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

[Florida Bullfrog]

Not necessarily a vampire but it's night-ish

Shadow it is. Her name is Shadow.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Shadow on top of a garbage can this evening.

Azog taking a serving of high protein dog food this evening he ate almost everything that was in the jar this pic.

Here is another hen I am considering. She was fathered by Indo to a Cracker. Her frame is similar to Shadow’s but Shadow is more dense. This hen is one of the best free rangers I have. She forages far from the farm yard but is alert and fast. A great flier. Very independent and aloof. I’ve thought about penning her a few times but confining her would seem like a crime.

 

[5 Points Wingfeather]

Shadow is good. I was going to suggest Thuringwethil—she was the vampire who served Morgoth and later Sauron—she would fit with Azog really well, but it would be a really hard name to say. Haha

 

[Appalachian homestead]

Beautiful hens! Is that a little bit of barring on the wing of the cracker / Indo hen? Reminds me of a turkey wing

 

[raingarden]

I think he is trying to breed chickens that don't need that kind of pampering.

I understand where you're coming from and struggle with the same issue myself. I guess it depends on whether the juvenile survival is low or zero. Maybe if they get enough help to become immune some epigenetics will kick in with subquent generations.. That's a long shot though.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Shadow is good. I was going to suggest Thuringwethil—she was the vampire who served Morgoth and later Sauron—she would fit with Azog really well, but it would be a really hard name to say. Haha

That will be for the next hen that warrants a name. Maybe one that has a wicked personality. Shadow is interesting because of her slinking around at night, but apart from being a protective mother she isn’t all that fearsome in her personality.

Sauron, Morgoth, and Melkor would also be good rooster names.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I understand where you're coming from and struggle with the same issue myself. I guess it depends on whether the juvenile survival is low or zero. Maybe if they get enough help to become immune some epigenetics will kick in with subquent generations.. That's a long shot though.

Whether they wipe out or not seems to be specific to the pairings. For example, Lanky paired to a yellow banded Cracker hen has produced some resilient offspring, and for the hen’s part she’s been a great mother. I am going to try that pairing again. Yet the red eared half-Cracker stag to two magenta banded hens have each produced mediocre to poor results as free range mothers, but good results so far as chicks brooded in a coop. The genetic pairing may be good but the hens themselves are poor mothers.

Cocci, Marek’s, poisonous plants, whatever it may be in my environment, there is something fierce out there that wipes out some groups of chicks and not others. I may or may not ever zero in on the cause, but the solution seems to be to breed towards resilience against it.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Hmmmm. Discussing chick resiliency has me thinking. The absolute best chicks I produced this year in terms of being free range commandos have been the paring of Indo to unknown Cracker hens in a flock breeding situation. Most of them came out small, Cracker sized. Two came out American game sized. They were all tough and flourished. When I dewormed the flock, they were the chickens in the best shape already.

I forgot that of the 2 American game-sized Indo Cracker crosses, 1 was a stag and I sent him off farm in the summer. I totally forgot about him. I am reaching out to his current owner for an update. I remember him being gorgeous.

At this point I’m doing my project backwards. I’m selecting for body size and predatory behavioral traits first when at this point overall resilience matters more. I should get them super resistant to the environment and pathogens and then try to shape the other traits I want from that.

Originally this project was supposed to be Liege to Crackers then I split it into big, predatory, oriental Liege crosses on one side and Cracker improvement on the other. I likely need to bring the two projects back together for this spring to weave in American and Cracker blood to the Liege cross blood. By the time that’s done in a year or so the new oriental blood from those of you who have offered me of your genetics should be ready to cross in.

Indo paired to my large American hens and some Crackers. Azog paired both to Shadow and possibly that big Indo cross hen I like. Then I apply everything I’ve learned about rearing incubated chicks; start them on the grass on day 1, plenty of grit, worm them and corid them up before being turned out. Then let them run the free range gauntlet. Maybe start with 50 and if I end up with 10 that make it to adulthood call it good. Then by that time I may have a good oriental stag and hen from two outside bloodlines to work with.

All the while Lanky can be running free range, building his flight muscles and breeding random free range hens to see what shakes out. I’ll wall up around Lanky’s current coop so that when I switch him and Indo out they won’t fight.

 

[Bigtom Turkey]

Sounds good!

 

[Molpet]

Is there any time of year that is less prone to issues?