Malgache - Gamefowl from Madagascar


In the years 1981 and 1984 I was invited to my dear french gamefowl-friend Louis Gerard Faure to his hometown Vergeze (near Nimes) to spend two vacations (one with my whole family). Does one know of Vergeze? Vergeze is the small town, where the world finest mineral water comes from: The source Perrier. That source was only 1 km distance from his chicken yard. He was working at Perrier in the office.

Gerard came originally from Madagascar, descending from black people, mixed with German and French people. So he was multicultured by nature and very friendly to us. The German, English and French coloninized the Isle Madagascar 100 to 50 years ago. His family was living there and he spent his childhood in the rain forest with his almost black friends. Their hobby was cockfighting with that naked necked Malaytype, in Madagascar and France called: Cou Nu de Madagascar.

When he was grown up, the judges at the pit took Gerard as an assistant, he was able to learn all about the fowl and the sport from the specialists visiting at one big place there.

People (mostly very poor) bred their Malgache only in a so-called rudimentaire = half-wild manner. The chickens were belonging to the little villages or less number of huts. All families, who had leftovers of their meal, gave it to the free running pigs and gamefowl. Most of the men did not want to work too much, so they had much time to spend with the roosters to give them training for the next fight. Each day it was too warm, to work with their upgrown favorites, so they were very clever: The roosters had to do their training as follows: People would hang up a big (very cheap) Zebuliver 1.20 meter distanced from ground. So each chicken, even young ones or hens, has to jump each time, to bite a small piece from the liver or fetch one of the hundreds of insects, sitting on it. Roosters, always taller as the other chicks, were always so nice, to give liverpieces to the other smaller ones. The owners, were always sitting in the shadow, only watching to the permanent jumping. After some time (several weeks) of constantly liver-jumping, the roosters got the perfect jumping-technique with body building outfit in hard muscles in shanks and breast. Also they found out, how to hit their beaks with power into the fine livermeal. This perfect training (without working of the human owners) allowed the Malagache males at fight time in the pit (called Gallodrome), to defend with their hard muscles and leather-like skin, to jump against the enemy and hit his beak with enormous power into his head or body, to fetch some flesh out in some cases. Gerard told me about some brutal Malgache, he saw! Otherwise they are always very friendly to their hens or little chicks, and to humans. Often the rooster took one, two or even three of his children, under his plumage, to warm them in the colder nights there. He was leading them by daytime like the hens do. The Malagache are famous, to adopt small chicks, some times they have different ages of chicks to worry about. The rooster or brood hens are defending their family with their lifes. Unfortunately the white people from the colonialization (Empire a.s.o.) saw the fine appearance in getting up each generation of chicks in the wilderness, so they gave the brood hens eggs from Bresse, Sussex, Wyandottes and other European races. They wanted, to get more influence in production from meat and eggs, to help the poor people with more food, produced by better animals as the Malgache Gamefowl was used to give: Mostly the Malgachetype lays only 20 to 30 eggs, to breed shortly after that laying period. Even the males didn´t want to copulate in the time of growing-up their chicks. Instinctly they decided, to teach their children all of the knowledge of living in the dangerous wilderness.

After incrossing of those strange races, the mixed ones were better in laying big brown eggs and getting weights 3 to 5.5 kg males and 2-3 kg in females. The quality of fight was worse after that and the black people did not recognize that case early enough, to change the order of mixing that fine gamefowl. Now days only very few are rather original in distanced small villages.

That naked necked Gamefowl is malaioid, brown or yellow people brought them with themselves as house animals 10,000 years agao in small pirogues (Katamaran-like sailing-canus) from Asia (Subcontinent with Isles-Archipel) the east coast of Africa along and to the very big island Madagascar and some smaller islands in the neighborhood. Now days people, who are traveling to the east coast of Africa for vacation or work, can see the naked necked gamefowl at the huts of the black people over there, more or less mixed with other agricultural chicken races or laying-hybrids.

I think, some readers will develop the desire, to own that most interesting race. The best quality will exist in Vietnam to this time, as some authors will know.

For information: In the old gamefowl book Gamefowl all over the World, written by Dr. Finsterbusch/Chile a fine article will be found about Malgache.


Malgache Standard
The naked necked Gamefowl in Malayoid Style

Type: Malayoid
Carriage: Upright; tall Size: male: 65 to 75 cm, hen: 45 to 55 cm
Hard and short Feathering
Skin like leather, red colored
At front of neck a Tie is shown of some feathers
Head: long to medium size
Sharp long Beak like a crow
Long curved Wattles
Eyecolor bright to red
Feathering of front eyebow is naked
Small Peacomb or walnut- or strawberrycomb
Tame to human, angry to strange males
Very good Broodhens with adopting-chicken-character
Egg production: 20 to 55 eggs/year, Weights: 45 to 65 g
Color of eggs creamy to brown, thick shell
Colors of Plumage: wheaten, black, partridge, pheasant-brown, cuckoo, darkred to lightred, white
Naked Zones: half front of head, neck, crop, sides, ellbows, back with parts of belly. Feathering only in so called `corridors´, remainder skinzones always naked, underside of wings naked, so innersides of shanks
Taste of meat:Very good
Taste of eggs: Excellent
Descended from Subcontinent Asia and the island archipel 10,000 years ago by brown and yellow immigrants to island of Madagascar, the islands around and the whole east coast of Africa in Katamaran-like sailing boats. The language in Madagascar is somewhat related to Natives in Asia.

Werner Lamkemeyer

Malgache Photos



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