Historic Presence of Jungle Fowl in the American Deep South

[Don 27]

I had to look about a year and a half to find mine and ended up locating them on a local classified listing as “Indian Red Jungle Fowl” just south of my home town.

I’m going to start selecting mine for free range vigor. Or more accurately, let them get selected for it. Gaminess is irrelevant to me. I want tough homestead birds that can survive and multiply under predator pressure. I also want roosters to tolerate each other so I have fertile eggs. When I penned up Raptor half my of my free-range mixed flock stopped getting fertilized. My big layers basically. I’m babying this batch of chics and will also do so for the next batch coming in February to hopefully triple the size of the flock. Then I’m going to let them nest and raise bitties as they will and can. I might lose most of a clutch pretty often but I may also get tougher birds growing up that make tougher chicks next generation.

What these little RJF hybrids have going for them is they’re already tame acting and go broody at an amazing rate. I just need more of them to make up for their smaller eggs and lower production rate and their penchant for hiding eggs. Its hit or miss whether they lay in the coop. Some individual hens do with regularity, some don’t. I’ve found nests under the tin above the roof of the coop, in my tractor cab, behind the lawn mower seat, in the bed of my UTV, in a dog house, all around the farm. Not usual for any free range chickens but the hybrid game hens seem to like high places. But so far they’ve all set in the coup. I think they know its their safe zone.

Gaminess is how aggressive the roosters are towards Each other correct. I don't care if my birds have some aggression towards Each other but when I read warring labels on game fowl hatching eggs saying: it's recommended to never allow roosters of this breed that are 6months or older to have access towards Each other: ...that kinda makes me reluctant to buy the eggs. The flock can't expand if you can only ever have one rooster.

 

[centrarchid]

Gaminess is how aggressive the roosters are towards Each other correct. I don't care if my birds have some aggression towards Each other but when I read warring labels on game fowl hatching eggs saying: it's recommended to never allow roosters of this breed that are 6months or older to have access towards Each other: ...that kinda makes me reluctant to buy the eggs. The flock can't expand if you can only ever have one rooster.

Can you post a google map of your place? That would provide insight into how much your semi-feral chickens can expand.

At some point you will get hit by owls.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Gaminess is how aggressive the roosters are towards Each other correct. I don't care if my birds have some aggression towards Each other but when I read warring labels on game fowl hatching eggs saying: it's recommended to never allow roosters of this breed that are 6months or older to have access towards Each other: ...that kinda makes me reluctant to buy the eggs. The flock can't expand if you can only ever have one rooster.

That is my understanding, yes. In the poultry world and among the gamefowl community “gaminess” equals rooster on rooster aggression to the death with no backing down due to injury.

Now among my people the Florida Crackers, there is an understanding that “game” in relation to the name of the breed is a reference to the wildness of the birds. To say one had “game chickens” on the farm meant one had semi-feral, free ranging chickens of what we are now calling wild or RJF coloration. Chickens used for cockfighting were just called “fighting roosters.” To say one raised “game chickens” meant something different than one raised “fighting roosters.”

 

[centrarchid]

That is my understanding, yes. In the poultry world and among the gamefowl community “gaminess” equals rooster on rooster aggression to the death with no backing down due to injury.

Now among my people the Florida Crackers, there is an understanding that “game” in relation to the name of the breed is a reference to the wildness of the birds. To say one had “game chickens” on the farm meant one had semi-feral, free ranging chickens of what we are now calling wild or RJF coloration. Chickens used for cockfighting were just called “fighting roosters.” To say one raised “game chickens” meant something different than one raised “fighting roosters.”

I did both.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I did both.

