Tips For Taming Game Breed Chicks

  • Author Whittni
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I recently purchased seven new chicks, mostly game breeds: 2 Standard Buff Cornish Pair (Creature and Bopeep), 2 Blue and Red Cubalaya Pair ( Sacrates and Avila), 1 Blue Ginger Old English Bantam Pullet (Little Bit), 1 Naked Neck Pullet (Turken) and 1 BB Red Malay Male (Oscar).

Six or those seven are considered game breeds. So naturally they might be considered flighty so here are so tips for getting your not so tame breed chicks to be tame: (through my books have said that Cornish chickens are tame by nature)

  • Play music by the brooder...this will get the chicks used to the noise.
  • Hold your chicks in pairs or more...they are gregarious, even as day old chicks.
  • Hold your chicks in 20 minute intervals...with friends if you can so they are all in ear shot and adapt to being held.
  • Hold down each chicks in an exhabition grip...that way when you start to show them or have other hold them they won't go crazy on you.
  • Start them on treats as early as two weeks...they'll learn just who feeds them!
  • Don't crouch over them, they were born with scattering instincts...like to get away from hawks.
  • Don't forget to do your research on each individual breed, like my Cubalaya babies were born super friendly while the Malay was rather flighty with natural instinct.

These have worked with my babies so far and they'll do awesome in shows based on personalities and as they mature I'll find out how they conform to the breed standards, wish me luck!

Pictures:


There ya go!
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About author
Whittni
Whittni has Bachelor's degree in Agriculture with minors in Art and Communication. In her free time, she enjoys studying flock behavior and hopes to train as a poultry judge in the future.

Her favorite animals? Chickens of course! Whittni would like to revolutionize the outside stigma of poultry keeping and help economise backyard flock keeping. She also enjoys sewing, crafts, and traveling abroad.

Comments

Which are the BR Cubalayas?
I have 12 one week old (from hatch, received in mail 5 days ago) chicks.
The "I'm not sure which are which" list:
2 yellow with white and silver/grey wings, they have always been a little smaller than average for my 'flock' They look similar to the one on the far right in your 2nd pic. Also like these:
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k269/ja8edfyre/Chickens/Cubalaya/Cubalaya01SideView.jpg
4 look kind of like this, though the yellow area seems to be getting more brown and of the 4, 2 seem to be lighter brown, 2 darker and are smaller birds at 1 week old (though they were the same size when we got them):
http://chickenbreedslist.com/images/cubalaya_chicks.jpg
2 are supposed to be RB Cubalayas, 2 Partridge Chanteclers and 2 Ameracuanas
I know the Ameracuanas can be pretty much any color and I figured the Chanteclers and Cubalayas would be darker so guessed that the yellows were Ameracuana. Then I found the picture of the yellow Cubalaya and have no idea! Plus, it looks like 2 of the brown ones might be getting a little muff (like the Salmon Faveroelles) so maybe they are the Americuanas and the yellows are the Cubalayas but they aren't Blue Reds? Or the BRs start yellow? I took some pictures yesterday, I need to put them up.
 
Okay the weird thing with mine were they ended up being solid yellow chicks, the pictures show one of them, with the whitest looking wings. I only kept these babies for three months and after that I don't know but my cubalaya was a BB red and it started to change its color. Ideal is a bad hatchery - cheap chicks that die. Out of the eight I had gotten only 3 of them had made it past the three month mark and they were all vaccinated for Mareks. They were some of the tamest babies I'd ever raised...did that get all of your questions?
 

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