Have you ever thought of animals contesting for a pageantry just like Miss World, Miss Universe, Miss Africa, Miss Malaysia, Miss Nigeria? Well, in Malaysia, chickens contest for beauty pageants where an ultimate prize of $10,000 (about N5,000,000 in Nigeria) is being presented to the winner.
The chickens are judged in their appearance, confidence, style, wings, feathers, tail, colour and comb. Besides its looks, the chicken’s style and confidence also pose as a contributing factor to winning the title. Prizes for winning can be as high as $10,000.
Not only that, you can even sell their eggs at a high price!
The Chicken Beauty pageants feature the Ayam Serama breed of chicken, which is bred purely for ornamental purposes and is the smallest chicken in the world.
The Chicken Beauty Pageants originated from Kelantan in Malaysia and been around for decades.
“The pageants occur once a week in different rural Malaysian villages”, Ernest Goh, a Singaporean photographer who documented the pageantry said in his book.
Chicken beauty pageants take place every week all over Malaysia, and it has even spread to places like Indonesia, Thailand, and even the United States, Britain and France!
At the beauty pageants in Malaysia, breeders present their chickens one by one to a panel of judges. The judges inspect the chicken based on the chicken’s wings, feathers, tail, color, and comb.
One of the most important factors in determining a champion is the chicken’s “stance” or “spirit.” How the chicken walks, puffs out its chest, and struts is very important to the judges.
Seramas are very particular in that they tend to stand with their heads lifted toward the sky, their wings downward, and then strut. Goh says that many of the breeders describe them as “warriors” or “soldiers ready for battle.”
See photos of Chicken Beauty Pageants below;
