhode Island roosters with Java female. Then the breeder cross the female parent with male parent that produce Java Super. The performance of Java Super is not different with Java Chicken but the Super has fat body.
This is chicken is better than the Indonesia landrace but I doubt the chicken can reach the white leghorn or Rhode Island egg production.
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New Hampshire Chicken
Orpington Chicken

Ancona : A good white egg layer chicken

Ancona chicken is a famous chicken in United States. It domesticated at Ancona, Italy. This Mediterranean bird is a game bird, or ornamental bird. Like their brother in Italy, Leghorn, this bird is slim. Both Ancona and leghorn has same ancestors. It has closely feather. The bird has been imported to England in mid 19th century. US people called the bird as mottled leghorn because they did not know Ancona.

The color of bird is black dark. Some bird has mottled black color. It has a red single comb, while the cock has bigger than the female. There is a white spot behind the ear or earlobes. Some Ancona has rose comb.

Ancona male is 6.6 lbs in weight; while, the male is 4.5 lbs. The bantam is smaller. Ancona bantam cock is 26 oz; while, the hen is 22 0z.

The shank and feet is black in color and featherless. The toe of the breed is four like most chicken (three in front and one in back). The cock has long flowing tail.

This bird is prolific chicken too. The hen can lay 150 - 190 eggs a year. The eggs is white color. Some hen also lay hint color eggs. This is the good layer that can still lay in the winter.You can consider this bird as layer.

Leghorn profile

The bird is originated at Tuscany, Central Italian. But some country such as United States, Denmark and Britain developed this strain well.This chicken is famous breed in the world as commercial farm layer. It is imported to United States in 18th century. American Poultry Association (APA) recognized this strain.

They have color variation like white, red, black red tail, grey, partridge, red, columbian, golden duckwing, and so on. The most layer is white leghorn. The skin, the beak, and the shank is yellow in color. Few leghorn has rose comb.

It is 3-4 pounds in weight. The body is slim so this bird is not viable for meat. Leghorn is viable layer strain. The hen can lay up to 280 eggs in a year which is lower than New Hampshire red. They lay white eggs.The hen also has not broodiness ability. Therefore, you cannot use the chicken to hatch the eggs.