Asil (chicken)

The Asil or Aseel is a breed of chicken originating from South Punjab / Sindh area of Pakistan and India. Fowl are found throughout Southeast Asia, such as Shamo and Thai Game. The breed is generally unstandardised in South Asia and India, but popularity has increased in the western world in recent times with the breed standardised in the British, Australian and American standards.

Asils were first used for cock fighting and may be considered fighting cocks. Aseel is noted for its pugnacity. The chicks often fight when they are just a few weeks old and mature roosters will fight to the death. Hens can also be very aggressive towards each other.

Towards humans Asil are generally very tame and trusting. There are anecdotes where they have come to their keepers for other things than food, for example to get the keeper to open the door to the coop so they can get to roost.

The hens are not good layers, but are excellent sitters. Laying depends on the Asil variety, the small Asil are known to be very poor layers, sometimes laying just 6 eggs a year, whereas larger Asil can lay around 40 eggs a year.

In the U.S., the breed is on the "Watchlist" (2012), by . The Aseel breed is found in almost all states of India, but abundant in Andhra Pradesh.

There are many varieties of Asil, some are standardized for shows such as the Reza Asil in the UK, some are simply named after the area where they are bred such as the Mianwali Asil from Pakistan or the colour, red/wheaten Asil are generally known as "Sonatol".

There are also hen-feathered Asil knows as "Madaroo" these are found in various colours, but the cocks come with feathers in hen colour, don't have sickle feathers in the tails and miss the large hanging feathers on the saddle. This variety is very rare.

Asil with feather beards under their beaks known as "muffed" and with tufts on the top of their heads known as "tasseled" are also seen, but are very rare especially outside India/Pakistan.

Bhaingam Asil variety have a large single comb but confirm to all the other Asil standards.

Broadly speaking, Asil in Europe are categorized and shown under these three types:

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Wikipedia