Breeding Aseels

[sdm111]

I have crawfish mounds all over
They make quick work of ruining lawnmower blades

 

[centrarchid]

I have crawfish mounds all over
They make quick work of ruining lawnmower blades

I wish crawfish that made such burrows where here. Back home we had a species that is upland and made burrows at least 14 feet deep. They good teaching tools for kids learning about bioturbation.

 

[centrarchid]

Five chicks hatched so far with two zipping. Hen super gentle to even me. Does not even growl when I move her out of way. She kept weight on through incubation cycle. Tomorrow she and brood will be moved to one of the little rabbit pens they will use each night. I started putting the rabbit pens on the flat-topped cock pens. Then we train chicks to use a ramp to get 4 feet up onto pens well before they can fly.

Incubator hatched and brooder reared pullet is showing some cleavage. She is a solid little beast.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Yours maturing faster than mine, and more heavily built than mine. Dark one does look stag to my eye. Mine still pullet.

I would lean towards it being a difference in genetics (I did notice when searching out aseels that sonatols were usually more beefy and broad-shouldered looking than other available kinds). But, mine also appear to be maturing faster than my brother's. As I think I previously specified, our birds are from the same breeder but different sub-lines and pens of sonatols. I'm not doing anything special with mine except feeding them high protein when its available. Some days they get floating catfish food. Other days 30% game bird chow, but most days its whatever chick starter I have around. 18% on the low end and 24% normally, but for their first few weeks I had a lot of 30% around and that was the bulk of their diet. I also give them meal worms and crickets whenever I think about stopping by the bait store on the way home from work. I've also given them raw meat and tomatoes from the garden. Basically whatever interesting I see available that might give them something to peck on during the day, considering I don't let them free range with the other chickens. I remember one day I gave them some roast beef. I don't give them a lot of greens. I'm basically projecting my Saipan fantasies on them but didn't think about it much until recently. Somehow I got it in my mind that all orientals were little meat eaters like the original Saipans were said to be and that's basically how I've been treating the aseel. I haven't asked my brother what he feeds his, but I bet its just whatever chick starter his feed store has available.

My brother has a deformed one in his batch just as I had in mine. This one looks more sickly and small overall than his others and doesn't have much of any feathering on its wings. This is an up-to-date picture where my sister-in-law is holding it. I got a video this evening and this bird is much less developed than its brood mates, and I'd say its brood mates are a little bit less developed than mine:

The sickly one is the one with poor wing development on the front left of the picture. Still shot from texted video from today, so its up to date.

 

[centrarchid]

Mine (now the one pullet) are being fed a diet that ranges 16 to 18% crude protein, My American Game chicks in general get a diet that ranges 18 to 20% crude protein for the first two to three months, then I back them down to about 16% and during winter we get into the 12 to 14% range. My American Games get coarse when fed the more protein dense feeds. I think the same higher end diets would cause joint problems in the Aseels I have based on what guy that gifted stage said. I am going to cut the American Game ration with something to pull protein down a little. That is why I try to figure out what the Pakistan guys are doing.

Real soon I will be making so the Aseel chicks can eat something different from what their gets, at least while penned. My assumption is lots of insects and vegetable matter picked up free-ranging will not cause issues like a feed.

 

[bradymars]

I would lean towards it being a difference in genetics (I did notice when searching out aseels that sonatols were usually more beefy and broad-shouldered looking than other available kinds). But, mine also appear to be maturing faster than my brother's. As I think I previously specified, our birds are from the same breeder but different sub-lines and pens of sonatols. I'm not doing anything special with mine except feeding them high protein when its available. Some days they get floating catfish food. Other days 30% game bird chow, but most days its whatever chick starter I have around. 18% on the low end and 24% normally, but for their first few weeks I had a lot of 30% around and that was the bulk of their diet. I also give them meal worms and crickets whenever I think about stopping by the bait store on the way home from work. I've also given them raw meat and tomatoes from the garden. Basically whatever interesting I see available that might give them something to peck on during the day, considering I don't let them free range with the other chickens. I remember one day I gave them some roast beef. I don't give them a lot of greens. I'm basically projecting my Saipan fantasies on them but didn't think about it much until recently. Somehow I got it in my mind that all orientals were little meat eaters like the original Saipans were said to be and that's basically how I've been treating the aseel. I haven't asked my brother what he feeds his, but I bet its just whatever chick starter his feed store has available.

