Historic Presence of Jungle Fowl in the American Deep South

[Don 27]

So you're saying if the birds have to search out food their less likely to fight. That's simply enough.! Also if I keep a group of birds on walks im going to try my best to breed the more artificial fighting out of them.

 

[Don 27]

Yes. At certain times of the year, with certain classes of birds. (Adult males.) Bachelor groups form in marginal habitat with sub-adult males. Females occupy the best habitat, and harem groups are guarded by one or more adult males that will fight any other adult male that challenges them. It is what has insured that only the strongest, fittest males passed on their genes for millennia. The same is true of games gone feral, like the ones in Georgia, Florida, Hawaii, Cuba and a hundred other places. "Gameness" is bred out very quickly in feral conditions.

By gameness you mean to aggressively fight another rooster more than what would naturally happen.? I can't wait until game birds or red jungle fowl start breeding again that way I Can buy some and try my hand at more wilder stock.

 

[varidgerunner]

"Gameness" has nothing much to do with the desire to fight. Leghorns fight. It has more to do with the desire to keep fighting even when losing. In the wild, two roosters facing off oblivious to an approaching hawk will not pass their genes. The nervous rooster that runs at the sound of a skirmish while two dominant birds duke it out will breed a fair amount of hens.

So in a wild population you often have two groups of breeding males. With some species of salmon there are non migrating runt males that sneak into the spawning bed and release some milt. It is a way of boosting genetic diversity. With feral chickens you have dominant, most virile and robust birds fathering most of the chicks. You also have sneakers off in the bushes that father a few here and there.

With the birds in Fitzgerald, Hawaii, or anywhere else that there are feral games, a lot of the ones that were originally turned loose were unsuitable for gamefowl, that is why they were turned loose. Just because a game chicken is a game chicken doesn't mean it is a good one. Nature selects very quickly back to natural behavior, which favors birds that fight to the death to defend a territory during mating season IF they are a dominant male with an established territory to defend. And subdominant males that hide until it is their time, whether that means a lifetime of sneaking out to breed an unsuspecting hen, or eventually challenging a dominant bird for a territory.

I prefer the gamer game birds. They can do just fine with little or no human intervention, as long as you catch up spare males at the appropriate time. You don't come up with the nervous sneakers as often, so you don't have wild, flighty chickens, and manfighters. The game ones make better riding companions and pets, but can rustle just fine in near feral conditions.

 

[Don 27]

"Gameness" has nothing much to do with the desire to fight. Leghorns fight. It has more to do with the desire to keep fighting even when losing. In the wild, two roosters facing off oblivious to an approaching hawk will not pass their genes. The nervous rooster that runs at the sound of a skirmish while two dominant birds duke it out will breed a fair amount of hens.

So in a wild population you often have two groups of breeding males. With some species of salmon there are non migrating runt males that sneak into the spawning bed and release some milt. It is a way of boosting genetic diversity. With feral chickens you have dominant, most virile and robust birds fathering most of the chicks. You also have sneakers off in the bushes that father a few here and there.

With the birds in Fitzgerald, Hawaii, or anywhere else that there are feral games, a lot of the ones that were originally turned loose were unsuitable for gamefowl, that is why they were turned loose. Just because a game chicken is a game chicken doesn't mean it is a good one. Nature selects very quickly back to natural behavior, which favors birds that fight to the death to defend a territory during mating season IF they are a dominant male with an established territory to defend. And subdominant males that hide until it is their time, whether that means a lifetime of sneaking out to breed an unsuspecting hen, or eventually challenging a dominant bird for a territory.

I prefer the gamer game birds. They can do just fine with little or no human intervention, as long as you catch up spare males at the appropriate time. You don't come up with the nervous sneakers as often, so you don't have wild, flighty chickens, and manfighters. The game ones make better riding companions and pets, but can rustle just fine in near feral conditions.

wow vary informative thanks! Basically it's natural for roosters to fight, I shouldn't be too worried about it. We eat chicken so I would not care to eat a few losing roosters ever now and then.

 

[centrarchid]

wow vary informative thanks! Basically it's natural for roosters to fight, I shouldn't be too worried about it.

Almost everything fights now and again. Even on the female and immature side. We do over emphasize fighting on male chickens. It appears to be a human culture issue.

 

[Don 27]

Almost everything fights now and again. Even on the female and immature side. We do over emphasize fighting on male chickens. It appears to be a human culture issue.

Ya I know I see male blue birds fight over territory during the breeding season all the time. I was just trying to avoid any over excessive fighting that would not normally happen to roosters . I didn't think wild \ feral chickens fought much because of the pictures of multiple roosters. But that would not make any sense because most wild birds have territories . Like varidgerunner said the pictures and videos might be of bachelor groups.

 

[centrarchid]

Ya I know I see male blue birds fight over territory during the breeding season all the time. I was just trying to avoid any over excessive fighting that would not normally happen to roosters . I didn't think wild \ feral chickens fought much because of the pictures of multiple roosters. But that would not make any sense because most wild birds have territories . Like varidgerunner said the pictures and videos might be of bachelor groups.

The videos are snap shots in time. Fights of short duration and often through displays rather than outright combat.

 

[Don 27]

The videos are snap shots in time. Fights of short duration and often through displays rather than outright combat.

mmm vary interesting.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Here's an update as to mine:

I ended up having 8 roosters. I kept 2 that seemed to get along and gave the rest away to family and a coworker.

This is Raptor:

He did have a long sickle feather that he lost overnight. But the smaller sickle feathers he has now also appeared overnight so I suspect he'll regrow them. His plumage if filling out more every day. He's about 5 months old now.

This one is Heihei, renamed from "Sidekick" because he's no longer a Sidekick.

Heihei controls the "game" hens, Raptor controls the domestic laying hens. Each has a group of around a dozen, with stragglers moving between the groups. Both are breeding their hens.

Raptor's days may be numbered. He's developed some aggression towards me. Nothing that I couldn't handle on my own, but I have an infant daughter who I don't want to get spurred when she gets old enough to be among the chickens. I'm going to keep him around long enough to get a hatch off the "Florida games/junglefowl/whatever they are" hens and then pick another broad, white earlobed rooster from them and then cull him.

All of the hens look the same, same size and same coloration with no variation whatsoever in color and only the slightest variation in size.

The hens can fly like songbirds. They can take off and turn 90 degrees in flight and also swoop upwards after covering a long ways parallel to the group.

All of the "games" roost in the coop with my laying hens. Only twice has a game hen tried to roost in the trees. Once I couldn't get her down and let her sleep 30 feet up a pine that night. The next time she tried it I shooed her down and she went to roost with the others. As long as they are willing to stay in the coop, I'm going to let them.

I do not think the game hens are laying yet, but its not impossible that they're hiding eggs somewhere. They have 40 acres of blueberry rows and woods to hide in, although I never catch them more than 75 yards or so away from the coop. I chose the coop's location because its well shaded and near lots of edge habitat where the chickens can go from shade to shade near water and have plenty of thick to hide in. I remember as a kid my Florida games liked to hang out on wooded fence lines.

The roosters do not cut off the last syllable when they crow, but instead draw it out very long.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I forgot to say, the coloration of the roosters is very much what I remember of the traditional Florida games, but I do not remember the hens having laced feathers as these do. It seems like the hens had more solid tans and light browns. But I am remembering back 30 years ago so I don't hold my recollection out as perfect.

Also, the green eyes they all had as chicks has faded away. They now have more traditional looking eyes.