We can’t decide whether this is the chicken you buy for your best friend or worst enemy. At any rate, the exotic Ayam Ketawa, with its maniacal laughing vocalizations, will leave an indelible impression on both.

Breed History

The Ayam Ketawa, or laughing chicken, was created in the South Sulawesi Province of Indonesia and is so revered in their native Indonesia that until recent times they could only be owned by the royal family. Their remarkable crowing –which sounds more like asylum than barnyard — is a cherished cultural touchstone in Indonesia, and each year a national award for superior crowing is awarded with much fanfare to the best Ayam Ketawa.

This breed belongs to a group of chickens known as longcrowers. The Ayam Ketawa is more unique than other longcrowers due to the vocalizations that resemble a human laugh.

Appearance and Behavior

In appearance, the birds tend to have the red-shouldered color pattern in black or white, but appearance is secondary in importance to the sounds the birds make. The hens normally weigh about 5 pounds at maturity and the roosters weigh about 7 pounds at maturity.

We have noticed that the hens do become broody. The hens aren't prolific layers and will normally lay about 180 eggs per year. This breed loves space and tends to be flighty. They are also very active foragers. The roosters do very well at a rooster-to-hen ratio of about 1:12.

Breed Standard

There isn't a standard for the breed, but you can read more about them here - https://web.archive.org/web/20140714133137/http://ditjennak.deptan.go.id/berita-341-bangga-dengan-ayam-gaga%EF%BF%BD.html.

Check Out That Laugh!



Notes

We imported Ayam Ketawa in 2019 from two different bloodlines. This was one of our more difficult imports because the USDA bans direct importation from Indonesia because of avian influenza in that region. But, by patiently working with Ayam Ketawa breeders, we were able to engineer a legal workaround that eventually allowed us to import this rare breed. Greenfire Farms is the only source of legally imported Ayam Ketawa in the United States.

Hatching Eggs

We incubate at 99.5F and 55% humidity. The Ketawa are great hatchers! For most hatches, we have 95% to 100% of the eggs hatch from the eggs we have placed into our hatcher. When hatching eggs from this breed, any chick color is acceptable. The most common color we see on hatch day is a brown chick with a chipmunk stripe down their back. But if you see chicks that are solid brown, or brown and gray don't worry! We recommend that you spend the time to check every chick's toes to confirm that there isn't a 5th toe. We haven't noticed chicks with 5 toes in the last 2 years, so we're thinking this has been bred out of our flock now. But we did observe it when our flock was newer to us.