My brother has a deformed one in his batch just as I had in mine. This one looks more sickly and small overall than his others and doesn't have much of any feathering on its wings. This is an up-to-date picture where my sister-in-law is holding it. I got a video this evening and this bird is much less developed than its brood mates, and I'd say its brood mates are a little bit less developed than mine:

View attachment 2257981

View attachment 2257987

The sickly one is the one with poor wing development on the front left of the picture. Still shot from texted video from today, so its up to date.

Unfortunately this one is a cull, you can see how he does but if it gets worse you may have to cull. I breed my own line of Aseels and have had them 37 yrs. whenever I had one that was not catching up I would cull as I didn’t want my gene pool to become compromised. I don’t give any meds or vaccines and I have a very healthy hardy line of chickens. I keep only the very best and linebreed from my best producing birds. I’ve learned not to baby them and they turn out stronger and healthier the way nature intended it’s just part of breeding. I hope it makes it.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Unfortunately this one is a cull, you can see how he does but if it gets worse you may have to cull. I breed my own line of Aseels and have had them 37 yrs. whenever I had one that was not catching up I would cull as I didn’t want my gene pool to become compromised. I don’t give any meds or vaccines and I have a very healthy hardy line of chickens. I keep only the very best and linebreed from my best producing birds. I’ve learned not to baby them and they turn out stronger and healthier the way nature intended it’s just part of breeding. I hope it makes it.

I have a tendency to agree. But that one’s not mine, that one is my brother’s. We’re both playing with the aseels for similar reasons and one that isn’t a strong flyer wouldn’t be good for us. The flight characteristics of aseel is one reason we chose them over malay or shamo for what’s we’re doing.

 

[centrarchid]

I have a tendency to agree. But that one’s not mine, that one is my brother’s. We’re both playing with the aseels for similar reasons and one that isn’t a strong flyer wouldn’t be good for us. The flight characteristics of aseel is one reason we chose them over malay or shamo for what’s we’re doing.

Aseels do not fly well unless compared to a Cornish X.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Aseels do not fly well unless compared to a Cornish X.

Can that vary by sub-breed? When I was researching aseels I watched several videos that showed them capable of good flight. They could launch straight up well above the height of a man in just one burst. Enough to put themselves up into trees if they wanted. Which is what I want compared to other orientals, which seem mostly flightless and whose roosting habits I’ve seen described as more hopping to low perches.

Now whether its an aseel’s nature to want to fly or not, I‘ll just have to learn. But where I’m crossing them into birds that are very flighty, I’m hoping the crosses will have enough physical and instinctual equipment to prefer tree roosting.

In my reseach I definitely saw aseels that looked like they had small wings. Almost like shamos. But the sonatols seem to have long and strong wings in proportion to their bodies.

 

[centrarchid]

Can that vary by sub-breed? When I was researching aseels I watched several videos that showed them capable of good flight. They could launch straight up well above the height of a man in just one burst. Enough to put themselves up into trees if they wanted. Which is what I want compared to other orientals, which seem mostly flightless and whose roosting habits I’ve seen described as more hopping to low perches.

Now whether its an aseel’s nature to want to fly or not, I‘ll just have to learn. But where I’m crossing them into birds that are very flighty, I’m hoping the crosses will have enough physical and instinctual equipment to prefer tree roosting.

In my reseach I definitely saw aseels that looked like they had small wings. Almost like shamos. But the sonatols seem to have long and strong wings in proportion to their bodies.

They can flap wings well, but they are not strong fliers. Too heavy, especially their back half. That is across the board for the Aseel type orientals. Flying over your head I expect even 3 week old American Games can do.