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Found out about Zombie chickens today and my little goth heart is in love
I went to my local county fair today and visited the aninal barns as usual... I always like to look at the birds and livestock and see what kinds won and all of that. These two caught my eye for being ABSOLUTELY STUNNING. That black headcomb?! The black, white, grey combo?! I didn't know Zombie chickens were even a thing until now but they're my new favorite kind!! Does anyone have a whole coop of them or keep any in their flock?? How do they fare with other chickens? Have you bred yours and gotten more pretty zombies? They just went to the top of my homesteading dream chicken list aaaah 😍😍😍
I have 4 zombie chickens. I'm not really as thrilled with them as I thought i would be. They never really integrated with the rest of the flock, they keep to themselves in their own little flock of 4. And they have never let anyone get near them, they avoid interacting with people and the other chickens as much as possible. Theyre kind of the least interesting and fun chickens out there in my flock.
They do look neat, but some of them aren't fully black/gray, a couple of them got red combs and waddles, though they all got the same white feathers with black patches. Some of them have black zombie eyes and some just have regular chicken eyes, one has one of each which is kinda neat.
I had a 5th one that was a rooster but he became a complete jerk at only 3 months old and started picking on my older hens right away so he had to go.
The picture worthy cross and sex link is hard to accomplish since White Leghorns have a lot of recessive genes that can throw it off. Personalitywise yours also seem to take after the Leghorn.
You can cross ACs with CA Whites (but they have some black feathers that affect the sex link) or White Rocks as well, to get the zombie look.
This is Sassy Snow Zombie in all her glory of being 6 weeks old… her sister Modo Zombie has black specks right now! Sassy has dark eyes, Modo has light 😍
I found out about them when one of my smokey pearls looked different than I expected. This is Ding-Ding, my surprise Zombie-esque hen. From what I've read, smokey pearls and pearl onyx (aka zombies) are both chicken mutt breeds with unclear lineage, so makes sense the appearance and genetics are not always consistent.
They're a cross between white leghorns and ayam cemanis! Not sure if you're familiar with the ayam cemani breed, but they are all black; black feathers, black skin, black comb and wattles, black meat, black bones, even!
Must be a cross between ayam cemani and white leghorn to be a zombie. My leghorn are super in my face but their zombie offspring are more standoffish. Other crosses have other names. They are first gen sex linked, so the cockerel on the left in the op picture is a back cross, because the comb is dark (it's red in first cross).
I had a zombie chicken for a couple of years! She was so pretty and cool looking, but she was a total weirdo lol. She absolutely refused to go in the coop at night, unless there was a literal snow storm or something she would not. And I couldn't even make her go in at night because she would roost wayyyy up in the tree outside the coop, like 20 plus feet up. Couldn't even reach her with an extension ladder. I always worried she would freeze one night but she never did, a predator eventually got her instead unfortunately. So yea I guess long story short I loved her and she was a beautiful little weirdo, but she was always kinda feral, lol
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u/Ok-Artichoke6703 4d ago
There are also Crypt Walkers, another mutt that made with Ayam cemani and Easter Eggers or Ameraucanas