Dark Aseel Chicken

The Dark Aseel Chicken is one of the more popular varieties of the Aseel or Asil chicken breed. The Aseel Chicken is an ancient breed that originated in India and was originally kept for cock fighting; now it is mostly kept as an ornamental breed, though some cross it with other chickens because of its strong muscular build.

The Aseel Chicken is a short and hard feathered chicken breed that sometimes has bare spots on the breast and back of the head. This broad shouldered bird has a thick build, with large bones, muscular legs, and an upright posture. The Asil Chicken is quite hardy with small combs and ear lobes. The hens are not known for their egg laying and will lay small numbers of medium tinted white eggs.

The Aseel Chicken can be an excellent and useful free range breed because of their hardiness and excellent mothering abilities. The Aseel Chicken also does well in confinement if not mixed with other male Aseels. Many find the Asil Chicken a superb breed to cross with other chicken breeds because of its strong and muscular legs, relatively high intelligence, and docile temperament, and the offspring when crossed make excellent meat birds, but because the Aseel is slower to mature than other breeds it doesn't make a great meat bird itself.

Dark Aseel

There are interesting stories originating in India involving many of the different varieties of the Aseel Chicken. The Wheaten Asil was called the "gold in value" because a cock was sold to a Rajah for its weight in gold. The Black Asil was called "cobra killer" because it was said that a hen would dispatch a cobra with ease. The Dark Aseel was called "sledge-hammer" because it is said to have broken a mans arm with one blow.