Hello from Thailand

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AntiqueB said:
Welcome!

What an amazing story! Your birds are beautiful. Did they adapt to confinement well? How are the duck eggs doing?
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The duck eggs appear to be doing well, I can see the babies swimming when I candle them. Last time none of them pipped, but this time I'm more hopeful, since the air pockets are much larger now that I'm dry incubating, and I've left the fan unplugged.

The jungle fowl was originally a family group of 4, two hens and two roosters. The second rooster was a "hanger on" that was only tolerated at a distance by the dominant cock, so he wasn't captured with the others when I gently closed the cage door on the main group. But he wouldn't leave his family, and came by every day to pace around outside their pen. Watching them all interact was interesting, I got to see some surprising behaviors like "tidbitting", where the cock takes food and drops it in front of the hens to invite them to come and eat. And of course mating, which was surprisingly quick and non-confrontational.

Since I was still feeding the lone male every day, he became almost tame. He would run up to my motorcycle when I would come home, looking for a handout. He'd follow me about the yard like a puppy. He would even let me touch his tailfeathers without panicing, just move away so his tail wasn't within my reach then turn around and resume eating his rice.

So I attempted to herd him into the cage one day, and in the attempt not only failed, but the other cock saw his chance and flew the coop! So I ended up with 2 hens, but no males.

The two roosters liked to roost in a tree behind my property, and they came down to visit their hens every day. Unfortunately, one morning I was up early taking my dogs to do their business before sun-up, and my semi-tame friend flew down and came running to greet me. The dominant rooster took his que from my almost tame one, and then my dogs took matters into their own hands. My tame one lost a tail feather or two, but I was able to restrain my Dobie and the rooster was able to escape. The dominant one wasn't so lucky, he took to the air in panic, and ended up landing in my German Shepherd's fenced in play area, which was a fatal mistake. I was really shocked by how quick it all went down, and saddened as well. But I was happy my semi-tame rooster was still with me, as I'd become somewhat attached to him also.

Long story short, he became so tame over the following week (after a couple of days to get over his near fatal encounter with my dogs), that I was able to scoop him up while he was eating, and then put him in the pen with the two hens. I'm not sure he's going to forgive me...

But finally I'm back to having one cock and two hens and getting two fertilized eggs every day... I just finished making the duckling brooder, and will get back to work on the chicken/duck tractor, which will make the jungle fowl hens much happier when they can scratch and dust bathe again. The hens have never really felt comfortable with me near them, unlike the rooster. But they no longer panic when I reach in to take their eggs. I'll see how tame the new chicks will be, I expect they'll be no different from hand raised domesticated chickens. So the adventure continues...
 

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