Ex-situ exploration of cemani chicken in Balai Penelitian Ternak (Balitnak), Bogor-West Java

Cemani chicken is the rarest chicken in the world and generally in Indonesia is associated with medication and ritual ceremonies. The purpose of the research to determine the performance of cemani chickens that are kept outside their habitat. A total of 20 hens kept in litter cages was observed in the exploration. The hens were given commercial feed and drinking water was given ad libitum. The observed variable were hen day production (%), first egg weight (g), egg quality, and growth (g). All data obtained were analyzed descriptively. The results showed that hen day production (%) during 6 months of production increased, from 14.96% at the beginning of production to 48.97%. The first egg weight was 31.31 ± 1.43 g with the egg quality is almost the same as the quality of other local/native chicken eggs. The average body weight of DOC was 25.13 g/head, 8 weeks 839.94 g/head (♂) and 759.98 g/head (♀), and 20 weeks 1537.29 g/head (♂) and 1455.18 g/head (♀). The observed from the data obtained, the performance of cemani chicken in Balitnak showed hen day production, first egg weight, and DOC weight was slightly lower, but for 20-weeks bodyweight, growth was relatively higher.