American Game - a beginners bird ?

[Eggnette]

I am brandnew to chickens and plan on getting 3-4 backyard birds. Animal welfare is very important to me and I have an opportunity to adopt american game fowl from a chicken fight bust.
While I'd love to give them a new and loving home, I am worried that they might not be beginners' bird as they are more wild than other breeds.
Flighty ? Noisy ? Broody ?
I'd like to get this forums opinion if this breed is recommendable to newbies (in a small backyard run with neighors nearby that dont quite know of our sustainable flock...).

Thanks for your input in advance.

 

[Eggnette]

PS: We would only adopt the hens, no roosters. I think this makes a difference for docile ?

 

[MareeZoCool]

I have an Old English Game rooster. He was raised by a lovely lady, was 2nd in line untill he came to my home. He is gentle, "Ben" has never tried to show any threatening behavior to me or my DH. he's busy with our 3 hens.

 

[DTchickens]

American Gamefowl "can" be a beginners bird, but I always tell people know what you are getting yourself into (do your research). This should be so with any breed.. American Games as you probably know are aggressive towards other fowl, mainly only so in the cocks but hens can be this way too especially when in a enclosure together and will fight just as badly as cocks. Other than the space required to raise the beautiful birds, I would say they're pretty easy. They eat much less than regular farm type fowl, lay nearly as good, and with the correct handling most of the time can be gentled down just as much if not more even in the hens. Like my Whitehackles for example, I have one on the yard running loose just taking care of herself (she stays around the house, so my German Shepherd watches over her). If I tried to catch her I couldn't do so without a pen and some feed tossed in it, and even then she could be smart enough to stay away.

Her sister was like that too before I caught her up for breeding purposes, but now after handling her two times she is not scared one bit. Same thing goes for a CRAZY hen I have, but she could be a American game cross with some nutty little junglefowl I had once too, not sure since she was yard raised.

-Daniel

ETA: Check out the breed pages CUDA and I did on the American games to answer the noisy/broody/etc part. Or you can stop by the Show off your games thread anytime with some questions.