9-4-20
3:43 pm Friday
I have had some great conversations with Neil, an Aseel / Malay enthusiast.
He has a dream of resurrecting the majesty of the Malay.
I share the same aspiration. This friendly collaboration has inspired an idea.
The idea is to encourage poultry enthusiasts to collaborate not only on
invigorating the Malay, but possibly more importantly on recognizing the
value of preserving the genetic diversity and majesty of the ancient and wildly diverse
Indian breed know as Aseel.
This collaboration is named the “M.I.H..GT.“ Project.
“M.I.G.H.T.“ Project stands for:
Malay Invigoration Gene Hybridization Team.
This project will strive to invigorate the Malay breed while
also encouraging the preservation and heightening appreciation of the
majestic ancient Indian Aseel (also spelled Asil and Azeel)
breed that has over 500 variations. One
of the variations of the Aseel breed is the Malay type.
First goal of this project is to give back to the Malay what it has given
to the poultry industry: Might/ Vigor.
Second goal is the preservation of ancient foundation breeds of Aseel
such as the Indian Kulang, Turkish Hint and Afghani Kolangi
Third 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 fourth 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 Aseel to
preexisting Malay type birds including American Malays and Brazilian
Indo Gigante to bring back a healthier breed standard for the Malay.
What we are envisioning as breed standard for the “M.I.G.H.T.“ Project
is a bird that is medication free, disease free, with tremendous
vigor, 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 want to ignite people’s imaginations as they behold
this terrible beauty as it eats your lunch from dining room table.
The birds that are bred through the M.I.G.H.T. Project will be coined
as “Mighty Malays” to avoid confusion with preexisting birds. 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,
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.
I am excited about this project, it seems to be in line with our values. We will see where it takes us.
I am thankful for this opportunity.