Rusty The Red Headed Java Chick

Photo courtesy of The Kohls Children's Museum

Article written by Lynn Stiefel

A red-headed chick hatched at a Kohl Children's Museum exhibit in Glenview has farmers and scientists agog. The chick, born over the weekend, stood out from the mostly Black Java chicks that have been emerging in the museum's Eggs to Chicks exhibit, which March 16 started its 10th year.

The distinct rusty red tinge on this chick's head make him a rare Auburn Java. He or she was hatched over the weekend at the Kohl Children's Museum "Eggs to Chicks" exhibit. "I was giddy," Julie Adams, the museum's director of exhibits, said when she learned of the rare chick's appearance. There are only about 300 Auburn Javas in existence. The chicken breed actually went extinct in the 1870s, but the recessive trait for Auburns has remained dormant in the Black Java variety. For the exhibit, Kohl gets a shipment of about 15 eggs a week from Garfield Farms in LaFox, Ill. The farm is a national historic site that raises rare breeds of animals, including the Java Chicken. Most of us are familiar with the yellow chicks of the Babcock breed, which chicken farmers prefer because they are meatier and smaller than the Java kind.
Although Java chickens can be black, grey, yellow or white, museum officials had been told for years by Garfield Farms workers to watch for the rarer colors. They've been saying that there's the potential that you could get the Blue Java or the Auburn Java, but it's like winning the lottery," museum communications director Dave Judy said. "We've always had that hope for the recessive breeds." After "Rusty," as the chick has been dubbed, was hatched, Adams e-mailed a picture to Tim Christakos at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, who verified he or she was an Auburn Java. Both Christakos and Garfield Farms are on a mission to repopulate the Auburn Java, and the chick's existence can help. Rusty will remain on display at Kohl Children's Museum until April 19. Then Christakos will take possession. The rest of the museum's chicks will be placed with farms in Illinois and Wisconsin through the Chicago Region of Heifer International once they're old enough to leave the exhibit.