Historic Presence of Jungle Fowl in the American Deep South

[Don 27]

Here is a video showing some that would come to me. I have a couple hens that fly further each day as I feed penned cocks. Trimmed out flight, not the flap like mad flights of heavier ornamental breeds.

Everyone, without exception that I have seen that works with gamefowl, is a little bit nuts.

That's cool! I would upload a video of me calling some of my tamer game fowl but I don't have a YouTube account.

 

[Don 27]

If wiregrass can be made into a hay, I cannot say. Its generally not (thought to be) fit as a field grass for normal livestock. Some Florida adapted breeds can live on it like Cracker cows and Cracker horses (sorry we just slap “Cracker” in front of everything to denote that its a Florida heritage breed). I grew up helping my grandpa with his side business cutting and bailing costal hay for the horse farms around the Ocala area. What we call wiregrass is usually found in the woods. Some people call it broom sage, but I don’t think its the same plant people call broom sage out west. I let that field grow up in the fall to give cover for wildlife during the hunting season. Deer are more apt to utilize the field if its grown up. Quail like it too.

Ya I might be thinking of something else but our hay field has a lot of grass that looks like wiregrass . But it is a wet field and hasn't been mowed or plowed in long time. I have spent months out in that field clearing brush and trees. The only things I use are a chan saw weed eater and a pair of heavy land scapeing clippers. The field is finally mowable but it will be a long time before it's plowable . I would mow you're field at least once every 3years to keep it from getting to thick, unless you want it thick. Is your field part of another field like it was parcled off or is is surrounded by a tree line? I just wonder because you can usually tell how old a field is by The tree line separating it from another field. Our field in newly parceled off because their is no tree line separating ours from the neighbors and sometimes I accidentally mow to far into the neighbors yard. Although they probably wouldn't care if I mowed the whole thing. Hay is common around here and produced in mass amounts because of its nutritional value. . but any way I like the historic stuff to it's good people are finally trying to save the older breeds instead of just looking to the newer next greatest thngs. I have heard when they imported game fowl they realized how well the breed does in the Florida environment and that's how it became more popular and distributed among the farmers. I'm pretty sure FLorida has very similar temperatures to the southern country's where red jungle fowl originated from. That's probably why they do so well. I wonder what breeds the Pioneers started out with be for they developed the cracker animals. How thick Was the brush and weeds in Florida vs Ohio?. When the settlers came to Ohio the trees were very tall with a big canopy that killed off most of the under brush. The farmers just had to hatchet rings around the trees to kill the canopy off so the sun would hit the forest floors and grow their crops . What Was a challenge is felling the trees and cutting them up . If you can accomplish that with a hand saw and axe . Then the next step would be pulling the stumps out of the ground With a horse. I have dug stumps out with a hand shovel before it's slow work.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Many of the Florida adapted breeds descend from livestock the Spaniards brought. The Spaniards were in Florida centuries ahead of other Europeans and that gave those bloodlines a significant head start.

Florida’s woods and environments are very diverse. In general Florida woods are very thick. Walls of head-high bushes and palmettos under the trees. Wild fire and controlled burns will keep some woods open. The woods were more open in earlier times when more virgin timber was present. We used to have large oak hammocks (a hammock is a stand of hardwoods on dark soil) and lots of century old long leaf pines. The mature hammocks choked the sunlight and opened the understory. Mature pines let a lot of sunlight through but wild fires keep the underbrush clear and lots or wild grasses grew in those pine habitats.

These days most original hardwood and pine stands have been logged. What was replanted or grown back naturally came back thicker. Soil is mostly kinds of sand. Much of it we call “sugar sand.” Its hard to grow good pasture grass in that kind of soil. The soil is also full of limerock and flint and the tree roots long and shallow. Much of our woods can go underwater during wet periods. It really took modern equipment and drainage techniques to make Florida susceptible to development and clearing. We we really the last frontier in the lower 48 into the early 1950s.

The best farmland was dark soils found in hardwood hammocks and canebrakes (now extinct bamboo forests). Those are the places Crackers settled and cleared small fields for crops. The livestock was sent into the woods where they fended for themselves. The livestock would behave much like the native wildlife, moving from one natural food source to another. One time of year the animals are browsing the evergreen undergrowth in the pines or the palmetto berries in the palmetto flats (usually found in pines). Another time of year the bulk of the animals are in the hammocks eating acorns.

https://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/plant-directory/aristida-beyrichiana/

The link says wiregrass is found in several states so perhaps yours is the same as ours?

