Historic Presence of Jungle Fowl in the American Deep South

[Florida Bullfrog]

I'm actually not so sure now that American games are the primary suspect for the Cracker birds for two reasons. First, I distinctly remember that roosters didn't fight hard. There would be a dominant rooster that would whip the other roosters, but the other roosters were allowed to hang around on the periphery of the flock. They did not fight on sight, they fought just enough to establish their pecking order.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, is that I remember the Cracker birds being smaller than regular breeds of chickens. I don't remember them being significantly smaller but I do remember that mine were not quite as tall and much leaner than common breeds. Not skinny in feathers like an Asil or many American game cocks I've seen. The Cracker game feathers were very full and poofy like a jungle fowl cock's feathers. But their bodies had no extra meat.

I called my grandfather a couple of days ago and asked him what he remembers about the size of the Cracker game chickens, and he remembers very well that they're less than half the size of a normal barnyard chicken. I trust his recollection more than my own as I'm remembering mostly from childhood.

The American game bantam would fit the description well. Its just that they didn't exist before the early-mid 1900s. I don't have any relatives living older than growing up in the Depression who could tell me what our game chickens were like prior to the Depression and whether they changed over time.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Jungle Fowl are fascinating, and survivors, but managing them is different than other poultry. They behave more like pheasants.

What I have now definitely isn't like a wild jungle fowl to the extent they don't behave like pheasants. They behave like very intelligent, friendly, and curious chickens. They're spunky but they aren't flighty or gamey acting. Whatever this is I have, I prefer it, and they are acting very much like the chickens I grew up with.

The only rooster that seemed gamey was the culled cockerel chick I mentioned earlier in the thread. He acted indifferent towards me but he'd throw down the other chicks both hen and rooster right in front of me. He had a very big comb and seemed like he was maturing faster than the other cockerels.

 

[gjensen]

Unless someone imported and released pure JF in the area, you have no reason to believe that they were in fact JF. Not to mention that the JF does not make good yard birds. Good luck keeping them around.

They could have been feral birds that had some resemblance to them. This is not unusual in that this is the genetic tendency when left to their own. It is intentional selection away from them that makes our birds less like them.

What the Spanish brought with them were games. Spanish games were similar to what American Games would become but different. Even today pure Spanish are very different birds than the Americans.

Games in this sense is a generic term to describe Game like birds with that heritage. What makes a bird game or not is genetic, and these extremes are selected for. It is a use it or lose it a reality. When left to their own and inadvertently mixed with other domestic fowl, what makes a bird game is lost. The old-time cockers would call these Game like mixes dunghill fowl. The term described birds with a mixed ancestry that were not refined in that they were not intelligently bred for any good purpose. They survived and persisted scratching through the livestock dunghills among other things.

 

[centrarchid]

Take a look at feral chickens on Kauai. They derived largely from games based on overall appearance. Dunghill selection pressure works against gameness very quickly, especially when a little non-game blood is introduced. Spanish blood could make for small size quickly.

 

[varidgerunner]

Gameness can disappear quickly in a wild setting. If you get locked into a pecking order dispute with enough intensity to not notice approaching predators, you aren't going to pass your genes. The fligthy cowardly guy that runs and hides at the first sound of disturbance is going to do quite well, though. This is why breeds derived from game chickens aren't game chickens. Pretty much without fail, the hatchery varieties or the feral landrace breeds will act more like a leghorn than a true game. Bouncing off the cage, squawking when touched, and things like that.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Gameness can disappear quickly in a wild setting. If you get locked into a pecking order dispute with enough intensity to not notice approaching predators, you aren't going to pass your genes. The fligthy cowardly guy that runs and hides at the first sound of disturbance is going to do quite well, though. This is why breeds derived from game chickens aren't game chickens. Pretty much without fail, the hatchery varieties or the feral landrace breeds will act more like a leghorn than a true game. Bouncing off the cage, squawking when touched, and things like that.

I see. So where might the small size come from? I understand that small size would be a benefit to surviving the Florida heat and thick and woods. Most of our wildlife and heritage livestock are smaller than their counterparts in the rest of the US. However, our domestic chickens don’t breed down smaller, at least not any I’ve seen in my lifetime. It could be that where the Cracker game chickens represent unbroken selection on Florida farms, the domestic varieties do not. I believe that homesteaders in Florida had access to chickens shipped in from elsewhere since the early 1900s. I cannot say that any of the normal domestic varieties I’ve seen on any Florida homestead represent more than a couple of generations of adaptation. My great great Aunt and Uncle kept guineas and Road Island Reds on their homestead. The guineas had higher, skinnier helmets than guineas I’ve seen since, which I understand may represent more wilder stock than modern guineas. But I cannot say that their Road Island Reds were anything but feed store chickens ordered sometime in the 1980s.

That’s why there was always such a distinction between the domestic chickens and the games. The games were always for free ranging in the woods. That was their purpose. Fighting was not their contemplated use or utility. I knew people who decades ago did cockfighting in other states and raised their birds in Florida, and the Cracker games were not what they used.

 

[centrarchid]

So where might the small size come from?

The Cuban stock.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Also, another trait I remember is that the Cracker game colors never varied. Always bright orange around the neck and iridescent bright green on the body for the roosters and light tan for the hens. Never any white or off colors. Not like the Key West feral chickens in how their colors vary. The only variation I remember is that some of the subordinate rooters were skinny with floppy combs while the dominant roosters were always poofy feathered with big, erect, single combs.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

The Cuban stock.

If the Cuban birds are small, that’s making more sense. There was always a lot of interchange between Florida and Cuba even after the Spanish ceded Florida and well before the various political changes in Cuba in the 20th century. A whole wing of my family from the Depression era forward is of Cuban decent and there would have been lots of contact between the uncle who called them “Spanish” games and the Cuban side.

 

[nicalandia]

I see. So where might the small size come from?.

Natural selection will favor chickens that are closed to RJF in size, The larger breeds tend to get smaller and the bantams tend to get larger, all of the drifting to RJF in size in these type of scenarios