Just a few minutes from my wife's home (which was just a few more minutes from my home) there was a fellow that every knew to raise "fighting roosters." He raised them openly in his front yard with a few rows of huts and staked ropes. Back then there were still states were it was legal and our understanding was that he raised them in Florida and traveled with them to wherever it was legal for him to do his thing with them. His roosters didn't look like our homestead games. What I remember most about them is lots of different colorations and plumage shapes. Although I liked and raised chickens since childhood, I never took an interest in his for reasons I don't know so I never walked among them or studied them hard in passing. I may (or may not ) have had a great uncle who was hard-core into that aspect of raising them late into contemporary times who probably could have told me lots about the traditional lines when I became interested in figuring out what they were and where to get some from, but considering I'm a state prosecutor he never seemed too keen in talking to me about what he knows about game fowl .

I got some pics of Hei Hei. Sorry for the ugly red background in what otherwise would have been good shots. I recently turned the momma and her bittes out of the brood pen and I didn't think about it being in the background with its red cardboard windbreaks. All of my flock is currently penned until my bitties get a couple more weeks of growth on them, then I'll turn them all out together. Maybe by then I'll know what to do with my guineas (my guineas killed chicks in a previous batch if I didn't mention that previously).

I've never noticed that he carries himself with a protruded breast until now. I also never noticed that he's now basically the size of the white leghorns. I think all of the games have grown since and filled out since I switched to 30% protein feed for their morning feed. I don't feed them in the evenings, and I give them less than half than a normal allotment of feed per chicken when I feed them in the mornings. I want them to forage for much of their food yet I don't want them to have nothing this time of year where the insect population has been beat back by some freezes.

Last pic below is another one of the brothers that I gave away. Picture is up to date as of yesterday although its not bright or clear. Of the 8 cockerels I started with and minus the 3 that died (2 killed by the 3rd which was culled), 3 of the remaining 4 all became human aggressive. Those three all look similar with the white earlobes and more robust build. Hei Hei is the only one that isn't human aggressive and his build and stance is noticeably different than the other 3 and he has a red ear. Also, Hei Hei is the dominant rooster over Raptor in spite of Raptor's more robust build. Hei Hei has a quiet confidence that I like. I just wish he had the beauty of the other 3.

 

[centrarchid]

Just a few minutes from my wife's home (which was just a few more minutes from my home) there was a fellow that every knew to raise "fighting roosters." He raised them openly in his front yard with a few rows of huts and staked ropes. Back then there were still states were it was legal and our understanding was that he raised them in Florida and traveled with them to wherever it was legal for him to do his thing with them. His roosters didn't look like our homestead games. What I remember most about them is lots of different colorations and plumage shapes. Although I liked and raised chickens since childhood, I never took an interest in his for reasons I don't know so I never walked among them or studied them hard in passing. I may (or may not ) have had a great uncle who was hard-core into that aspect of raising them late into contemporary times who probably could have told me lots about the traditional lines when I became interested in figuring out what they were and where to get some from, but considering I'm a state prosecutor he never seemed too keen in talking to me about what he knows about game fowl .

I got some pics of Hei Hei. Sorry for the ugly red background in what otherwise would have been good shots. I recently turned the momma and her bittes out of the brood pen and I didn't think about it being in the background with its red cardboard windbreaks. All of my flock is currently penned until my bitties get a couple more weeks of growth on them, then I'll turn them all out together. Maybe by then I'll know what to do with my guineas (my guineas killed chicks in a previous batch if I didn't mention that previously).

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I've never noticed that he carries himself with a protruded breast until now. I also never noticed that he's now basically the size of the white leghorns. I think all of the games have grown since and filled out since I switched to 30% protein feed for their morning feed. I don't feed them in the evenings, and I give them less than half than a normal allotment of feed per chicken when I feed them in the mornings. I want them to forage for much of their food yet I don't want them to have nothing this time of year where the insect population has been beat back by some freezes.

