I get a lot of people linking to things on The Art of Doing Stuff Facebook page. Stuff they want me to see.
Most often it's either about potato chips, chickens, or pizza.
On rare occasions it's about something that doesn't have to do with food. I don't like those rare occasions. They make me itch.
Pizza can make you itch too but only if you eat it while sitting in a patch of poison ivy. Which would be worth it for even the worst piece of pizza.
So when Julie put up a chicken link on my Facebook page the other day I thought … Huh … a chicken link! Actually I said …. Huh! A chicken link! outloud and sprayed potato chips all over my computer.
What I opened up when I clicked on that link was a whole new world.
Allow me to introduce to you via Julie, via Geekologie ...
This photo is not Photoshopped. This is what the actual chicken looks like. Every single bit of it is black.
Everything.
This chicken's skin, bones and organs … are black.
You might think it's ugly. Horrifying even. A freak of nature. I love it.
The Ayam Cemani is a breed of chicken from Indonesia. And I want one.
Which is a shame because you can only buy them in pairs. And they're $5,000 per pair. Unless you do some REAL digging on the Internet in which case you can pick up a pair from Green Fire Farms for the low, low price of $1,999.
On the other hand a black Sharpie only costs a couple of bucks.
So. What do you think? The Ayam Cemani.
Breathtakingly Beautiful or Shockingly Scary?
Feral Turtle
Too cool and hauntingly beautiful! The perfect Halloween chicken!
Christy Cramer
Oh dear lord those chickens are so beautiful. They are so black they're blue. I'd keep a pair in a minute if I had the $$$.
Nancy Blue Moon
Beautiful and amazing Karen & Julie..I thought it was a statue..I just want some feathers..
Jess
Hahaha!!!! Wow! Both beautiful and scary!!! I'm blown away :-D With cream colored eggs you say, that would be one expensive omelet. Gorgeuse black color too ♥
Teddee Grace
It's gorgeous. Too bad they have to be eaten...not a vegan just leaning that way.
Amie
Gorgeous.
Wisconsingal
Gorgeous feathers, freaky meat. Maybe you wouldn't notice if you charred it all to bits - and who wants to eat that?
Stacey
Dang. Stunningly beautiful!!!
Lynn (really spelled w/ an "e", but somebody else already has that spelling on here)
Yes, what Lauren said: Goth! And, what I say: Beautiful! Also weird and strange, but nevertheless, gorgeous! I could never eat them, I would just want to parade around with them and show everyone that such a fine looking critter exists. Maybe take majestic photos of them and sell the prints. I think a black and white pic would be interesting too. Just imagine the depth you would see in a B/W photo.
I would love to get my hands on a couple of those smaller black iridescent feathers. I could make some way-cool dangling earrings!
Julia at Home on 129 Acres
Did you see that Greenfire has Swedish Black Hens too? They look basically the same as the Ayam Cemanis. They're a wee bit cheaper too... still not affordable though.
Jeannie
Black is one of my favorite colors and when I saw this chicken I was immediately in love! He is a striking fellow and I am bummed he costs so much. I am not in the market for a chicken at the moment but, in a few years, I hope to have a small farm in MT. Maybe the pirce will have gone down some by then, one can hope :)
jeanne
that is soooooo cool!
Sally
It is a beautiful bird, but is it a natural species or some kind of frankenchicken that has been genetically engineered to be black?
Nancy
Beautiful. Just think how much you could sell an Indian headdress with those iridescent feathers? And you could do a feature on making one. And show pics of the poop. Is it iridescent, too? Fodder, Karen.
Julie
Gasp! I'm famous!
:)
Liz
k wait, organs and bones are black... is the meat black? or the regular dark and white meat??
Ruth Vallejos
I believe in the whole chicken - dinosaur link. And of course there were black dragons, right? So this chicken was a little black dragon. Once upon a time.
Love that chicken!
Liz
so pretty... it looks like the evolution of an oil stain.
or maybe there was an oil spill in Indonesia, and the chickens got coated, and mother nature just had a lot of fun with it.
Sandra
Beautiful.
I bought a silky chicken once (at the store). Won't get another one (I was grossed out to find, when I opened the bag, that it still had its head on - ugh). But, thought it was cool that the bones were black. I still have the wishbone to show people.
Dagmar
Wow, these breeds really do look like weather vaines! I had to take a second look, to see if there a punch line coming on your end Karen- but none was delivered. So, I looked directly at "Whitey" (I felt that he/she needed a name) and realized chickens have some great eyes.
...Oh and BTW I have seen these on the TopChefCanada show, the contestants mentioned something about they having less fat
Brenda J. Moore
Still a chicken right... unless it can do something really outstanding?? Save your money.