Historic Presence of Jungle Fowl in the American Deep South

[Florida Bullfrog]

When you get the flock large enough thats when most of the natural selective breeding comes in from predators. For my flock If don't protect the small amount of broody hens I have from predators they don't make it. I'm hoping once my flock builds up I won't have to protect them as much.

I gave my Christmas hatch minimal protection. The hen set in the coop so I didn’t have to do anything special during the 3 weeks. From the day of hatch until about 2 weeks out I protected them in a large dog crate, and after that they’ve been free ranging. Of the 12, I lost 1 on a cold night and 1 to a hawk. The remaining 10 are about grown. I’m pleased with their progress. Most of those bitties are Hei Hei’s but a few may be Raptors as I put some of his eggs under then hen and nearly all the eggs hatched.

The next hatch of 5 that came of month later did ok for the first few weeks then I lost 2 in a day to a hawk, so I penned the mother and remaining 3 up. The reason I am giving them the extra protection is they all come off of Raptor, whom I have since given to a family member. Although I could most certainly access Raptor’s genes later so long as nothing happens to him, I still want a few of his bitties mixed into my main flock for genetic diversity. You never know when a particular rooster will end up a predator’s dinner.

The next 15 jungle fowl are all incubator hatched between 2 different age groups and they’re all in growout pens separated by age. I haven’t decided yet at what age I’ll turn them out. These are all entirely Hei Hei’s.

I have another 20 set between 2 different incubators and 9 of Tyrant’s OEGB crosses also set. And then a bunch of OEGBs set. I’m comfortable setting the pure OEGBs with the “pure” jungle fowls because my OEGB chicks all come out black from my OEGB self blue rooster. An unknown is what Tyrant’s cross chicks will look like.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

After establishing my AGB line, I will keep Tyrant penned and make lots of jungle fowl bitties off of him to add diversity to my flock. I’d love to have Tyrant’s look and Hei Hei’s friendliness.

I’m also going to let all 5 of the Christmas hatch cockerels to remain to see if they will get along or turn “gamey” on each other. I suspect they’ll spread out and establish territories as Hei Hei and Raptor seemed to do.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

One more thing. My wife texted me this morning that a huge wild turkey gobbler with a smaller gobbler were trying to face off with Tyrant this morning at his pen. Its not unusual for wild turkeys to roost and nest on my farm. This is the first spring with adult chickens and guineas on the farm. I did notice this morning that at daylight the turkeys in the woods on the roost were gobbling at my roosters crowing.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Actually one other thing. One of the jungle fowl roosters I gave my brother produced an unplanned cross with an Ameraucana. The result seems to be similar to my results with crossing them to the legorns. It creates a bird with longer legs than either parent. I’ve very curious to see if the same holds true crossing the jungle fowl to the OEGB. Whether a leggier bird will mess me up for getting to the standards for AGBs, it would be a cool looking bird.

More recent photos of the jungle fowl x leghorn cross (if I didn’t post these already):

 

[Don 27]

I gave my Christmas hatch minimal protection. The hen set in the coop so I didn’t have to do anything special during the 3 weeks. From the day of hatch until about 2 weeks out I protected them in a large dog crate, and after that they’ve been free ranging. Of the 12, I lost 1 on a cold night and 1 to a hawk. The remaining 10 are about grown. I’m pleased with their progress. Most of those bitties are Hei Hei’s but a few may be Raptors as I put some of his eggs under then hen and nearly all the eggs hatched.

That's great results! I wish mine would do that well. This time around I'm definitely going to try useing a dog crate. I think the last time where I messed up would be I let the mother take the baby's up in the trees at 6 weeks old. I figured it would be ok considering she had those baby's up at least 10ft in the tree but that night I lost the mother and two chicks. That morning I found The rest of the 7chicks hiding in the yard.

Actually one other thing. One of the jungle fowl roosters I gave my brother produced an unplanned cross with an Ameraucana. The result seems to be similar to my results with crossing them to the legorns. It creates a bird with longer legs than either parent. I’ve very curious to see if the same holds true crossing the jungle fowl to the OEGB. Whether a leggier bird will mess me up for getting to the standards for AGBs, it would be a cool looking bird.

More recent photos of the jungle fowl x leghorn cross (if I didn’t post these already):



View attachment 2055966View attachment 2055965

He's definitely unique . Kinda cool Looking .

One more thing. My wife texted me this morning that a huge wild turkey gobbler with a smaller gobbler were trying to face off with Tyrant this morning at his pen. Its not unusual for wild turkeys to roost and nest on my farm. This is the first spring with adult chickens and guineas on the farm. I did notice this morning that at daylight the turkeys in the woods on the roost were gobbling at my roosters crowing.

Would not be a pretty sight if they got into it.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

That yellow chick came off of Hei Hei and an unknown JFH hen. Wheaten?

 

[Don 27]

View attachment 2101822

That yellow chick came off of Hei Hei and an unknown JFH hen. Wheaten?

He does look unusual... Are you going to keep him?

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

He does look unusual... Are you going to keep him?

Yes, but I’m not giving it any special protection. Its one of 16 bitties hatched by 1 hen, with another 19 bitties on the ground hatched between 3 other hens, all within the same couple of days over this past weekend. I think I’ve passed the critical mass where they’re going to populate themselves exponentially. So I can afford to let nature take its course and let only the strongest free rangers survive. So if this little one makes it, great. If not, oh well.

 

[Don 27]

Yes, but I’m not giving it any special protection. Its one of 16 bitties hatched by 1 hen, with another 19 bitties on the ground hatched between 3 other hens, all within the same couple of days over this past weekend. I think I’ve passed the critical mass where they’re going to populate themselves exponentially. So I can afford to let nature take its course and let only the strongest free rangers survive. So if this little one makes it, great. If not, oh well.

That's pretty much how the farmer kept my birds and what I plan on doing . You mentioned on another thread that you were going to try selectively breeding for red jungle fowl coloration on a 40 acre farm. Natural selection may or may not select for those colors even though you might think it would because red jungle fowl are the wild ancestors. With my stock it seems that they have developed darker colors from predator selection, the white from the American game was quickly bred out .

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

That's pretty much how the farmer kept my birds and what I plan on doing . You mentioned on another thread that you were going to try selectively breeding for red jungle fowl coloration on a 40 acre farm. Natural selection may or may not select for those colors even though you might think it would because red jungle fowl are the wild ancestors. With my stock it seems that they have developed darker colors from predator selection, the white from the American game was quickly bred out .

That was what I read about the Carolina bantams. Natural selection made them mostly black with flecks of red or brown in the hens and some roosters, while other roosters retained the natural brown red/BBR coloration. I recently turned 4 not quite half-grown black and brown OEGBs into the woods at the far end of my farm and they blended right in to the understory. Hardwoods in the deep southeast have a tendency to have dark soil and understory. BTW, of the 4, 1 made it back to the OEGB coop a week later. I haven't seen any sign of the other 3 but I haven't looked down in the swamp I turned them loose in either. I was impressed that he survived a week in the woods.

Here's some pics of the Christmas hatch:

Raptor's (actually later than the Christmas hatch):

Oddly colored pullet:

Hei Hei's (I'm keeping this one)

I ended up with 35 bitties from 4 hens off of the last batch that all sat at the same time. They've lost 5 bitties free ranging but so be it. I think I have a big enough flock I can afford to let the strongest survive.