American Game

I bought a pair of Hatch Hens and their 9 chicks at an auction. I had never dealt with Games before. The mothers were very loud and protective of the babies and would attack any bird that got within a 5 ft radius. This was a little dissapointing considering my aviary has lots of birds that all walk and mostly get along together. These two girls had all the other domestic birds so terrified, that they all stayed on the opposite side of the aviary. The new girls even attacked me at first, but that behavior was quickly corrected (non-violently). After a few days I had to take the chicks away, and the mothers calmed down within a day or so and are now a lot friendlier and easier to deal with. Pretty birds.

The new girls did make the mistake of picking on the grown Guinea hens. We did have a little pecking-order fight a couple of times and the girls now know that you don't mess with the Guineas.

The chicks were brought into the house and are currently being raised there. The chicks are real sweet and curious. They love to be picked up and cuddled. They will go back outside in a few weeks.

I've had these types of birds for many years, when they lay they lay decently, mine were seasonal layers of small to medium off white eggs. The roosters I've had came in many different colors, but all looked wonderful and held themselves well. Hens varied in colors as well, black to brown, grey to white, wonderful and again random. They were always very flighty though, very alert when out but when they get scared, they'd quickly fly into trees. Also, very noisy especially when held, didn't much care for that.

A neighbor gave me 2 of these as chicks and I ended up giving both away. One turned out to be a rooster which I had to re-home, and I think separating him from his sister started her off on the wrong foot in my flock. She was always very vocal from a young age. It started when the older hens would chase her away from food, making her very food aggressive. She became lowest of the pecking order and every morning would voice her dissent by squawking loudly at feed time for an hour, non-stop. My older hens would constantly chase her and she would fly over the fence. I never bothered to trim her wings because I felt that she was justified at trying to get away. She is flighty and not easy to catch but once held is very sweet. She didn't start laying until about 6+ months old. Because she never fit in with my other hens I eventually gave her away to a friend who had a much more welcoming flock. I'm happy to say that she is very happy and finally being included in an established flock, I have been told that she is now laying regularly and is very broody at times. Not great for a small backyard, your neighbors will not be happy if your hen is as loud as a rooster.

I will say that she was a great forager, very smart, and beautiful to look at. She would regularly escape to the other side of my yard to scavenge. Once I saw her jump on a squirrel and chase it out of the yard. It was hilarious to watch and I appreciated that since squirrels love to steal fruit in the Summer. I want the squirrels to know which yard to avoid

very protective

The American Game is a wonderful breed of bird. They are beautiful and they come in many different colors. For color and beauty they deserve a five star. But there are some cons to owning them. The biggest con is what other people think about you when they find out you are raising Gamefowl. Everyone seems to have an opinion on this subject and most of them are pretty radical. Say the word American Game in a crowded room and you just might start a fight. Some people wouldn't take an American Game if you gave it to them, while other's value them so high as to ask $500 for a trio of birds. And there are people who will pay it!

All opinions aside, it is just a chicken. Just like with any other breed of chicken, you will have birds with different attitudes. Some will be more aggressive then others, but not all are this way. In fact today, the breed seems to be calming down a little because breeders are not targeting the aggressive gene. Most people now days raise them for their beauty. Yes, they do lay eggs, but they are not the best layers. As far a meat quality goes, they are edible, but they are very thin birds that won't put on weight no matter how much you feed them and there are much more tastier breeds of chickens you could raise.

The biggest pro, aside from their beauty, is there free ranging and predator evasion ability. The American Game has very large wings compared to other chicken breeds. Because they are not heavy birds, this gives them the ability to fly extremely well. I have seen birds fly two hundreds yards and glide to the ground over the last fifty yards. They will range far and wide if given room and can fly all the way home if chased by a predator.

They are very broody birds but they are not very good at hatching eggs and raising chicks. Most are very determined brooders and will go months being broody until they get a nest of eggs. This is a bad thing because hens will literally fight over a nest of eggs and they will not lay eggs while being broody. Some claim to have good success with them as mothers, but my experience has been pretty bad. Last year I gave six American Game hens a dozen eggs each to hatch out. None of them hatch more then five of the twelve eggs. None of the chicks that I let the hens raise survived to adulthood.


The bottom line is that if you are looking for some good yard art or eye candy, you might like the American Game. As with any other breed, you cannot paint the whole breed with a single brush. Each bird is different. They above comments are from my own personal experience raising over one hundred American Game birds for the last two years in a totally free-range environment on a ten-acre farm. I am sure that you might get different results in a different more controlled environment.

omg theyre so beautiful