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Uses: Originally cock fighting and for meat, now mailly specialist ornamental / showing
Eggs: 80 - 100 white or tinted eggs per year. Origin: Asia
Weight: From 0.5 Kg (Nankin Bantam) to 5Kg (Malay).
Colours: Mainly Light and Dark Red / Black but some White, Spangled and Pile.
Useful to know: A gap between primary and secondary feathers (known as split wing) is often acceptable when showing Hard Feather breeds. Hard feather birds plumage should not be washed before showing or it will be spoilt. Many of these breeds have an in-bred desire to fight.
Photo: Not yet sorry!
The Asian Hardfeather category includes breeds like Asil (or Aseel in the US), Nankin-Shamo Bantam, Belgian Game, Malay,Rumpless Game, Ko-Shamo Bantam, Tuzo, Shamo, and Yamato-Gunkei. We have grouped them together until we have more articles and photos when we will split them out into individual sections.
Hard Feather birds are the game varieties together with Asian Hard Feather birds. Hard Feathered birds are named because their feathering is very tight and they often don't have a great deal of feathers, especially around the neck area. The Malay is the tallest breed of chicken and can reach up to 90cm tall whilst the Ko Shamo has neck hackles that end before the bottom of the neck and there is bare skin on the breast. The Asil (that originated in Inda) is the oldest known of the Asian Hard Feather. These are powerful, muscular birds that were purposefully bred for cock-fighting. A serious defect in the UK Poultry Standard is 'Lack of attitude'.
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