Jungle Fowl

[centrarchid]

My guess is some potential for parental care in domestics comes from grey jungle fowl side of their development. Recombination of alleles enabled by hybridization, mutations and selection then did the rest.

 

[Peckar]

Does anybody have any red in the Pacific Northwest or nearby

 

[vini]

Actually there are 4 species of jungle fowl and chickens are either red jungle fowl or possibly reds with a very small percentage of grey in them.  The 4 species are:

Gallus gallus, the red jungle fowl (and all domestic chickens)

Gallus sonneratti, the grey jungle fowl

Gallus varius, the green jungle fowl

Gallus lafayeti, the Sri Lanka jungle fowl


I have greys and greens but I have not been successful at breeding the greens yet. There may be several reasons, first it gets cold where I live and green jungle fowl are very intolerant of cold temps (I heat their pen all winter long), there is a lot of activity around the pens and they are very shy birds, also they are just over 2 years old, green jungle fowl need more time to mature then the other species.


The grey jungle fowl I have are great quality, I have 3 pairs, one from a fantastic breeder and have pedigree back to wild imported birds and the other 2 are F1's (all 4 parent birds were wild caught).  I got my first eggs of the season two days ago, I know this is way early, but because of the green jungle fowl needing heat the pen with the greys stays warm as well and I think I am confusing them with the warm December we are having and the extra heat.  Normally I sell the eggs for $60 each, last year I had way more requests then eggs and a good hatch rate.  It is the first time I have ever had 100% hatch on the eggs I kept, I always check fertility and hatch some birds for future breeders and to sell.  I kept 8 eggs from the grey jungle fowl hoping to get 5 or 6 to hatch, not only did all of them hatch but it ended up being 4 roosters and 4 hens.  My perfect season!

 

[vini]

 

[hillrunner]

I love these Sri Lankan Jungle Fowl anyone breed them in the US?

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Is this thread still alive? I have some RJFs that I acquired from the San Diego Zoo, and I am in desperate need of bringing in new blood... anyone know of any purebred breeders that I can purchase hatching eggs from? TIA!

 

[Ntsees]

Is this thread still alive? I have some RJFs that I acquired from the San Diego Zoo, and I am in desperate need of bringing in new blood... anyone know of any purebred breeders that I can purchase hatching eggs from? TIA!

Based on the info from the internet, the other available place that has the "San Diego" strain is cacklehatchery. But I'm sure you already know of that place.

I went to your webpage and you show good dedication towards preservation. I recommend you pursue the more purer "richardsons" rjf here in the U.S. (please note that I am not referring you to cross those two).

 

[JimArcher]

Why would you not recommend he cross the two strains? Just curious.

Later:
I did some more checking and it appears that the Indonesian Red Jungle Fowl are Gallus gallus bankiva.. They should have a white earlobe. The true wild chicken in Southeast Asia (I lived in Laos) also has a white earlobe. I believe the Indian junglefowl - Gallus gallus gallus have a red earlobe. Cackle hatchery birds appear to have red earlobes, but are not an absolutely pure line. If you start with Richardsons Red Jungle Fowl (Indonesian) and have only one or two pairs, you will quickly find yourself with a very infertile line due to inbreeding. You would have to keep careful pedigree records and bring in new pure blood regularly. Wingbanding chicks as they hatch (to know their parentage) and legbanding adults would be very useful for maintaining pedigree records. It would be very difficult for a hobby breeder to manage. THe Richardsons birds are the purest-looking captive birds that I have seen in a long while. Your Cackle Hatchery birds are not pure. You could use a Richardsons rooster on Cackle Hatchery birds and that would increase their wild type, but they would not be pure for subspecies (not that they are anyway). You will have to maintain 2 separate lines - Richardsons and Cackle Hatchery. It will be difficult and expensive.
I also suggest that you raise your junglefowl chicks with tame domestic chickens. This should tame them a bit. The more contact they have with people, the quieter they will be. Separate them when you want to breed them.
The tamer the bird, the better the breeder. Extremely wild birds can kill themselves by flying into posts etc.. Tamer birds can still be genetically pure wild birds, but much easier to manage.
I think the video of Richardsons birds that I watched may have been taken by an outsider. They may not be so wild with their regular keeper. Chickens recognize people and do not like strangers.

 

[Ntsees]

Why would you not recommend he cross the two strains? Just curious.

Later:
I did some more checking and it appears that the Indonesian Red Jungle Fowl are Gallus gallus bankiva.. They should have a white earlobe. The true wild chicken in Southeast Asia (I lived in Laos) also has a white earlobe. I believe the Indian junglefowl - Gallus gallus gallus have a red earlobe. Cackle hatchery birds appear to have red earlobes, but are not an absolutely pure line. If you start with Richardsons Red Jungle Fowl (Indonesian) and have only one or two pairs, you will quickly find yourself with a very infertile line due to inbreeding. You would have to keep careful pedigree records and bring in new pure blood regularly. Wingbanding chicks as they hatch (to know their parentage) and legbanding adults would be very useful for maintaining pedigree records. It would be very difficult for a hobby breeder to manage. THe Richardsons birds are the purest-looking captive birds that I have seen in a long while. Your Cackle Hatchery birds are not pure. You could use a Richardsons rooster on Cackle Hatchery birds and that would increase their wild type, but they would not be pure for subspecies (not that they are anyway). You will have to maintain 2 separate lines - Richardsons and Cackle Hatchery. It will be difficult and expensive.
I also suggest that you raise your junglefowl chicks with tame domestic chickens. This should tame them a bit. The more contact they have with people, the quieter they will be. Separate them when you want to breed them.
The tamer the bird, the better the breeder. Extremely wild birds can kill themselves by flying into posts etc.. Tamer birds can still be genetically pure wild birds, but much easier to manage.
I think the video of Richardsons birds that I watched may have been taken by an outsider. They may not be so wild with their regular keeper. Chickens recognize people and do not like strangers.

I was just suggesting Whitemountainsranch keep the richardsons because there's not many around and he/she may be able to keep them pure. But looking from the San Diego strain point of view and keeping them original, I can see the value if it's somewhat like a sentimental value or something of that sort (kinda like how one would like to preserve lets say a Kelso gamefowl even though its a chicken). And as for your comment on tamer birds, I have no comment since I get mixed answers (e.g. some authorities say that they can never be tamed and others say that they can be tame up to a certain point).

(and another thing, cacklehatchery and any other hatchery do not have true richardsons or indians even though they might state they do)

 

[centrarchid]

There is considerable fllexibility in tameness. I have worked with wild animals of many sorts. In addition to having domestics rear juveniles, housing can also be important. Simple issues such as how you approach animals can make a huge difference. Also some people, probably most, keeping wild animals do not have the skills needed for taming even though they may be able to keep their charges in excellent health.

I do not think Cackle states that have pure Red Jungle Fowl. MY experience with the owners is they are very much anchored in the facts.