Historic Presence of Jungle Fowl in the American Deep South

[JadeFarms]

Just to be clear, the two birds I posted above are Number 1 and Ragnar. Hei Hei isn't in those pics. I can tell them all apart plain as day but I understand that someone who doesn't see them daily might not. When I have guests out all the birds look alike to them.

Hei Hei has some glaring faults. He's not quite a junglefowl in appearance and not quite an American game bantam in appearance but has a mix of both traits. Is biggest flaw was his bulging chest. I'll repost his pic below:

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That bulge is his crop. All chickens can have a bulging crop when full, but Hei Hei's offspring carry a full crop much better than he. His comb, while looking very wild, is very flawed by the show standards for either junglefowl or American game bantam. He holds his tail right for a AGB but too high for a junglefowl. He was a great starter bird and most importantly, he gave me a good disposition towards humans that none of the other first gen roosters had. That good disposition has passed to his offspring but they have better builds.

Oh wow his crop really does bulge out, it’s the first thing I noticed. I can tell all my birds apart easily but most people can’t. I feel like the comb is flawed a lot in most birds, my flarry eye gray has a large amount of spikes in his comb. They probably don’t breed that out as much in games because they dub them, but I believe it should be bred out even though they are usually dubbed. Does his offspring have that comb?

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Oh wow his crop really does bulge out, it’s the first thing I noticed. I can tell all my birds apart easily but most people can’t. I feel like the comb is flawed a lot in most birds, my flarry eye gray has a large amount of spikes in his comb. They probably don’t breed that out as much in games because they dub them, but I believe it should be bred out even though they are usually dubbed. Does his offspring have that comb?

No, Ragnar and Number 1 are both his offspring, and they don't have that comb. You can see their combs in the pics I posted a few posts ago. Number 1 has a Leghorn-type straight comb and Ragnar has a nice erect comb, but both combs are better than Hei Hei's.

Of the two show bird junglefowl I mentioned, they are also Hei Hei's offspring but they have 7 points on their combs and their combs are erect and do not follow the contour of the head as the standard calls for.

I should have tried for some pictures of them this weekend but didn't think about it. They need to grow some more anyhow.

This is what the RJF is supposed to look like by ABA standards. The two by which I speak more or less are conforming to that look. Although the ABA standards call for a red ear, even though their illustration has a white ear and they do accept a white ear without penalty. One of my potential show birds has a red ear, one has a white ear.

 

[JadeFarms]

No, Ragnar and Number 1 are both his offspring, and they don't have that comb. You can see their combs in the pics I posted a few posts ago. Number 1 has a Leghorn-type straight comb and Ragnar has a nice erect comb, but both combs are better than Hei Hei's.

Of the two show bird junglefowl I mentioned, they are also Hei Hei's offspring but they have 7 points on their combs and their combs are erect and do not follow the contour of the head as the standard calls for.

I should have tried for some pictures of them this weekend but didn't think about it. They need to grow some more anyhow.

View attachment 2421714

This is what the RJF is supposed to look like by ABA standards. The two by which I speak more or less are conforming to that look. Although the ABA standards call for a red ear, even though their illustration has a white ear and they do accept a white ear without penalty. One of my potential show birds has a red ear, one has a white ear.

You’ve obviously put a lot of hard work into them. I admire your birds and the work you put in them.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Comb Comparison

Hei Hei

Hei Hei's son Number 1.

Hei Hei's son Ragnar.

Unnamed son of Hei Hei:

Unnamed son of Hei Hei, culled this weekend (banged up from fighting his brothers). I would have saved this bird had his comb been better. Scrappy as heck.

 

[RoosterWhisperer]

Hello,

I have a two fold question. First, can anyone either tell me about or point me to resources discussing whether red jungle fowl, RJF hybrids, or closely derivative breeds, were used as farm or game chickens in the American deep south in the late 1800s or early 1900s?

Second, to what degree are American game bantams or American game chickens derivative of red jungle fowl, and what behavioral traits do those American breeds share with RJF?

Here’s why I ask. My family has lived in Florida since the early 1800s. Specifically on the north central and north parts of the peninsula. The environment is sub tropical in those areas. My family were backwoods farmers and hunters until the mid 1900s. Our ethnic group is called the Florida Cracker (yes that’s our real name, you can wiki it). I was raised by my grandparents of that older generation. When I was a child they gifted me with my own chickens. I raised normal breeds such as Road Island Reds and Americanas.