Last pic below is another one of the brothers that I gave away. Picture is up to date as of yesterday although its not bright or clear. Of the 8 cockerels I started with and minus the 3 that died (2 killed by the 3rd which was culled), 3 of the remaining 4 all became human aggressive. Those three all look similar with the white earlobes and more robust build. Hei Hei is the only one that isn't human aggressive and his build and stance is noticeably different than the other 3 and he has a red ear. Also, Hei Hei is the dominant rooster over Raptor in spite of Raptor's more robust build. Hei Hei has a quiet confidence that I like. I just wish he had the beauty of the other 3.

View attachment 2000784

Despite being large for a RJF, the males appear too dull / brown as if the carry the partridge brown (e^b) allele. Type too up and comb too developed with more points than typical of RJF. Do you think game or leghorn is the domestic side. RJF of hatchery stock here have a modest amount of leghorn in them?

My grandfather, a judge at the time was the cocker. If past tense, then discussion should not be an issue.

 

[Frog Bog]

This was a good read. I hope that the knowledge offered in this thread doesn't go to waste.

These are the type of discussions that are needed more often outside of facebook.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Only the pictures Hei Hei and Raptor are showing true to life colors. The other two brothers are cropped pictures taken as still shots from video and a low res pic taken in low light that were both texted to me. But yes Hei Hei is darker than Raptor and I think the second rooster I gave away is darker like Hei Hei. The one that I posted with the pics of Raptor is actually very golden. Not sure that makes it a wild coloration but he’s not as dark the pic would imply. On Raptor and Hei Hei’s pics the pics are unedited except for touching the little wand button on the photo app on my iphone which only changed the contrast a bit. Raptor is the only one with a full spectrum of rainbow colors and some bright of blue on his wing when the sun catches him right. I have a DLSR camera I may take some pics with after they grow some more. Raptor’s chest is very dark. If that’s the dark you’re referring to, and if that’s darker than a RJF, then there it is.

I need to clarify that my assertion that the cockerals are all brothers is an assumption. They all came from the same hatch. I don’t know what the flock conditions were or whether the flock was several roosters mixed together with several hens or whether they all came from a one rooster with a harem.

I couldn’t begin to speculate how much of their domestic genetics is game vs brown leghorn or how much of their genetics is RJF at all moreso than any other wild colored breed or individual. I am suspicious of the fact that they have such a preference for roosting in the coop. My childhood games were exclusively tree roosters. High in the trees. Nor would they ever lay in the coop. My understanding is that the golden brother does roost in the trees at the farm he’s at now and leaves his domestic hens on the ground. But he’s the only one to do so. I suspect if I was to lock the chickens out of the coop both the games and the leghorns would fly to the top of the run and then into the above pine or ironwood trees.

My OEGBs are significantly smaller than my games (almost Serama in size) and have bodies with dwarvish proportions. However, some things about them remind me of the games. The eggs are identical. I have to strive to keep the eggs apart when I collect or else I’ll mix them up. Small and beige and sometimes cream. As opposed to the leghorn eggs which are large and white. The projected chest of the OEGBs also reminds me of the game hens and Hei Hei’s stance (but not Raptor’s who doesn’t protrude his chest much at all). I could see a wild or BBR colored OEGB being a genetic donor to my line for sure.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

My grandfather, a judge at the time was the cocker. If past tense, then discussion should not be an issue.

I think the tense was the problem as well as seeing me as “the law” period. This relative might have been arrested by my grandfather, his brother in law, for poaching. Same grandfather who raised me.

 

[centrarchid]

I think the tense was the problem as well as seeing me as “the law” period. This relative might have been arrested by my grandfather, his brother in law, for poaching. Same grandfather who raised me.

That looks fun.

My games will roost in trees or in buildings. They will move a lot when pressured by something like Great-horned Owls. Several of my game hens are finding some odd things to roost under now that most trees are leafless. One that was roosting in a clump of leaves in a Red Oak has moved into an Autumn Olive bush. Two others are roosting under a half-culvert placed on top of a couple of cock pens. Another is roosting in a 55-gallon barrel mounted on a fence. The balance stay in a barn protected by a litter of puppies.