 

[Don 27]

Many of the Florida adapted breeds descend from livestock the Spaniards brought. The Spaniards were in Florida centuries ahead of other Europeans and that gave those bloodlines a significant head start.

Florida’s woods and environments are very diverse. In general Florida woods are very thick. Walls of head-high bushes and palmettos under the trees. Wild fire and controlled burns will keep some woods open. The woods were more open in earlier times when more virgin timber was present. We used to have large oak hammocks (a hammock is a stand of hardwoods on dark soil) and lots of century old long leaf pines. The mature hammocks choked the sunlight and opened the understory. Mature pines let a lot of sunlight through but wild fires keep the underbrush clear and lots or wild grasses grew in those pine habitats.

These days most original hardwood and pine stands have been logged. What was replanted or grown back naturally came back thicker. Soil is mostly kinds of sand. Much of it we call “sugar sand.” Its hard to grow good pasture grass in that kind of soil. The soil is also full of limerock and flint and the tree roots long and shallow. Much of our woods can go underwater during wet periods. It really took modern equipment and drainage techniques to make Florida susceptible to development and clearing. We we really the last frontier in the lower 48 into the early 1950s.

The best farmland was dark soils found in hardwood hammocks and canebrakes (now extinct bamboo forests). Those are the places Crackers settled and cleared small fields for crops. The livestock was sent into the woods where they fended for themselves. The livestock would behave much like the native wildlife, moving from one natural food source to another. One time of year the animals are browsing the evergreen undergrowth in the pines or the palmetto berries in the palmetto flats (usually found in pines). Another time of year the bulk of the animals are in the hammocks eating acorns.

https://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/plant-directory/aristida-beyrichiana/
The link says wiregrass is found in several states so perhaps yours is the same as ours?

You know a lot about Florida I didn't know their was that much to know. Yes the wire grass around here is a little different.
http://www.plantguide.org/wire-grass.html

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I think I'm zeroing in on a possible identity of the game fowl I grew up with: Blueface, or something that has the same physical traits. At the very least that's the closest thing I can point to that matches my recollection of the Cracker games.

In this video, the fowl are being identified as Blueface but are not because their combs are wrong. I'm using these as an example just to show that the rooster and hens are built and colored right from what I remember except that the Cracker games had straight combs.

The hens are spot on. Unlike my current flock that is partridge/wild colored, the Cracker hens were wheaten. I didn't know what to call the color previously. Their legs were long and lanky, not low to the ground like my current hens are (although I'm also not sure whether the yellow legs make them look longer than my dark legged hens' legs). They were bigger than my current hens but smaller than a leghorn, although its not clear whether my current hens may continue to grow. They are about 8-9 months old now.

The rooster is spot on except for the comb. As I've previously stated, I don't remember leg color. I'm now reasonably sure that the roosters didn't have white earlobes like Raptor does. If they did I think I would have noticed. Its jarring against the red rest of their heads.

Discerning breeds and bloodlines of American games is tough and a bit overwhelming. Sometimes terms seem inconsistently used, such as whether "Hatch" is a specific breed or a term for all selectively bred and defined game varieties. I'm also not convinced that all of the breeders who show of this or that bird know what they have any more than I'm trying to discern what I have.

 

[Don 27]

I think I'm zeroing in on a possible identity of the game fowl I grew up with: Blueface, or something that has the same physical traits. At the very least that's the closest thing I can point to that matches my recollection of the Cracker games.

In this video, the fowl are being identified as Blueface but are not because their combs are wrong. I'm using these as an example just to show that the rooster and hens are built and colored right from what I remember except that the Cracker games had straight combs.

The hens are spot on. Unlike my current flock that is partridge/wild colored, the Cracker hens were wheaten. I didn't know what to call the color previously. Their legs were long and lanky, not low to the ground like my current hens are (although I'm also not sure whether the yellow legs make them look longer than my dark legged hens' legs). They were bigger than my current hens but smaller than a leghorn, although its not clear whether my current hens may continue to grow. They are about 8-9 months old now.

The rooster is spot on except for the comb. As I've previously stated, I don't remember leg color. I'm now reasonably sure that the roosters didn't have white earlobes like Raptor does. If they did I think I would have noticed. Its jarring against the red rest of their heads.

Discerning breeds and bloodlines of American games is tough and a bit overwhelming. Sometimes terms seem inconsistently used, such as whether "Hatch" is a specific breed or a term for all selectively bred and defined game varieties. I'm also not convinced that all of the breeders who show of this or that bird know what they have any more than I'm trying to discern what I have.

