Mighty Malay Chicken, Removing Spurs, a Hot Potato, and Mother
As we continue refining our chicken breeding program, we are learning that good animal husbandry sometimes means trying something entirely new. Recently, Viggo and I removed the extremely long spurs from one of our Mighty Malay roosters, a first for both of us.
Our goal is to breed this rooster, but we were concerned that his long, sharp spurs could accidentally injure the hens. After boiling a potato, Viggo carefully held the rooster while we placed the heated potato over one of the spurs. My mother watched through the kitchen back door as we worked, making this an educational experience for three generations of our family.
It took several attempts, but eventually the outer spur sheath released and came off. We then cleaned the newly exposed tissue and applied triple antibiotic cream. It was fascinating to see the process work and to learn more about caring for these remarkable birds.
This work is part of our long term effort we call the MIGHT Project, Malay Invigoration Gene Hybridization Team. It is a father and son project and continues to guide how we think about balancing strength, health, and traditional breed characteristics in our chickens.
Our goal is not simply to produce striking show birds. We want our Malays to remain healthy, vigorous, functional chickens that can thrive outdoors and live more naturally. Because Malays are among the rarest traditional chicken breeds, their limited genetic pool can create challenges associated with inbreeding. We hope to address this by carefully out-crossing selected Malays with hardy Asil chickens and then line-breeding future generations to preserve the classic Malay traits we value.
This past summer, we have really focused on out-crossing our Malays to our Asils in an effort to add the health, vigor, and resilience that the Asil breed has to offer. We look forward to sharing updates on that work shortly.
The Malay has not been an easy chicken to raise and breed, but we are learning a great deal about breeding and animal husbandry. What makes it all worthwhile is sharing these experiences with my son and, occasionally, with my mother watching through the kitchen door. ❤️