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

[Florida Bullfrog]

I wonder if you could affect that by providing some greens in their pens before you let them loose-- either safe ones so they can learn that THESE ones are good, or maybe some of the saltbush so they can have a mild bad experience with it, and will know to avoid it when you do turn them loose.

What I've done in the past, and still do to a lessor degree now, is cut my bahia grass every couple of weeks and rake up the clippings and dump them in the coops and brooders. But that amounts to hay by the time the sun has cured it a few hours after cutting. That's how I expose my fresh chicks to coccidiosis.

I'd be willing to try a small degree of salt bush mixed in to birds in a coop to see what happens, although I don't necessarily feel too great about the possibility of purposely poisoning chickens (I understand that's not what you are advocating, but I am concerned that there will be a hair's width between giving them enough to teach or inoculate them and making them sick). I'm all about studying cause and effect and breaking a few eggs in the process, but for me to feel comfortable doing it I'd have to use such a small amount of salt bush that I'm not sure they'd even find it and eat it in the coop.

I have two ailments that effect my chickens, coccidiosis and whatever this poisoning is that effects older birds first turned out to free range. I've nipped the coccidiosis in the bud both by outcrossing my birds and exposing new chicks to the farmyard grass from day 1.

I haven't had major instances of the poisoning this year until these 7 3/4 Liege were turned out. All of my poisonings occurred last year. Last year was the year I introduced a lot of new lines to the flock. For a long time I was concerned I had introduced Marek's, but once I saw the new Liege stag get sick on day one I knew it was happening too fast to be Marek's and was likely a poisoning and not a disease. I long suspected botulism from the shallows of my front yard fish pond. But I began watering coop birds only from the pond water and that wasn't it. I've now seen enough correlation between salt bush ingestion and the sickness that I am reasonably convinced that is the cause. I also watch my birds eat dog fennel but they all do it and I've not noticed a correlation between eating the dog fennel and any sort of issue.

I do think botulism happens around here sometimes, but I also think the chickens can detect it. I've watched many of the free rangers refuse to eat newly exposed maggots when turning over items in compost piles.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I am also going to make an effort to cut down all of the salt bushes in the farmyard this weekend. I can't irradiate them from the blueberries and surrounding areas but I ought to be able to cut down all of them that are close to key chicken areas.

 

[NatJ]

I'd be willing to try a small degree of salt bush mixed in to birds in a coop to see what happens, although I don't necessarily feel too great about the possibility of purposely poisoning chickens (I understand that's not what you are advocating, but I am concerned that there will be a hair's width between giving them enough to teach or inoculate them and making them sick).

Yes, that is definitely a concern. I probably didn't think it through well enough before mentioning it.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Yes, that is definitely a concern. I probably didn't think it through well enough before mentioning it.

No no, I wasn’t implying that at all, please don’t feel that way. And if you follow me enough either on here or on my Youtube channel, you’d know I’m not squeamish about subjecting my chickens to the survival gauntlet and I’ll cull a chicken without blinking. I regularly use culls as bait in predator traps.

For the reason that I’m more cavalier about an individual chicken’s life than most backyard keepers, I often think about where the line is at I ought not cross. For example, I’ll use a cull in a trap, but only at night when it would be asleep anyhow. If the cull survives the night, it gets to return to comfort, food, and water for the day. I wouldn’t leave even a cull out to languish in a trap without food or water in Florida’s heat.

I’ll think on whether there is a way I can experiment on a cull that isn’t likely to cause serious suffering. One issue is that I don’t have but around 4 or so culls at the moment.

 

[NatJ]

No no, I wasn’t implying that at all, please don’t feel that way. And if you follow me enough either on here or on my Youtube channel, you’d know I’m not squeamish about subjecting my chickens to the survival gauntlet and I’ll cull a chicken without blinking.

I don't feel especially bad about it. I was just acknowledging that I tossed out a suggestion without thinking through the details very well (not a big problem in this case, but something I should watch out for when I make suggestions to inexperienced people, who may not see the problems for themselves.)

 

[ColtHandorf]

Yes, that is definitely a concern. I probably didn't think it through well enough before mentioning it.

Could you place it outside the run? My birds can put their heads through the wire of their runs to get grass. Maybe that way, they'd only get a tiny bit and prefer the fresh cut grass in the runs. They wouldn't ingest as much, but could perhaps learn it's not tasty?

 

[MrsEarthern]

This has been a very informative and entertaining read, I look forward to updates and would love to see those wing claws!

 

[AGeese]

These are my Jersey's I was thinking of crossing with the Liege. They are the dominant hens and share power over the flock, they are great foragers, and lay medium-small eggs.

 

[Appalachian homestead]

Don't all chickens have wing claws?

 

[MrsEarthern]

Don't all chickens have wing claws?

No, I had to look it up because I'd never heard of them on Chickens. Even on the birds that have it they are not always big enough to be visible.