Good observation! So the birds you use to have must have had some game fowl in them. Are you going to try getting some birds like these? I don't know what the wild behavior is like in the birds in the YouTube video. Although they seem flighty . I wonder if they are more likely to try sleeping in the trees then the birds you have now. But roosting in the trees has its down sides .


sorry if I chat to much.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Good observation! So the birds you use to have must have had some game fowl in them. Are you going to try getting some birds like these? I don't know what the wild behavior is like in the birds in the YouTube video. Although they seem flighty . I wonder if they are more likely to try sleeping in the trees then the birds you have now. But roosting in the trees has its down sides .


sorry if I chat to much.

I definitely like a lot about my current flock. The thing I like the least is their small eggs. My first generation laid and hatched on the farm is several weeks old now. I’m probably going to let them mature before considering crossing the birds. This flock is definitely more prolific than my childhood flock.

I’m thinking that any selective breeding I will do will start with selecting from within the flock before outbreeding. I have several cockerels in this group of bitties and I’m curious to see how they come out. I have to decide whether I want to conform them to a breed standard such as American Game Bantam or whether I want to make my own strain. If the latter, I have to finalize whether I want to let the flock naturally select for homestead life in the woods or for gameness so they can be considered true game fowl.

Raptor went to his forever home today. A family member took him to start another flock with one of my hens. I have one hatch off of him that just hatched yesterday. I forgot to weigh him. He’s noticeably larger than Hei Hei.

 

[Don 27]

I definitely like a lot about my current flock. The thing I like the least is their small eggs. My first generation laid and hatched on the farm is several weeks old now. I’m probably going to let them mature before considering crossing the birds. This flock is definitely more prolific than my childhood flock.

I’m thinking that any selective breeding I will do will start with selecting from within the flock before outbreeding. I have several cockerels in this group of bitties and I’m curious to see how they come out. I have to decide whether I want to conform them to a breed standard such as American Game Bantam or whether I want to make my own strain. If the latter, I have to finalize whether I want to let the flock naturally select for homestead life in the woods or for gameness so they can be considered true game fowl.

Raptor went to his forever home today. A family member took him to start another flock with one of my hens. I have one hatch off of him that just hatched yesterday. I forgot to weigh him. He’s noticeably larger than Hei Hei.

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I see what you mean by the small eggs you don't get as much in terms of eating. If you get something that lays bigger eggs and cross it with your games Be sure to Save some pure games, you know what you have now But you don't know what the new cross birds are going to be like. But it seems like you have a good plan worked out. That's great that some of your family is wanting to start a flock of their own birds. Breeds like these need to be more wide spread.


Correct me if I'm wrong but "gameness" it fighting behavior in the ring, Right?

So in that case I see no benefit in gameness.

I would rather my birds be better suited for life in the woods. But that doesn't mean you couldn't keep a separate flock that you selectively breed for gameness. I do like the look of a good game bird.

 

[Don 27]

here's a 10 month old (game bird). Not sure exactly what breed but he has been raised from a chick on exclusively compost scraps and what ever bugs he can find on the property along with the rest of my flock. Just recently I started giving them scratch grains for the winter . Also The kids have made him into a pet and carry him around . Now he comes up onto the deck ready to be held and brought into the house.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I learned today that I’ll need to breed for larger size. It was either in this thread or one of the game picture threads where there was some debate on whether hawk predation selects for larger or smaller size. I have an answer as to Florida hawks.

Our most common hawk is the red shouldered hawk. Very much a hawk of the woods. Small, not known to be a voracious chicken eater. Yet I previously lost one game hen to one several weeks ago.

Today a red shouldered hawk grabbed a game hen right in front of me while she was distracted by a treat I threw out. The game hen would have been small enough to fly off with had I not broke off the attack.

I have also previously observed red shouldered hawks (probably the same pair) try to find a way into my OEGB coop to the point of even walking the perimeter of it on the ground.

Finally, since my newest batch of bitties hatched a few says ago a tilly hawk (some species of dove-sized kestrel) has been trying to get to the chicks.

The common birds of prey here are definitely preferring the small fowl to the large fowl. I have only known the gamefowl to be the subjects of attack.

We do have redtails and great horned owls but the last redtail attack I saw was on a big layer decades ago and I’ve never had an owl problem. I think those two species could kill anything I could keep. So I need to be trying to improve survivability from the smaller, more common, birds of prey.

While I’m at it I ought to also consider improving egg production.