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

[Bigtom Turkey]

That bird is very thick. What kind of asil?

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

As where Indo still relishes live mice (he ate 3 in a row yesterday and begged for more), Azog couldn’t care less about eating mice. In fact he’ll eat no treats whatsoever. He won’t take anything out of my hand and if I throw a rich morsel on the ground he’ll offer it to his hens. That will make him an excellent and trustworthy rooster, but I was hoping that lust for meat Indo has would carry over. Although I may be glad it didn’t given Azog’s size. Indo has a problem with pinching fingers that distresses my daughter. I don’t think Azog will have that issue.

I culled Shadow tonight. She broke her wing several days ago, I believe in response to a predator trying to take her singular bitty. I put the bitty in a brooder. She practically gave her life for it so I’ll try to make it worth it.

 

[ElleEmie]

View attachment 3454682View attachment 3454688

As where Indo still relishes live mice (he ate 3 in a row yesterday and begged for more), Azog couldn’t care less about eating mice. In fact he’ll eat no treats whatsoever. He won’t take anything out of my hand and if I throw a rich morsel on the ground he’ll offer it to his hens. That will make him an excellent and trustworthy rooster, but I was hoping that lust for meat Indo has would carry over. Although I may be glad it didn’t given Azog’s size. Indo has a problem with pinching fingers that distresses my daughter. I don’t think Azog will have that issue.

I culled Shadow tonight. She broke her wing several days ago, I believe in response to a predator trying to take her singular bitty. I put the bitty in a brooder. She practically gave her life for it so I’ll try to make it worth it.

Poor shadow. She was a great hen. Rip

 

[tlewis_2003]

That bird is very thick. What kind of asil?

Not sure of specific bloodline or type. He is about 8-9 weeks old. I bought 7 ended up with 5 cockerels and 2 pullets.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

In happier news, I have some new oriental blood coming next week I’ll talk more about later.

It seems clear that Azog is going to come out as an athletic Liege or Bruges type gamefowl with a strong game drive but without the predatory streak Indo has. As I line breed him, the line will have those traits enforced.

Given that likelihood, with am considering splitting the line so that one side, the Azog side, ends up being gamey, improved, Liege (I’d call those “hawk-killers” at the point one actually kills a hawk) and the other line, the Indo line, being infused with more exotic orientals like Saipans and what I got coming next week. I’d focus on making that line as primitive and predatory as possible. They’d be the true “terrorfowl.” Right now Azog is impressive but “terror” isn’t what he inspires. If I could make an Indo that’s 3 times larger, he’d be frightening indeed.

I think the Azog line will be the more practical farm birds. They’ll be legit gamefowl to the extent they’ll have a strong pit game-level drive, and large for intimidating small predators, but otherwise they’ll be just impressive chickens. While the Indo line will make people do a double take and ask “is that a chicken or something else?

 

[Silkie2299781]

Following!

 

[Alpine Bobwhite]

Terrorfowl Super Free Range Survival Chickens Spring 2023 Update!

Update on the project birds here.

The little chicks on there are adorable. I think all these chickens are very handsome birds.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

The little chicks on there are adorable. I think all these chickens are very handsome birds.

I have over 60 growing out. They are in the combinations of Azog over the aseel x Liege pullets from my brother’s line, Azog over the fayoumi x Hatch American gamefowl pullets, and Indo over the American gamefowl x aseel pullet. 12 are brooded by the American x aseel pullet, 24 are brooded on their on in a ground coop, and 25 are brooded in my raised soldier fly brooder. The ones in the raised brooder don’t have access to the ground, so I pour a bucket of sand and dirt into their brooder every couple of days. I am surprised by how much sand they eat.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

You can give 2 congealed teaspoons of unrefined organic coconut oil per chicken in a feed dish with some feed, and the fats in the coconut oil is a good source of fats for your chickens. Then as a preventative put a couple of tablespoons of apple cider vinegar in a gallon of water to keep them worm free, keeps the lice, mites, ticks, and fleas off them. It also keeps them healthy, and their immune systems strong so they wont get sick. Oh! And make sure that your waterer is not metal. Apple cider vinegar reacts to metal, and can poison your chickens. Must use plastic waterers. And the coconut oil, and apple cider vinegar both boost egg production as well. And you don't have to worry about chemical wormers tainting your eggs, and meat. Natural organic is the best, and healthiest way to care for your flock.

I want to revisit this. I have tried this method recently in Azog’s coop, which again is made up of 3 Liege x aseel pullets and 2 fayoumi x Hatch American gamefowl pullets. Since giving the birds a heavy dose of unrefined coconut oil mixed in a day’s worth of feed in their feed trough, the 5 hens have produced 4-5 eggs a day, every day of the week, except maybe once a week I’ll get 3. I dosed the coconut oil sometime in late February or early March. Since then, I’ve filled my incubators twice (44 egg capacity between the two) and sent over 6 dozen hatching eggs of the same to friends. I have 2 dozen more on the shelf laid last few days.

Coincidence? Maybe. I am tending to think not. The pullets represent unrelated sets of genetics, none known to be good layers. So now I’ve dosed all my birds around the farm. Everyone definitely looks better. Even Lanky, who always has a pale face to varying degrees, is now rosy red. So red almost all the white is gone off his ear.

I am also dosing apple cider vinegar into their plastic waterers and rotating the waterers so that on some days the birds are getting straight water out of metal waterers and ACV water out of plastic waterers on other days.

I would invite others to try the unrefined coconut oil in a closed flock of mediocre layers to see if it appears to boost egg production.

 

[Appalachian homestead]

I want to revisit this. I have tried this method recently in Azog’s coop, which again is made up of 3 Liege x aseel pullets and 2 fayoumi x Hatch American gamefowl pullets. Since giving the birds a heavy dose of unrefined coconut oil mixed in a day’s worth of feed in their feed trough, the 5 hens have produced 4-5 eggs a day, every day of the week, except maybe once a week I’ll get 3. I dosed the coconut oil sometime in late February or early March. Since then, I’ve filled my incubators twice (44 egg capacity between the two) and sent over 6 dozen hatching eggs of the same to friends. I have 2 dozen more on the shelf laid last few days.

Coincidence? Maybe. I am tending to think not. The pullets represent unrelated sets of genetics, none known to be good layers. So now I’ve dosed all my birds around the farm. Everyone definitely looks better. Even Lanky, who always has a pale face to varying degrees, is now rosy red. So red almost all the white is gone off his ear.

I am also dosing apple cider vinegar into their plastic waterers and rotating the waterers so that on some days the birds are getting straight water out of metal waterers and ACV water out of plastic waterers on other days.

I would invite others to try the unrefined coconut oil in a closed flock of mediocre layers to see if it appears to boost egg production.

I need to try this on my blueface. They're not laying very well. If I do I'll let you know the results.