“The Malay Chicken is critically endangered. Viggo and I are still working on building a quality Malay flock. The true Malay is an elusive bird, and we’ve been sent on a few wild chicken chases trying to get good stock. There is no studbook, no pedigree information, in the poultry world. This means when you buy hatching eggs or day old chicks you wait, and wait, and wait, as the birds SLOWLY mature, to see what they will be. We’re optimistic that we’ll have quality stock and be able to sell hatching eggs and live birds soon.
UPDATE 9-10-2020 and UPDATE 5-5-2021
As a result of the difficulty of finding a truly inspiring and healthy Malay in the United States we have started the “M.I.G.H.T.“ Project.
“M.I.G.H.T.“ Project stands for:
Malay Invigoration Gene Hybridization Team.
This project will strive to invigorate and preserve the Malay breed while
also encouraging the preservation and heightening appreciation of the
majestic ancient Indian Asil (also spelled Aseel and Azeel)
breed that has over 500 variations. We at Cascadia Heritage Farm believe one of the variations of the Asil breed is the Malay type.
First goal of this project is to give back to the Malay what it has given
to the poultry world: Might/ Vigor.
Second goal is the preservation of ancient foundation breeds of Asil
such as the Indian Kulang, Turkish Hint, Afghani Kolangi etc…
Third goal is to preserve the best Malay stock we can find starting in this country and then hopefully import the best globally.
Fourth goal is to have a bird that can give back to future generations
the spark that will come from a treasure trove of genetic diversity
that the Mighty Malay will possess.
The fifth and possibly the most important goal to Cascadia Heritage
Farm is actively pursuing our values by appreciating the miracle of
existence. We believe that a collaborative effort to save such
important critically endangered heritage farm animals heightens
appreciation. We believe bearing witness to such majestic,
wonderful beasts encourages hope that kindles a spark that will take
flight, and that by saving them we save ourselves.
Our core approach to achieve the above goals is carefully and
thoughtfully hybridizing ancient foundation breeds of Asils to
preexisting Malay type birds including American/African/ Australian/ Europe Malays, Malgache, and Indo Gigante to bring back a healthier breed standard for the Malay.
What we are envisioning as a breed standard for the “M.I.G.H.T.“ Project
is a bird that is medication free, disease free, with tremendous
vigor (rewild), personable, highly intelligent, upright posture possessing the
classic three curves, with a large head crowned with an impressive
walnut comb, large short parrot like beak, a menacing brow, strong and
long bright yellow muscular legs, massive with an ancient appearance
of a bygone era. We are hoping to reach heights over 3 feet and weights over 15 lbs. We want to ignite people’s imaginations as they behold this terrible beauty as it eats your lunch from the dining room table.
The birds that are bred to the M.I.G.H.T. Project standard will be coined
“Mighty Malays” to avoid confusion with other Malays. We will
keep records of where the birds come from in our breeding program to
our best knowledge.
Our line of Mighty Malays here will be termed Cascadia Mighty Malays
and hope others will join us to create their own lines of Mighty
Malays. We are actively looking for others who would like to collaborate and help contribute to the M.I.G.H.T. Project.
Our first priority at Cascadia Heritage Farm is to work on our
infrastructure to house the breeding stock in a safe, clean, efficient, and healthy fashion.
We would like to have the ability to rotate birds easily from pen to pen so they can be clean and soils replanted. We have a pressure washer that
might be useful for this project. We would like to plant cereal rye
in their pen and in their runs to help process chickens waste.
We will start by first researching how best to organize their areas
over the coming months. Accessing the birds with easy feeding,
watering and cleaning are key goals for this project along with ample
space for them to stretch their legs and wings. We are targeting April 1st 2021, Fool’s Day, to start the actively obtaining and breeding for this
project. We will be researching and collaborating over the coming
months to take the first steps to begin organizing for the
M.I.G.H.T. Project.
Please reach out to us at Cascadia Heritage Farm if you would like to
get involved in the M.I.G.H.T. Project.”
UPDATE 5-5-2021
Surprisingly we did start a little before April 1st on breaking ground on the M.I.G.H.T Project breeding facility and started to acquire breeding pairs of Malays. This is a huge project for Cascadia Heritage Farm. We hope to share the progress of this project with whomever may be interested. The goal is to encourage hope and appreciation through this journey we at Cascadia Heritage Farm are on, but boy that is a tough task, wish us luck. We will be posting updates on this project under Breeding Program – Cascadia Heritage Farm.