Hi everyone!

Mathew22

Hatching
5 Years
Nov 16, 2014
2
0
7
Hi, my name is Mathew, I am 23 and I live in the Caribbean.
I am not new to chickens,(raising egg layers in a coop is a different story tho), my father use to raise game fowl for fighting, and I was around lots of chickens since i can remember. He said that back then it was a pure Puerto Rican Game Fowl he was raising. By the time I came around some bush fowl had worked their way into the breed. We call this breed "molungo"; has anybody heard this name before? I will post some pictures of them and see what you guys think!

So because the game fowl had been watered down by its non competitive cousins, my father stopped "working" with them, although he feeds them everyday, most of the time he opens a least one coconut a day, you should be the PILE that has built up!!LOL. 20ft tall no joke. So at times there have been as many as 100 full grown chickens running around at the daily feeding, and when the family and neighbors start complaining,we have brought it as low as 10. When they were most populated it was common to find eggs because there were lots of hens roosting in all kinds of funny spots. The yolks on these eggs were dark orange, not yellow like the ones from the store. Has anyone seen this? We chalked it up to being two things: 1) there diet consisted of mainly bugs/ whatever else it is that they scratch for and 2) the eggs were being openly fertilized. The last time i ever went foraging for eggs, i cracked one open and half formed chick slipped into the frying pan....YUCK!!!

My father says that when the breed was the pure game fowl, overpopulation was never really a problem. The alpha male would kill all other roosters in the area. This is not because he was particularly malicious, it is just how the breed is. When a game fowl hears a rooster crow, he searches out the other rooster to fight. They fight to the death, true game fowl do not give up. So he sold the baby roosters before they would attempt to become the alpha male or die trying. The "mulungo" breed does not fight to the death. So what happens is you will end up with 20 different full grown roosters, that spread out over 5 acres or so. Each one with its own little harem.

Let me tell you that is not fun, because these roosters don't wait for sunrise to crow. Whenever that first rooster wakes up and decides to crow, its over. For the next 30 minutes every rooster in the valley will wake up one by one and join in to the chorus. This routinely happened from 2-5 am. This prompted us to take action. So we catch them and spread them all over the island. So that our neighbors and us can rest a little longer.

I am a naturalist at the core. My interest in chickens has been renewed by economical motivation. I am in the process of starting a farm. I love planting food, and working with my hands.
Thanks for listening guys!
Mathew
 
Hi Mathew and welcome to BYC!
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What an interesting introduction. One thing I really enjoy about BYC is hearing other's experiences with poultry and how they raise them. Please share some pictures, I would love to see them!

Nice to have you join us and good luck starting up your farm.
 
Hello there and welcome to BYC!
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What a lovely intro! Yes, your free ranging happy chickens are going to lay eggs with darker colored yolks. This has a lot to do with the fact that they can free range and are much healthier than factory chickens. And yes, if you have roosters, you are going to have fertile eggs. I am sure that opening that egg with a started baby chick in it was not a pleasant experience!!

Make yourself at home here and if you have any questions about anything, feel free to ask. Welcome to our flock!
 
Welcome to BYC, Matthew! Glad you decided to join our flock. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. Good luck with your flock.
 
Welcome to BYC, glad you joined our flock, please we are here to help so ask us any questions you may have, what kind of chickens do you have?
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