Historic Presence of Jungle Fowl in the American Deep South

[Florida Bullfrog]

Do any of you mix your own feed?

I don't in the way you're probably thinking. I buy mine from local feed stores. I'll often blend various brands and kinds together, such as chick starter, game bird feed, scratch, ect. I'm not very scientific about it.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Here's a couple more of the Christmas stags. They're starting to fight each other. I am observing what other's have spoken about when walk-raising gamefowl. When they get wet, they bet the heck out of each other. To the point of a stupor. The only reason they stop is the brook cock Hei Hei will assert himself between them and make them separate. The black spots on their combs are blood scabs from the fighting. Since these pictures were taken one of them got scabbed up severely. The first stag in the top picture has good tail carriage when measured by jungle standards. He holds it low in most postures in positions.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Interestingly, I had a friend over at the farm this past weekend to pick blueberries, a retired judge from central Florida I used to work with and from an old Florida Cracker family like mine. When he saw the jungle fowl hybrids he volunteered that I had game bantams like the kind he grew up with on his family's farm.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I am very pleased with how the Christmas bitties have turned out. Of the 5 roosters from that batch, I culled 3 and kept 2. One that has proper tail carriage for a jungle fowl and one that has proper tail carriage for an American game bantam (along with a mostly red ear).

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

This one is a bit younger than the Christmas stags. This is the only son of Raptor that I have. He has the lower tail carriage that the F2s pretty consistently exhibit that conforms to the JF phenotype. He has the broader breast and skull that Raptor has. There are traits I actually don't like for a brood cock (his comb for starters I just don't care for nor is he yet showing any good sickles). I'm keeping him around simply because he's of his father. I'm reasonably convinced my first generation broodcocks probably aren't closely related, seeing that as each have matured they don't much resemble each other but their offspring resemble their fathers very much.

]]

I'm very pleased with Ragnar. He's in close conformance to the standards for the American Game Bantam. I still can't bring myself to dub him. I'll leave his comb be and probably dub his offspring in conformance to the standards.

These two are two of the only three off-colored individuals that have come out of about 75 chicks spread out over several months. The third was an all yellow chick I took to be wheaten that died on its third or fourth day of life. I culled the red rooster, which I hated to do because I loved his build and his sickles. But where I sell the hatching eggs now off the free-range flock, I didn't want to start throwing all red roosters left and right. I kept the hen, that's almost a wheaten.

And then there's the ever homicidal Tyrant. His spurs are about 1.25" now, as long as some mature Florida wild turkey gobblers I've killed. He stays locked in his spacious run with a harem. I have my first large batch of bitties off of him and his harem. I'm hoping to get a rooster of his beauty but without his man fighting. I do believe that on a genetic level he's a bird apart from my other "Cracker" games. His tail makes me think of an American game. In his maturity, he has topped out at 2.5lbs.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

This is the first of the Christmas stags that I kept. The aptly named "Number One." I am very pleased with him. Pleased enough that I've given him his own flock of hens for hatching eggs.

Here is the second one I kept, Ragnar. He takes more after a game rooster in build and stance. His tail was fuller but I accidentally plucked bunch out one night when I was catching him to weigh him. Its starting to fill back in now.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Ragnar's tail is continuing to fill back in. Him and Hei Hei are my two brood cocks now. They each have a defined territory that they stick to. There's a line about the picnic table in front of the pond in the front yard that they won't cross. They each have their own flock of JF hens. Neither of them will breed non-JF hens. The layers are bred by certain of the younger stags that seem to like them.

The younger ones spar severely. Usually it takes Hei Hei or Ragnar to break the fight up. This guy was in a 20 minute fight with one of his half-brothers this evening. I recently put down Deinonychus after he lost an eye to Hei Hei.

I have lots of hens and pullets now.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I haven't shown Hei Hei in a while. He went through a long molt and is only just now really through it.

Number 1 continues to grow nicely. He has beautiful sickles.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

And here's Ragnar:

 

[JadeFarms]

I have a question.. are there junglefowl (besides red junglefowl) in the US?