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

[Az OEGB]

flyingfrizzle was his eBay handle. Good quality eggs and good communication with me. Actually the best experience I’ve had buying eggs on ebay. If he still sells, I recommend.

I will sure be looking into it

 

[Az OEGB]

flyingfrizzle was his eBay handle. Good quality eggs and good communication with me. Actually the best experience I’ve had buying eggs on ebay. If he still sells, I recommend.

do you now how to find him on eBay

 

[raingarden]

do you now how to find him on eBay

None listed right now.
https://www.ebay.ca/str/wahlmotorcycleparts

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Who suggested earlier in this or another thread that a possible issue with the new free rangers dying from grass ingestion might be crop impaction?

 

[Az OEGB]

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This blue pullet is my first American x Cracker cross. Mongo is her father. She’s much larger than a Cracker and only a bit smaller than the BF, with whom she is the same age as.

How are your mongo x crackers pullets doing

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

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How are your mongo x crackers pullets doing

The Mongo birds washed out on my farm, but are doing well on a family member’s farm where Mongo resides with a Cracker and mixed flock.

Who suggested earlier in this or another thread that a possible issue with the new free rangers dying from grass ingestion might be crop impaction?

Major update: whoever suggested my issue might be crop impaction may not have been hitting far from the mark. When I have time I may crawl through the thread and look for the post.

I have a bunch of Cracker American cross chicks thriving at the moment:

The older ones are 50:50 and 75:25 Cracker to American. The fresher ones are 75:25 and AGB. The younger ones were put out at less than 24 hours old. They are doing well, only having lost 3 of 21 of the fresh ones and none of the 11 older ones. I wanted to get ahead of whatever pathogens might be in the dirt or grass, noticing I can trace my problems with sub-adult deaths to their first exposure to grass. So far so good.

I was watching Indo eat acorns and pondering his gizzard stones grinding up the acorn hulls inside his digestive tract. Then it hit me…

I don’t give my chicks and coop birds any grit. Ever. Never thought about it, always assuming they find their gizzard stones whenever they need them out of the ground. Where I came from in central Florida where the soil is alkaline and full of lime and flint rock, that was realistic. Where I am now, there isn’t hardly any rock. Definitely not anything in the coops after years of the chickens picking through the coop dirt. I rarely give oyster-shell in small amounts a couple times of year and not intending it to be grit, just a source or calcium.

So what would you predict would happen if you raised chicks to 6 months old with little to no exposure to grass, no food but crumbles, and no grit, and all of a sudden turned them out on an infinite supply of greenery? The birds wouldn’t likely go immediately hunting for stones and find them in the size they need in a rock-poor habitat. They’d likely gorge themselves of blades of grads and leaves their digestive tract isn’t equipped to process. Including the various toxic plants around that are now going to clog up their system.

I haven’t been giving the newer gen birds a chance because I’ve given them no gizzard stones for the first several months of life. They can’t live that way. Its a wonder I’ve had any survive when turned out. I think its been a progressive issue because the first birds brought to the farm a few years ago had the best picking of small pebbles and stones and as time went on less has been available, especially in the coops and brooders I grow out artificially incubated chicks in. Those chicks started on fresh ground and free range with mothers have been able to start with the smallest grit and work their way up as they foraged across appropriate stones.

So I went out and bought some granite rocks in 2 sizes and put the smaller size in with the chicks and the larger size with the adults. I also gave the free range birds a pile. Across the board they all ate it like candy, with the chicks taking the longest to clean it up over about 3-4 days and the adults cleaning it up except a few rocks in 2 days. They needed it.

So I think I’m on to something. The chicks I’m brooding on the ground can’t really be used to experiment with because any improved resilience they might exhibit may be due to early pathogen exposure and not the gizzard stones. But I’ll brood a group off the ground again and give them plenty of rock and then turn them out at sub-adulthood and see how they do.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

On a sadder note:

Indo trashed Hei Hei today and I subsequently culled Hei Hei. I neglectfully left Hei Hei’s coop door open while tending coops before work and before I realized it Hei Hei was chasing one of the free range hens about 75 yards away from me but right by Indo. Indo charged him Indo absolutely clobbered him.

I’m actually a bit relieved. Hei Hei has been a good rooster and I won’t willy nilly cull one that’s been good. Originally I retired Hei Hei to my brother’s farm but got him back when I lost Number 1. Yet he never conformed to what I wanted and he was taking up space. So in a way this worked out. I have used his now empty coop to divide my bitties into two groups so they won’t be so tightly packed in.

 

[Molpet]

On a sadder note:

Indo trashed Hei Hei today and I subsequently culled Hei Hei. I neglectfully left Hei Hei’s coop door open while tending coops before work and before I realized it Hei Hei was chasing one of the free range hens about 75 yards away from me but right by Indo. Indo charged him Indo absolutely clobbered him.

I’m actually a bit relieved. Hei Hei has been a good rooster and I won’t willy nilly cull one that’s been good. Originally I retired Hei Hei to my brother’s farm but got him back when I lost Number 1. Yet he never conformed to what I wanted and he was taking up space. So in a way this worked out. I have used his now empty coop to divide my bitties into two groups so they won’t be so tightly packed in.

Sorry you lost him but glad you could find the silver lining.
I had an owl take out my breeding tom last week. But I was thinking I needed new blood in a couple years and didn't want to cull him.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Pics of Indo out the door this morning. He doesn’t have any Cracker blood in him but he has the full feathering and long sickles I like, owing mostly to the Wahl aseel I think.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

6 months this week. As of tonight he’s 4lb.

Azog is 5lb,13oz as of tonight. That means his growth has now accelerated to about 1.4oz a day since his last weigh-in on November 21. Previously his growth rate was holding at or around .8oz a day.