Indian game chicken questions

[CHICKENX2005]

Hi I am going to get a couple indian game roosters any day now. I have a few questions. First just to say I'm getting the Indian game roosters as an ( experiment ) meaning I'm getting some cornish cross chicks as well they will be for meat but the Indian game roosters I'm getting just to see the difference in how fast they grow and stuff.
Anyway I was wondering do they mature fast or do they take a very long time to grow ( I know they don't grow as fast as the cornish cross chickens ) but I was wondering just how much slower they will be.
Second how big are they at 6 weeks or 8 weeks.
Last are they aggressive like can I put them with my other chickens?
Any other information is helpful too thanks.

 

[NatJ]

Hi I am going to get a couple indian game roosters any day now. I have a few questions. First just to say I'm getting the Indian game roosters as an ( experiment ) meaning I'm getting some cornish cross chicks as well they will be for meat but the Indian game roosters I'm getting just to see the difference in how fast they grow and stuff.
Anyway I was wondering do they mature fast or do they take a very long time to grow ( I know they don't grow as fast as the cornish cross chickens ) but I was wondering just how much slower they will be.
Second how big are they at 6 weeks or 8 weeks.
Last are they aggressive like can I put them with my other chickens?
Any other information is helpful too thanks.

If you are in the USA and buy the chicks from a hatchery, or if you buy from a store that gets them from a hatchery, then it should be fine to put Indian Game chicks with chicks of other breeds (males or females, should be fine either way.)

If you are in another country, I do not know whether the Indian Games will act differently than the ones common in the USA.

If you are buying directly from a breeder, ask them, because they will know about their specific strain of chickens. They might have Indian games that are more mellow or more aggressive than what is common. Asking the breeder about their chickens will be more accurate than anyone trying to guess over the internet.

For growth: probably a middle rate of growth, in between slow-growing breeds and fast-growing breeds. Cornish Cross grow extra-fast, so the Indian Games will grow much slower than the Cornish Cross.

I don't know how big they will be at any specific age.

 

[CHICKENX2005]

I'm getting them from Murray hatchery

 

[NatJ]

I'm getting them from Murray hatchery

Then they will be fine living with other chickens. They will get along just fine.

 

[CHICKENX2005]

Thank you.

 

[CHICKENX2005]

Will they fight with other roosters (more than other breeds do) I know someone who got some road island reds ( roosters ) and they were in a pin by themselves. And they where trying to kill each other. But in the past I had a bunch of roosters together mine where of all different types. And they got along fine

 

[NatJ]

Will they fight with other roosters (more than other breeds do) I know someone who got some road island reds ( roosters ) and they were in a pin by themselves. And they where trying to kill each other. But in the past I had a bunch of roosters together mine where of all different types. And they got along fine

Most of the common domestic chicken breeds can be kept together, including roosters sharing a pen. The Indian Games from McMurray hatchery should be like most other breeds: keeping them together is fine most of the time.

Hatcheries tend to keep chickens in groups: multiple males and lots of females in one pen. The hatchery doesn't want the roosters to actually kill each other, so they will have selected pretty strongly for ones that can get along in the conditions the hatchery uses. Almost every breed from a hatchery will be descended from fathers & mothers that did not kill each other. That definitely includes most Rhode Island Reds. So I don't know why the Rhode Island Reds were a problem-- maybe something about the conditions they were living in? Or maybe they were fighting without actually killing each other? Chickens fighting can look very vicious, and sometimes they look like they are killing each other but they actually stop before doing any major damage (injured combs are not major damage, because they heal quickly, but they can bleed heavily and make it look like the chickens are badly hurt even when they are not.)

 

[CHICKENX2005]

I heard that you have to make sure that indian game chickens get enough exercise to make sure they don't get any health problems. How would I do that do I just need ti make sure their pen is big enough?

 

[NatJ]

I heard that you have to make sure that indian game chickens get enough exercise to make sure they don't get any health problems. How would I do that do I just need ti make sure their pen is big enough?

A big pen is a good start.

It may also help to give them plenty of interesting stuff to scratch in (dead leaves in the fall, dirt and weeds and grass clippings in the summer, bales of straw or hay to pull apart, anything handy that they can scratch through.) Letting it build up in their run, so they are basically living on a big compost pile, can mean they always have something to do.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/harvesting-my-chicken-run-compost-black-gold.1529564/
This thread talks about a chicken run with lots of compostable stuff in it, that keeps the chickens happily occupied for large amounts of time. (The thread is focused on the compost, but sometimes mentions how much time the chickens spend scratching in it.)

It would be good to avoid high-calorie treats (scratch grains, corn, mealworms.) Letting them eat pieces of plants should not be a problem (low calorie, high water, high fiber), along with any bugs they can catch for themselves (having to find or catch the bug will give them enough exercise to balance the calories in it.)