07/17/2026
To start: I am very proud of our birds - especially the more I peruse websites and pages of Canadian breeders, observe Ayam Cemani in local auctions and advertisements on social media, and assess the quality of eggs shipped in. I am confident in what I advertise and sell, too. We have a long way to go to meet SOP, but we are making good progress and have fair quality to begin with.
A girlfriend - the one who originally got me into Ayam Cemani, actually - asked me a great question, last night:
She said, "are you going to cull the roos that you don’t need or sell them as off quality?"
I thought this question might make for a great post as it concerns what I do sell, how I cull, and AC quality available to us in Canada, and Saskatchewan, in particular.
Ayam Cemani are new to Canada. The first legal imports from the US were in 2014. Grade Eh Farms in BC I believe, say they imported from Indonesia that year, too. This means that quantity has been severely limited and with that, in my observation, quality has also suffered as a whole, where individuals have bred for numbers versus quality. Some of this is the result of well-intentioned folk simply procuring and breeding their dream bird, without consideration for SOP because they have no intention to show their birds (neither do I, at this time). Some of this is individuals taking advantage of a niche market of expensive birds and pushing out quantity without regard to quality. The end result is that it is very difficult to procure well-bred (and even purebred) Ayam Cemani, here, and that the market is saturated with poor quality birds with traits like feather bleeding, white toes, bad combs and type, mulberry, and even pink tongues and mouths.
As a secondary and related observation based on my experiences so far, breeders are frequently lacking transparency for this reason. I don't want to be that. I want my buyers to be able to see my birds and to read about them, and to know what they are buying and supporting.
Back to the original question and how we cull: in short, some birds go to freezer camp, some are sold, and the best quality remain here to further my own breeding program.
For further context: some breeders (in the US, at least) cull day-olds and do not sell eggs. They do this so that they do not risk adding sub-par birds to the market and breeding pool. They CAN do this, because they have a larger quantity of birds to work with, who are closer to the SOP (Standard of Perfection).
That's not us - yet.
I evaluate chicks as day olds and within the first week, I band them by colour, according to how I rate their quality. I also start making notes about these chicks, at this time.
Once they grow out of those bands, they are assessed again - at this time, approx when they get kicked outside and are mostly feathered out - and banded again, according to quality level. I colour band and also note the number on their band and jot down a few notes about that specific bird. So far usually, more chicks are downgraded vs upgraded.
Once (if) I have a surplus, I may sell the middle-of-the-road chicks at this point. These chicks are the same quality level I started with or am currently working with: I sell in packages (groups) and try to include some what I believe to be above-par chicks, with some mid-grade chicks, so that a person has a decent pool to pull from.
Hard culls are banded accordingly too, and are grown out for freezer camp.
Of the ones who remain here: because Ayam Cemani take a full year to mature and for their pigment to deepen, what remains needs to be re-evaluated the following year, for both pigment and type. The funny part about this, is hormonal flushing in spring can make culling mulberry in spring, challenging. So far, my own numbers have been strictly limited, so I have had to be less selective for type (including things like combs) than I would like. Still, we have some real nice hens and roosters (the latter, waiting in the wings) and have been producing real nice juveniles, so I am less worried in this capacity.
In the spring, any surplus roosters and maybe an off-spec hen or three, can be moved in packages. As with chick packages, I try to make sure a trio or group of roos provides a person with a fair level of quality. Of these, all were held back as above-par for myself, to begin with. I keep back a few extra back-up roos and recommend anyone else do the same.
This means that generally, the only adult birds we will have available will be in spring, and chicks will only be available in summer or fall.
All animals sold are close to the same quality I currently am working with and reflect genetics I have been working with all along. Anything less, goes in the freezer and is not sold.
I do not at this time believe in not selling eggs, for a variety of reasons, and although my birds have a long way to go yet to achieve SOP, I feel comfortable selling eggs to customers who wish to build their own programs like I am doing. As our flock quality improves as a whole, we will cull harder and be able to sell even higher quality. Effectively, what we sell is one generation down from what we are currently breeding, so as our main flock improves in quality, so does what we sell. In the meantime, the quality level we sell remains higher than what I have found or had shipped in so far (for far higher prices).
