Black Dragons [Long-term selective culling project]

[Red Mangrove]

On my small and humble homestead I will be attempting to create a new survival chicken breed. I'm doing this because in my experience so far there exists no perfect dual-purpose breed

Commercial farms and hatcheries are the main producers of chickens in 2023. Even my "pure" red junglefowl hen is probably severely inbred from having small pool of ancestors at Cackle Hatchery- and none of her ancestors at Cackle were selectively bred for survival purposes. They were merely locked in a box and chosen based entirely on appearance as well as other obvious, superficial traits

I would expect nothing less or more from a chicken merchant


My End Goal: a large dual-purpose breed capable of independent survival. Actively carnivorous behavior (beyond the merely insectivorous) would be ideal.
Also, for my own personal joy I would like to make these chickens with a dangerous and draconic appearance. Preferably dark legs and blue eggs, but this may be sacrificed entirely for the first and foremost purpose of survivalism

Present Materials:

• Indio Gigante rooster
• Fayoumi rooster, his 3 sisters, and 1 Fayoumi chick
• Red Junglefowl (RJF) hen
• Asil hen and her 8 Indio Gigante mixed babies
• ~20 American Gamefowl (AGF) hens
• ~10 AGF / RJF hens
• 7 Rhode Island Red (RIR) hens
• 5 AGF / RIR hens
• 15 Ameraucana / 14 AGF and 1 RJF chicks
• 4 Lavender Brahma / Lavender Orpington crosses that I never intended to breed at all
• 15 Indio Gigante, Brahma and Orpington mixes. All black
• 15 Indio Gigante / RIR chicks
• 30 Indio Gigante / AGF chicks
• 2 Silkies that exist as an evil, dangerous presence to my survival breeding project

Current objective is re-homing my Indio Gigante and then letting the Fayoumi take over. The Fayoumi will reign here, and I will hand select the finest of cockerels to serve beneath them until the Fayoumi themselves are overthrown

My current broodcock: 1 year old Indio Gigante nicknamed "All-Might". A calm and peaceful gentleman. The symbol of peace

The next broodcock: 8 month old Egyptian Fayoumi my children have named "Deku". He's currently incarcerated in chicken jail, in an attempt to separate him from his sisters. However they are honestly the most noble chickens I have ever beheld and refuse to join my Indio Gigante and abandon their brother

He will be released from comfortable political prison soon, and it will be his turn to reign on the land

 

[nicalandia]

Just breed for Black Indio Gigantes. They are Survivors

 

[Red Mangrove]

Just breed for Black Indio Gigantes. They are Survivors

Mine seems kinda slow and awkward honestly. I think that chickens have a natural size capacity and Indios are beyond it

In another breeding project I recall reading that a Liege Fighter was unable to brood because she kept crushing her eggs with her mass

I expect every single one of my Indio Gigante's children to exceed him in quality, if only because they'll be far more graceful and swift

 

[Karoo permaculture]

any hatches yet?

 

[Red Mangrove]

any hatches yet?

I was trying to quietly let this thread die to be honest. It was presumptuous of me to make a thread on creating a chicken breed. Anyways, to answer your question-

The Indio Gigante was surprisingly nearly infertile. Despite having a large harem exclusively available to him for several months he had perhaps less than 10 total offspring. Every other rooster I had here, no matter how little the duration or how low ranking, had far more offspring than him

The Egyptian Fayoumi cockerel has already produced far more and higher quality offspring than the Indio ever did. It'll be interesting to switch off broodcocks later this year and have a handsome Ameraucana X RJF (Easter egger?) breed the Fayoumi and the Fayoumi crosses

If my project produces nothing else, it would be nice to try breeding Fayoumi with pea combs so they're more cold weather adapted

 

[cubalaya]

get you some pure brazilians.

 

[Red Mangrove]

get you some pure brazilians.

I would love some. Right now I'm just watching American Game X Fayoumi grow out. They're very feral and grow fast compared to my AGF

 

[Red Mangrove]

Fayoumi X are developing into beautiful birds so far. I have around 20 the last I checked. No deaths yet, whereas the Indio Gigante X had a high mortality rate

 

[RobG7aChattTN]

Funny but I was just in another similar thread saying that for a similar project I’d start with game x Fayoumi. Your Cackle “Reds” are probably 90% domestic already.

 

[Red Mangrove]

Funny but I was just in another similar thread saying that for a similar project I’d start with game x Fayoumi. Your Cackle “Reds” are probably 90% domestic already.

I'm more concerned with function than anything else and the San Diego Zoo mixed "RJF" have proven useful. Interestingly the Fayoumi have done terrible free-ranging. In their behavior they're almost identical to the American Game yet predators have eaten all the Fayoumi hens

I think they had the exact right combo of adventurousness and bad coloring to get themselves killed. Anything white always sticks out like a sore thumb in the forest. I'm sure their color works well in Egypt but not here

Right now I have a bunch of mixed Fayoumi running around in my mixed flock, including one brown cockerel that may be Fayoumi x Asil. So he may have a useful set of genetics for me