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

[Bigtom Turkey]

I agree with you that natural selection will sort it out. But me controlling which roosters free range is acting like a bulwark to complete natural selection.

I am strongly considering turning out my half and full Cracker roosters and subjecting them to Indo. Some or all may die. Or some may take some hens and move to the periphery of the farm, which is what I hope will happen.

If I do this, the only rooster that will not be turned out is Sherman. He will most certainly fight Indo and die, where Indo now has 2 inch spurs and Sherman is still a stag and has nubs. I may also keep back Lanky.

Sherman will take a while before he has spurs. A bullstag will have about one inch spurs that are sharp. He will probably be three before he gets where indo is.

 

[Bigtom Turkey]

If I do this, the only rooster that will not be turned out is Sherman. He will most certainly fight Indo and die, where Indo now has 2 inch spurs and Sherman is still a stag and has nubs. I may also keep back Lanky.

I will say I've seen large stags whoop smaller, older, males despite their spurs. If Sherman has enough weight, and more importantly, height on Indo he could win.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I will say I've seen large stags whoop smaller, older, males despite their spurs. If Sherman has enough weight, and more importantly, height on Indo he could win.

He is significantly taller than Indo. But Indo is still large and he is a beast in his prime at 3 years old. It would not be fair to subject Sherman to that. His body cannot yet backup what his mind would tell him to do. And he’s too good of a specimen to waste.

My plan as of now is to turn out a pure Cracker cock (one ya’ll haven’t seen yet) and a half-cracker cock (Erik the Red). Let the chips fall where they may as to whether they start new flocks or die by Indo. Keep Lanky and my best pure Cracker hen put up. Turn out all other chickens except Sherman and the pure Liege. Let the single free range flock sort out its own genetics.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Those spurs are about 2 inches long and getting longer.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I’d turn the Liege out too, but they won’t brood. So I’ll keep them with Sherman and artificially incubate and rear those chicks.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

This is Black Eyed Pea. So named by my wife because of his dark eyes. I’ve probably got a pic of him younger some pages back. He is the only one of about 100 gen 3 terrowfowl to not show signs of contracting Marek’s and is the only one to survive 2023. He has grown up free range. He crows but does not top hens. His wings are large and he freely tree roosts, unlike Indo who can but won’t. I have prepared a coop for him and will attempt to pen him this weekend with one of the three way cross hens.

Indo and Sherman.

Sherman and some of the Liege hens.

I decided to keep the Crackers and half-Crackers cooped. I’ll update the threads on those projects.

 

[Bigtom Turkey]

Sherman is a beast!

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Sherman is a beast!

Yes. He’s hard to get good pics of. Up close he’s too big to get in frame and in the distance he marches around the hens. He’s got to be pretty close to having the frame of a Liege cock. He just lacks the full feathering, which contributes to the overall impression of size a Liege has.

 

[TexasBlues]

I’m sure you’ve already said it, but can you remind what the genetics of Indo is? I watched the videos of him eating a chicks awhile back, I thought was wild.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I’m sure you’ve already said it, but can you remind what the genetics of Indo is? I watched the videos of him eating a chicks awhile back, I thought was wild.

Half-Liege, half-Wahl aseel.

Father was this bird:

Mother was one of three Liege hens, such as the one behind the stag in this pic.