Backyard Poultry Forum

Inquisitive question.

I see the Malay breed being on top of the chain from most breeds…Taking a rough estimate possibly 80% of all other soft and hard feather breeds carry a degree of Malay blood, from layers to all the current meat breeds, Malay beats the use of all other jungle fowl by far..
Were would anyone start from to re-creating the Malay breed if they became extinct.. I know if I had the opportunity to use overseas breeds, without a doubt I would use wild Saipans and crossed those with a Kulang Aseel or an Iranian Lari…. if a Saipan jungle fowl from the wild is used and crossed with a true Lari strain I think the result would be close to being true Malay..

Using the current Australian breeds it be very limited, large Australian game carries lots of Malay genes, I would cross a male with an Indian game hen, I would use Indian for their facial genes and yellow legs.. I imagine the hardest to achieve would be their strawberry comb, slant eyes and their big cheekbone…When working with any of the Malanoids the golden rule is to always cull/correct for their head and facial genes first.

Edited to correct my spelling from “Lary” to “Lari ”

I'm with you there, hbhh: the malay had already evolved these traits before domestication. Why is it that no Bankiva breeds even come close to the Oriental's type, strength and proportions, even though they are/were subject to the same selective pressures in the pit, for as long if not longer than the Oriental? The Spanish game, regarded by many as the archetypal 'Bankiva', and perhaps the oldest lineage if fowl there is, remains more or less unchanged (in type) from the Persian and Roman gamefowl, and more or less unchanged from G. gallus. Why has it not developed an Oriental type when fought naked heel for millennia like the Oriental?
The Bankiva has not changed markedly in type since domestication. It seems possible that the Oriental remains more or less unchanged also.