Fully black chicken - Orayne’s feathery friends grab attention at agro fest

Despite the sweltering heat from the afternoon's sun, patrons at the St Mary Agricultural Show on Monday stood in cue in order to get a gaze into Orayne Graham's makeshift bird sanctuary.

It was not the first time that they were seeing birds, but there was at least one species that caught their attention and held them in awe. It was the Ayam Cemani -- a rare breed of chicken native to Indonesia.

Graham, a St Thomas native, who ventured to the Gray's Inn Sports Complex in Annotto Bay, St Mary, for the show, noted that this "is not a regular bird".

"The Ayam Cemani is not popular in Jamaica. Everything about that fowl is black. The meat is black, the liver, the kidney, everything in that fowl is black," Graham said.

The bones are also black, but hens lay cream-coloured eggs.

Graham, proprietor of Eastern Exotic Pets, a pet store on the outskirts of the capital city, said the black chicken easily grabs the attention of Jamaicans, some of whom are willing to pay big bucks to own a pair.

"People love exotic and unusual things, so they will go for it, no matter what the price is," Graham shared.

The St Thomas Technical alumnus shared that the bird is a delicacy in Indonesia but is bought as a pet in Jamaica. On Monday he sold a pair for $50,000. Graham said persons are warm to the idea of owning the rare bird. He said many persons buy them to entertain guests at their homes.

"More persons are getting into buying these birds because they are unusual. Everybody used to seeing a Macaw, everybody used to seeing an Amazon, everybody used to seeing a Budgie, but anuh everybody see a Ayam Cemani, and anuh everybody see a Chukar Partridge, and not everybody see a Ringneck Pheasant," Graham said.

NICHE MARKET

The pet enthusiast told THE STAR that he started his business five years ago when he realised that there was a high demand for Budgies at local pet stores. He soon discovered that there was a niche market for Ayam Cemani in Jamaica, and he wasted no time in importing the eggs. Those cream-coloured eggs eventually cracked and it marked the birth of his black chicken flock.

Meanwhile, birds were not the only animals that Graham had on display on Monday. Another of his eye-catching displays was the cuddly Flemish Giant Rabbit. The breed, which has grown increasingly popular in Jamaica, is often raised for meat.

"You get tired of chicken sometimes, don't it? You get tired of pork too right? Well, you have some people who will buy rabbit, for the rabbit meat," one of Graham's employees said.

"Look at the size of this rabbit, you looking at about eight to 10 pounds of meat from a rabbit that is about eight to 10 weeks old," he added.

"When you look at the meat, it look like chicken meat when you clean it up, it's just the bone that is different, but you can jerk it or curry it - anything you want. It is exotic meat that hotels buy, the Chinese buy it for meat."

As a pet, the Flemish Giant Rabbit goes at a price of $15,000 but as a protein source, it sells at a starting price of $1,500 per pound.

The 28-year-old Graham shared that farming, based on his practices, has been profitable and hinted that he has sights of expanding his rabbit farm as well as to provide employment for other young men who are also passionate about animals.

"I'm a farmer, I enjoy farming, I enjoy livestock. I enjoy being around my birds, it's like a peace of mind for me. Being at my farm and feeding my birds, it's a pleasure for me. It's just relaxing knowing that you have unusual stuff around you, that is not common to everybody. To go by my fish pond, watching my fish swim around, that is my enjoyment. Trust me, the love that I got today, I can't even explain," Graham said, the sheer joy evident on his face.