Everything Asil Thread ( show off those Asil )

[ccassidy18]

Are those the breeds you raise? I only have two of those breeds. Barred Plymouth rocks,and asils.

 

[JRNash]

Those are the breeds Ive got started. Also 5 brown Chinese, 2white chinese, and 4 white Embden geese

 

[Bushmansbliss]

I live in Pa but spent most of last winter working in upstate NY and our winters are similar. I have a lot of deciduous and evergreen cover on my property for the birds. I started my flock with gamefowl lines and when I can prefer to use gamefowl, but I have crossed in cubalaya hens, Sumatran hens, RJF hens and Asil (Roosters and hens). I tried some silver Phoenix too but they got selected against pretty quick. I figure by using gamefowl roosters they will naturally select for survivability.

My goal was/is to have a painters pallet of beautiful self sufficient birds that could maintain and have a thriving population that I could harvest excess roosters from. I don't care if they breed true to colors, I would like them to maintain pea comb but some straight combs make their way into the mix too. The straight combs did get some frost bite last winter while the pea combs where fine with the cold.

As for broodiness most of my feral hens will raise 2 or 3 clutches in a season, if they don't get picked off by a predator while brooding.

 

[ccassidy18]

My mom wont let me get geese,she is afraid they will get aggressive with my little brothers. But we have guineas now,along with our chickens,so I guess we have an alarm system fit for a king.hahaha. but my favorite geese are the brown Chinese.

 

[ccassidy18]

I guess that is a good way to go about it,but my plans are that if I have birds get frostbite,then the will no longer be used for the breeding. But I will first nget the breed to breed true and be finished... Then I will start working with the self sufficiency. At which point I will remove any birds that get frostbite,or somehow turn to a different color or something. They will be accustomed to living off the land. Do you feed yours during winter? Or do they find stuff to eat?

 

[varidgerunner]

American games will handle the cold a little better than the hard feathered asil, you can dub the brood roosters you wish to keep through the winter, if you don't the frost will, either way it is not much of an issue. The hens usually have small, tight combs.

If you are planning on letting nature take it's course and using gamefowl to self regulate on the excess males, it is not going to be real pretty. The ones, or more like one, that you have left probably won't be much to look at. They put out eyes, scalp each other, break wings and all sorts of things. The survivors might in fact be the ones that aren't very game at all and run and hide whenever they hear trouble. Likewise you could end up with survivors that weren't able to breed, or even no surviving roosters at all. They don't tend to notice predators real well when they are facing off, and it would be possible to have one kill another and die later from injuries. Another problem, if you are using the asil, it won't just be the roosters self regulating, the hens will do a good number on each other as well. If they have small chicks, they might get caught in the crossfire. I don't mean to rain on your parade, just throwing out some possible outcomes. I suppose if you add it in and then mix enough other stuff to breed it back out, it might work, but to retain the traits that you want it will be a lifelong project.

 

[ccassidy18]

That is true with the asils,so maybe I I'll use them for other things. And just as a side note on the DC chick I hatched...man do I wish other chicks would've hatched with it. I woke up at 5:20 this morning to the sound of it chirping. I so went and played with it for a couple minutes to give it company. I went back to bed,and no sooner did I do tha ,the chick started chirping again,and it chirps LOUD. I lost an hour of sleep to it,ugh. Man,I wish others would've hatched.

 

[varidgerunner]

I once had a plan to have a semi-feral flock of naturally reproducing chickens using gamefowl. Naturlal selection in action. What I envisioned was like a nature show, but ended up looking more like The Walking Dead. One good thing I've noticed about the Asils is that they don't roost as high as American games. Makes it easier to gather stags when it's time.

 

[ccassidy18]

Oh,I didn't know that I wasn't the only person to try making semi ferals...I thought I might be a crazy person,lol.

 

[JRNash]

Lucky is gonna have to have a bigger play pen soon