The Giri Raja Chicken

Welfare groups have been saying for years that modern farming should give up the use of finely-tuned specialist chickens, split into meat and egg producing flocks, just as they should move away from high-yielding Holstein dairy cows and massive Belgian Blue beef cattle and go instead for hardier, dual-purpose animals, which produce both meat and eggs/milk. Now the Veterinary College in Bangalore has come up with one such solution, the Forest King or Giri Raja. This is a magnificent looking chicken which has been bred to be dual-purpose. It thrives on a scavenging diet, grows to a good weight and the females are useful egg producers. It is totally unsuitable for the hot-house conditions of the factory farm.