Developing My Own Breed Of Large Gamefowl For Free Range Survival (Junglefowl x Liege)

[Florida Bullfrog]

They look nice. What are your plans for them?

I am going to randomly cross them with Crackers, Indo, and the Cracker crosses to see if it improves the offspring’s survivability any.

The stags are not off to a good start, where one hasn’t made it a week free ranging. He disappeared the evening before the tropical storm came through.

I’m not a fan of grey gamefowl myself, for no reason than I don’t like the color. So if I decide to work the Fayoumi into my project lines, I’d want to bury them deep inside.

 

[Appalachian homestead]

I don't have any experience with the fayoumis, but I would guess they won't help your crackers much with predator evasion. I figure if you see benefits, it would be more along the lines of disease resistance. They are probably better than most chickens at free range survival, but I doubt they're better than your crackers. This is just based on what I've read, and the hype about fayoumis

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I don't have any experience with the fayoumis, but I would guess they won't help your crackers much with predator evasion. I figure if you see benefits, it would be more along the lines of disease resistance. They are probably better than most chickens at free range survival, but I doubt they're better than your crackers. This is just based on what I've read, and the hype about fayoumis

That’s what my thought is… my Crackers don’t need any improved predator resistance. I rarely lose Crackers to predators. What I’m looking for now is improved disease/parasite/natural toxin/environmental resistance. I lose far more immature birds in their first 2 weeks of free ranging to the hazards of the habitat than I do to predators. Whatever it may be; salt bush poisoning, botulism, coccidiosis, unknown internal parasites, fire ant/toad/millipede toxicity, my farm has become rough for immature birds in their first few days of free ranging. Yet if they make it past two weeks they seem to make it overall. My answer may lay in simply breeding the survivors to each other. But I am curious to test the hype around Fayoumi immunities.

 

[Appalachian homestead]

Do you have a lot bare exposed soil where the chickens hang out? It could be an over-impact issue if the birds have killed the vegetation in an area where they spend a lot of time. Unfortunately the best cure for most bugs/parasites/pathogens is to give the soil a good long rest/recovery period. I do this with my cows and also chickens in tractors, but it's much harder with free range birds. I know of a farmer that moves his flock every 1-3 days , but he says you need at least 50 acres or they'll just come back to their favorite areas anyway. In nature, changing seasons, good sources, and predators keep animals moving from one area to another.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

There’s no way for me to rotate the chickens. I have 40 acres and in my experimentation birds I turn out in far parts of the farm either return the next day or up to two weeks, but they always come back.

In nature red junglefowl often spend their entire lives within a few hundred yards of the same roost. Its not in a chicken’s DNA to ramble like wild turkeys do. I am aware of a gamefowl keeper in north Florida who’s birds will travel up to three miles between roosts over the course of several days or weeks, but that’s the furtherest example I am aware of.

The main farmyard is mostly 2 acres of grass. There is a big sandy spot I through their feed in. My farm is a high pine ridge that juts out into swampland. Lots of wild waterfowl around and the birds have access to two large ponds with shallow zones that get hot as bath water in the summer. The perfect place for botulism.

It is what it is. The birds have to conform to the land or die. There’s no way around it. The majority of the flock has conformed. Its just a slow burn building their numbers. The free range flock doesn’t see to like to be more than 30 individual adults. That may be the carrying capacity of my stretch of farmyard.

In the future I am going to experiment with deer feeders around the property to see if they’ll help keep flocks separated from each other. But that will be a ways off.

 

[sdm111]

Just a note on what i have experienced crossing grey and red fowl. Once I or anyone I know cross Grey's with kelso or hatch or any other red fowl the offspring always look like Greys no matter how many times you breed back to the red (out crossing the grey). If you don't want the grey look then I wouldn't have any on your property. It's next to impossible to get red color back. Whatever the geneticist say is fine, just what I personally experienced. Just thought I'd add that so you don't potentially lose alot of time

 

[Appalachian homestead]

There’s no way for me to rotate the chickens.

I understand that. Most people can't very well. I don't move my free range flock either.

 

[NatJ]

I lose far more immature birds in their first 2 weeks of free ranging to the hazards of the habitat than I do to predators. Whatever it may be; salt bush poisoning, botulism, coccidiosis, unknown internal parasites, fire ant/toad/millipede toxicity, my farm has become rough for immature birds in their first few days of free ranging. Yet if they make it past two weeks they seem to make it overall. My answer may lay in simply breeding the survivors to each other. But I am curious to test the hype around Fayoumi immunities.

Do you think they might fare better if you let broody hens raise them on range from their very first day? That way they could learn about the hazards from her, instead of learning it later by trial and (fatal) error.

Of course, there's the chance that you would just lose them sooner that way, which might not be an improvement.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Just a note on what i have experienced crossing grey and red fowl. Once I or anyone I know cross Grey's with kelso or hatch or any other red fowl the offspring always look like Greys no matter how many times you breed back to the red (out crossing the grey). If you don't want the grey look then I wouldn't have any on your property. It's next to impossible to get red color back. Whatever the geneticist say is fine, just what I personally experienced. Just thought I'd add that so you don't potentially lose alot of time

That is consistent with what I watched Douglas Bruce, and old-fashioned rooster man, say of his mentor Mike Ratliff’s birds. Mr. Bruce indicated Mr. Ratliff introduced grey blood into one of his lines with the intention of burying the genetics deep and he could never again get the grey appearance out of that line.

That’s one of the places where I’m torn between my philosophy of survival of the fittest and the desire to create a couple of breeds that conform to superficial traits I want.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Do you think they might fare better if you let broody hens raise them on range from their very first day? That way they could learn about the hazards from her, instead of learning it later by trial and (fatal) error.

Of course, there's the chance that you would just lose them sooner that way, which might not be an improvement.

I believe they would. It is almost always the artificially incubated birds that fair poorly when thrown out to free range for the first time. Just today I turned out a pure Cracker hen who only hatched 3 chicks (3/4 Cracker, 1/4 Blueface). I let her brood her chicks for a couple of weeks in a small coop. Now they have free range of the farmyard. I suspect they’ll return to the same coop every night. All three chicks represent the same cross, they are all hers fathered by Lanky. This fall I started keeping eggs separate from each hen for the first time. Every batch so set is only of one hen and one rooster and are toe punched accordingly. I’m looking to see if certain hen/rooster combinations make better survivors than others.

The worst issue I have with mother hens is them flying up high to roost too early. I have lost entire broods from hens leaving them all on the ground as they fly up into trees or a high nest box. The best way I’ve found to combat this is to lock them in small coops for the first couple of weeks and then leave the coop open for them to come and go from. They seem to return to that safe coop each night and to stay on the ground longer with the chicks. I also include low roosts that chicks can usually access by week 2-3.

I’ve had the odd chick that will make it up steep inclines on day one and up to an 7-8 foot roosting bar just as soon as they can flap and fly. Ideally I’d love to only let those amazingly early developers be the survivors and breeders. But that wouldn only net me a couple of new birds a year for the next couple of years.