American Game Chickens

[centrarchid]

Bullstag roosting but not asleep in pen. Already at time of year covers removed.

Old Sallie. She was eight as well. Test mating her line-bred offspring this coming spring.

 

[centrarchid]

Games can be really good for public display. Default setting for my hens is to flog when you approach chicks and sometimes even nest. With minimal work I can get so hen interacts freely with public. Caged is not freely to be clear. A chick below was giving to a high school student that just now became a cock. He is being kept as a house pet of all things.

Dom stag (now transitioning to a cock) that was brought in to for his white leg allele being inserted into my Missouri Dominique project. He is heavier and higher stationed than my birds. He was inclined to be a man-fighter as well which did not take much time to fix. He has a bad leg that I think was due to handling. Will be mating him to one of my game hens for giggles next spring, then he needs a new home. Will post a picture of him when he cocks out.

 

[centrarchid]

This something I have to watch for although bigger problem is when young are of same brood and more evenly matched. Being games, once fights start, they sometimes do not stop until someone is dead. These two stags differ in age by about 5 weeks. Stag (5 weeks post-hatch) at transition from chick to juvenile (10 weeks post-hatch) is taking on a full juvenile. Pullets behind smaller bird are backing him up but would run easily if big guy could get at them. Even little stag would give pretty quick if solid contact realized.

 

[centrarchid]

Check out the two pen designs. First is 4.5' x 4.5' made only of a heavier duty welded wire fencing with edges held together by wrapping wire ends. The pen was put together back in 1983 as part of the last year in 4H.

This design was made 6 years ago with a combination of a lighter duty welded wire a treated lumber base used to help hold shape at 4' x 5'.

I like the old design better but having trouble finding the tough version of the welded wire. Lower version is easier to move without deforming bottom, but does not look like it will last 10 years.

 

[Hen Pen Jem]

So interesting, I have no knowledge of game fowl, except my little hen "Riki Tiki", that adopted us. This might sound stupid, but, what do you mean when you say, "male broodiness"? With domestic chickens, only hens go broody. Thank you, in advance for the education!

 

[centrarchid]

Example of male broodiness in thread linked below. Capacity appears to be wide spread in American Games and some have related similar observations in the oriental type games.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/what-to-look-for-in-a-broody-rooster.882368/

 

[centrarchid]

No pictures will go with this one. A brood of only three pullets that keep to themselves went into battle royal mode today, apparently just before I got home from work. Carnage could be heard from over 100 yards away. I had to tie up three pens for just three pullets that are only 7 weeks old. I should have split them yesterday as they were already getting testing. Will give them a few days before putting them in a single pen with a cock.

 

[SOHC-FTW]

For sturdy wire for pens I use concrete wire maybe that's something simular to what is above without frame.

 

[centrarchid]

I am setting up breeding pairs now. Two this morning, and two more by end of day. Hens / pullets have been on a rich diet for about 2 weeks with increasing light so their combs are swelling with some showing white ears. They are all showing that blocky look to body with a pinched tail held about 45 degrees above horizontal.

One mating will be something I am skeptical but doing so at request of a friend. Will be breeding one of my better hens to a Kentucky Dom x dom cock. I will keep no males of that but will consider offspring of the pullets bred back to one of my cocks.

 

[centrarchid]

These are examples where I actually breeding for color, naughty. First is a blue-legged gray toppy stag.

Second is a dom cock that I am not quite sure on the breeding of as source did not provide a lot of detail even when pressed. What is clear is come Asian influence.