Historic Presence of Jungle Fowl in the American Deep South

[centrarchid]

Natural selection will favor chickens that are closed to RJF in size, The larger breeds tend to get smaller and the bantams tend to get larger, all of the drifting to RJF in size in these type of scenarios

I would like to see how that operates with games under pressure from hawks. There have been times when greater size around 5 lbs is better than being 3 lbs. Then it comes to how size impacts survival against other threats.

In my setting, the smaller RJF hybrids were taken preferentially over standard-sized half-sibling games.

 

[varidgerunner]

Agree that the cuban and spanish gamefowl tend to be smaller. RJF coloration is the wild type and could easily dominate in a small population that wasn't getting fresh doses of genetics like most of the urban "breeds" that are just escaped games.

 

[Don 27]

Hi sorry if this is an old thread. I have vary strong simular interests in red jungle fowl too. I prefer them over other chickens because of their natural behaviors and their semi self sufficiency. I also cherish there historic roots. I currently have a vary old chicken breed that has been passed down from farmer to farmer. My uncle inquired the breed from his wife's grand fathers farm. The grand father said that they're one of the oldest chicken breeds know as game fowl that are closer to bantam size. The reason why they're smaller is because of being in an open barn their whole life with only natural resources for food and a pond for water. The predators thinned out the bigger slower birds too. They have been inter breeding in my uncle's barn for almost 10 years and had never had new blood introduced. They have been breeding in my uncle's grandfather in laws barn for even longer. The only time i know of when new blood was introduced into them was when my uncle's grandfather first inquired them. The birds that he introduced were bantam silky cross, their characteristics been naturally bred out of them sense. He gave them to me because they began to get into his feed bags . So I have been trying to find new blood for them since. I don't want to ruin the breed by introducing highly domesticated blood into them. So I have been researching for a long time on more wild breeds and found vary little available. I like red jungle fowl because of their natural nesting behaviors and wild roots. I was also considering game birds but I'm a little concerned about their strong fighting instincts.

 

[varidgerunner]

Wild Red Jungle Fowl would be just as prone to fight when it was mating season. That is if you got real ones, and not just the gamefowl bred to look like them that hatcheries offer. In fact gamefowl are no more likely to fight than any other chicken, they just do it younger, have shorter periods during the year that they won't, and won't stop once they start.

 

[Don 27]

Wild Red Jungle Fowl would be just as prone to fight when it was mating season. That is if you got real ones, and not just the gamefowl bred to look like them that hatcheries offer. In fact gamefowl are no more likely to fight than any other chicken, they just do it younger, have shorter periods during the year that they won't, and won't stop once they start.

The cool thing about the breed I have is you can have more full grown roosters than hens and they don't fight.

 

[Ntsees]

Don 27, the birds in Fitzgerald, GA may be of interest to you: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-aug-06-na-chickens6-story.html
and a video:

 

[centrarchid]

Don 27, the birds in Fitzgerald, GA may be of interest to you: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-aug-06-na-chickens6-story.html
and a video:

Color variation even on side of hens appears to great to represent a wild stock, even when considering eclipse molt. The limping cock appeared to be dubbed.

 

[Ntsees]

The hen coloration resembles wild stock likely due to contribution from the original imported wild stock. Along with the red junglefowl hybrids (Gallus gallus murghi x Gallus gallus domesticus), a quick internet search shows that there does seem to be other birds that are clearly chicken/gamefowl in origin that people released (i.e. phoenix, grey hatch, etc.; I'm referring to chickens not composed of the imported murghi genes): http://www.bettersouth.org/2013/06/burmese-chickens/

 

[Don 27]

Hay thanks for the vid and the info. I spent hours looking for a video I saw on a old red jungle fowl thread. I could not find the video but if I do I will post. Basically it's a video of red jungle fowl roosters foraging together in their natural habitat. I believe it was on a 33page thread could be wrong though.

 

[Ntsees]

A video where the males forage together? There's quite a few of those videos in youtube. The males foraging could mean one of many things: they are subdominant males during the breeding season that decide to stick together since they can't obtain harems, they are young of the year birds in the fall and winter, or that the breeding season is over and there's no need to compete over hens.