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Extremely rare Black Java roosters - $25 (Priest River)
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I drove to Ohio last May to pick up these chickens so they are less than one year old.
Black Javas are known for being calm, hardy, excellent foragers, and being great broody mothers. Our roosters often build nests in the evening for the hens with chicks. Something I have never seen in 30 years as a flockster.
They are cold hardy and are excellent free-range foragers.
Their most striking feature is their deep black plumage with a brilliant beetle-green sheen, especially noticeable in sunlight.
https://livestockconservancy.org/java-chicken/
Since Covid, these chickens have been extremely difficult to source. Garfield Farms and Museum of Science in Chicago stopped breeding them entirely during Covid and only recently received new chicks from the same source where I received mine.
There are two strains of Black Javas in the US. The original strain is the Urch breed brought into the US by Duane Urch in the 1990s.
Garfield Farms got theirs from Urch but they eventually turned into their own strain of Black Javas. It was this strain where a regressive Auburn color was discovered which led to the discovery of the Black Java as one of the parents of the Rhode Island Red.
These roosters are from the Urch line and are larger and heavier than the Garfield Farm line (which is now extinct).