New gamefowl thread

[Red Mangrove]

I've actually emailed some large-scale breeders and asked them. So far one has informed me that Kelso are the most productive, but I'm trying to get input from multiple sources

I also just learned about Cubalaya and it sounds potentially like the chicken breed I've been looking for

 

[Bigtom Turkey]

Just so you know, Cubalays are not gamefowl. They are pretty close, but not game.

 

[Chickenosauurs_RexNo54]

So all of these birds are the same breed, but different lines of the breed? Would it be ok to crossbreed these lines, and would I be able to show them?

 

[fluffycrow]

So all of these birds are the same breed, but different lines of the breed? Would it be ok to crossbreed these lines, and would I be able to show them?

No they're not the same. American gamefowl are different from Oriental gamefowl

 

[sdm111]

American gamefowl is a type of chicken
Within the type are breeds
Within the breeds are families

 

[fluffycrow]

Plus that. I just don't know enough about Americans to be talking about them, when we've got much more knowledgeable people here

 

[fat brown hen]

Which bloodlines of American Gamefowl are the most egg productive?

Cross an American Game with brown leghorn or other productive breed.

 

[centrarchid]

Cross an American Game with brown leghorn or other productive breed.

Sin

 

[fat brown hen]

Sin

Sorry, my mistake.

@Vanakrishna if you need more eggs, just buy twice as many gamefowl hens.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

So all of these birds are the same breed, but different lines of the breed? Would it be ok to crossbreed these lines, and would I be able to show them?

I take the view that American gamefowl are one breed, and within the breed are different bloodlines. The bloodlines can have physical or performance traits that vary between the lines and sometimes that causes people to consider a line a “breed” instead.

Historically, American gamefowl were the Old English gamefowl (a singular breed through much of history until recently) brought to the American colonies and adapted to North America. Well into American history, oriental and Spanish gamefowl, and some other groups, were also mixed into American lines. However, the Old English traits remained dominant via human and/or natural selection.

I think its most accurate to consider American gamefowl a singular breed that is an offshoot of Old English gamefowl (today Americans would be closest to the Oxford type Old English gamefowl). If one wished to draw breed divisions between American gamefowl, those divisions should likely be made where genetics from outside the breed were introduced and them normalized into that line. But then perhaps such a bird wouldn’t be a true American gamefowl at all, but some other new created type or an American x other breed to simply make a mutt the first generation. However, because outside blood almost always gets watered down back into the typical Old English gamefowl or “bankivoid” body type and traits, I personally wouldn’t carve out breeds between American lines. An American gamefowl is an American gamefowl, regardless as to comb type or leg color or any other superficial trait.

I do think most of the bloodline labels attached to American gamefowl today are marketing myth designed to fetch higher prices among cockfighters.