Developing My Own Breed Of Large Gamefowl For Free Range Survival (Junglefowl x Liege)

[Florida Bullfrog]

 

[SunflowerKing]

Excellent video! Does indo eat grains and berries and leafy greens still? My whole plan is to create a food forest so I can feed my chickens constantly and for free.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Excellent video! Does indo eat grains and berries and leafy greens still? My whole plan is to create a food forest so I can feed my chickens constantly and for free.

He does. He’ll take grain based feeds when I throw it out in the mornings and he browses all around the farm yard.

He has an interesting quirk where he freaks out if I pick oregano from the oregano patch. Its the closest thing he gets to being aggressive with me. Even so he doesn’t attack me. He just snaps to attention and comes to me and jumps up to being level with me. First time I did it he pecked my arm lightly and I scolded him. He hasn’t pecked me again but he clearly spazzes when I break off oregano stems. The impression I have is that on an instinctual level he knows the patch is important to the flock and is protective of it accordingly.

 

[SunflowerKing]

He does. He’ll take grain based feeds when I throw it out in the mornings and he browses all around the farm yard.

He has an interesting quirk where he freaks out if I pick oregano from the oregano patch. Its the closest thing he gets to being aggressive with me. Even so he doesn’t attack me. He just snaps to attention and comes to me and jumps up to being level with me. First time I did it he pecked my arm lightly and I scolded him. He hasn’t pecked me again but he clearly spazzes when I break off oregano stems. The impression I have is that on an instinctual level he knows the patch is important to the flock and is protective of it accordingly.

Excellent. With your chickens and my planned chicken habitat I am certain my family wont starve! Do you think the chickens will eat sweet potatos? I plan to grow a bunch of them and squash for my family also.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Excellent. With your chickens and my planned chicken habitat I am certain my family wont starve! Do you think the chickens will eat sweet potatos? I plan to grow a bunch of them and squash for my family also.

Yes. I grow sweat potatoes in permanent beds around my house. All of my poultry will eat the vines. In some of the beds the vines grow faster than the birds eat them, but in one bed in particular they’ll ignore the bed for weeks then decimate the vines in a few days.

If a tuber ends up near the surface some of the birds will dig them. Jon Jon, the American gamefowl that the eagle killed, learned to dig them in one of the beds.

 

[SunflowerKing]

Excellent. With your chickens and my planned chicken habitat I am certain my family wont starve! Do you think the chickens will eat sweet potatos? I plan to grow a bunch of them and squash for my family also.

Yes. I grow sweat potatoes in permanent beds around my house. All of my poultry will eat the vines. In some of the beds the vines grow faster than the birds eat them, but in one bed in particular they’ll ignore the bed for weeks then decimate the vines in a few days.

If a tuber ends up near the surface some of the birds will dig them. Jon Jon, the American gamefowl that the eagle killed, learned to dig them in one of the beds.

Thanks for the info! How many chickens per acre do you estimate could be fed almost completely on free range? Imagine a highly productive food forest complete with bugs, berries, fruits, nuts, and herbaceous plants. I just want a guesstimate based on your experience. Thanks Bullfrog

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Thanks for the info! How many chickens per acre do you estimate could be fed almost completely on free range? Imagine a highly productive food forest complete with bugs, berries, fruits, nuts, and herbaceous plants. I just want a guesstimate based on your experience. Thanks Bullfrog

Comfortably, in a place with a mild winter? I’d conservatively say 25 mature adults, with room for hens to raise out broods to adulthood and allowing a person to harvest a chicken here and there for meat. I think the real number is higher. I’ve had as many as 75 free ranging on my farmyard. My yard is about 4 acres, surrounded by another 36 acres of blueberry fields (think overgrown fenceline type habitat) and woods. They can pick the farmyard dry of insects and more will replenish from the areas the chickens don’t forage in. I even see this principle play out in my coops. I try to keep deep litter in my coops and field crickets invade the coops at night from outside the coops. Thus giving the coop birds something to scratch for the next day. I think the same principle happens on a larger scale around the farmyard.

I haven’t seen large groups of grasshoppers in the farmyard during summer for a couple of years. I also don’t have to mow my lawn as often, as the poultry eats a lot of grass.

 

[SunflowerKing]

Comfortably, in a place with a mild winter? I’d conservatively say 25 mature adults, with room for hens to raise out broods to adulthood and allowing a person to harvest a chicken here and there for meat. I think the real number is higher. I’ve had as many as 75 free ranging on my farmyard. My yard is about 4 acres, surrounded by another 36 acres of blueberry fields (think overgrown fenceline type habitat) and woods. They can pick the farmyard dry of insects and more will replenish from the areas the chickens don’t forage in. I even see this principle play out in my coops. I try to keep deep litter in my coops and field crickets invade the coops at night from outside the coops. Thus giving the coop birds something to scratch for the next day. I think the same principle happens on a larger scale around the farmyard.

I haven’t seen large groups of grasshoppers in the farmyard during summer for a couple of years. I also don’t have to mow my lawn as often, as the poultry eats a lot of grass.

This is all excellent information. What about in Zone 7 where the winter is present? I was thinking I could supplement their feed in winter with grain, tubers, squash, and Black soldier fly larvae collected in growing season.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

This is all excellent information. What about in Zone 7 where the winter is present? I was thinking I could supplement their feed in winter with grain, tubers, squash, and Black soldier fly larvae collected in growing season.

I would think that would work. My personal experience is in 8b and 9a. This winter got down to a sustained 19F for a night with several separate freezes separated by warm spells. It will kill the insects back but there will still be greenery for most of the winter. We do not have snow.

I can usually grow enough Seminole pumpkins to give mine something rich to eat in the winter time. The Seminole pumpkins will easily keep at room temperature for 6 months.

 

[SunflowerKing]

I would think that would work. My personal experience is in 8b and 9a. This winter got down to a sustained 19F for a night with several separate freezes separated by warm spells. It will kill the insects back but there will still be greenery for most of the winter. We do not have snow.

I can usually grow enough Seminole pumpkins to give mine something rich to eat in the winter time. The Seminole pumpkins will easily keep at room temperature for 6 months.

I plan on growing a lot of winter squash for that exact reason.