When I was in middle school an uncle gifted me with the kind of chickens my ancestors traditionally raised on their backwoods farms and what they always had growing up. They were only generically called “game chickens.” No other name was known or given to them.

They behaved differently than my other chickens. They roosted in the trees at night. The hens wouldn’t nest in the nest boxes in the coop, but instead they hid their nests in the woods and on fence lines. The rooster was more protective of the hens and would even call them over to get bugs instead of eat them himself. Because of how they hid their nests they weren’t great egg chickens but they were great at surviving free range. All they really needed was a water source.

Now many years later I own my own farm in the Florida woods. I’m looking for those traditional Florida homestead “game” chickens but no one I know has them anymore. I want them both for the nostalgia and for the practicality of having a more predator resistant bird.

Physically the pictures I can find that look just like them are Indian Red Jungle Fowl. The color and size are right. But I’ve also found some pictures of American game bantams that look like them as well. And some Old English bantams.

I cannot recall the leg color of our “game” chickens. I do know they never had an “eclipse” molt based on what I’ve read about eclipse molts in the jungle fowl thread here. Their personalities weren’t overly skittish of humans but they preferred to keep their distance. More than anything their roosting in trees and hiding their nests seemed defining. They reminded me of little wild turkeys in chicken form in their habits. Or maybe a better way to put it is that they had some ways about them more like guineas than chickens.

I do have some red jungle fowl chicks on reserve from a farm in central Florida. I don’t care if they’re pure or not, I only care about them approximating what I grew up with and what my ancestors may have been keeping in 1900.

Any ideas what a Florida Cracker “game” chicken might be? One uncle called them “Spanish” game chickens. Many of our traditional domestic animals such as the Cracker cow and Cracker horse are directly related to livestock the Spaniards brought that subsequently adapted to Florida. Would there be reason to believe the Spanish had access to jungle fowl-like chickens that adapted to here? Or were we perhaps raising some form of wild phase American game chicken?

I love the roo on your profile!
Do you have the certain breed specified, or are you wondering about the breed?

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I love the roo on your profile!
Do you have the certain breed specified, or are you wondering about the breed?

This thread has evolved quite a bit. Originally I was wondering about whether there were junglefowl kept in the south prior to the mid 1900s. Florida settlers used to keep a very junglefowl-like bird on their homesteads in semi-feral conditions.

The general consensus was that pre-1900s, the Florida settlers likely had access to Spanish gamefowl and that there may have been a Florida landrace of Spanish games at some point. Later into the 1900s, the "Florida Cracker" gamefowl may have become Blueface, as Blueface looks a lot like RJF and it was likely Blueface I grew up with. I also found a good published research paper that discussed that junglefowl were released all over the Deep South and many of those birds were also distributed to Florida farms and likely folded into local chicken populations, so it also isn't impossible that the birds I remember growing up may have actually had JF in them or may have been original Frank Gary American game bantams.

Throughout, I've also been journaling my experience raising some jungelfowl hybrids I obtained off of a farm in central Florida. I'm considering this flock to be "Florida cracker game bantams" as they're close enough to the Cracker birds I remember. I simply cannot verify what domestic blood was used to create these birds or whether their origin is from one of the major hatcheries, or whether they represent an older line of JF hybrids or American game bantams.

Whatever their genetic origins, I'm shaping them on my farm in the north Florida woods. They live free among everything the Florida wood can throw at them and they're heckofagoood survivors.

 

[JadeFarms]

Comb Comparison

Hei Hei
View attachment 2421717

Hei Hei's son Number 1.
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Hei Hei's son Ragnar.
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Unnamed son of Hei Hei:
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Unnamed son of Hei Hei, culled this weekend (banged up from fighting his brothers). I would have saved this bird had his comb been better. Scrappy as heck.
View attachment 2421725

I definitely see a difference. They have way nicer combs besides Scrappy at the bottom lol.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Sounds like my RJF/Hybrids.
My best looking one.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Pics from today:

Number 1:

Ragnar:

Unnamed stag of strong wild phenotype, white ears:

The yellow on his comb is residue from eating Seminole pumpkins.

Unnamed stag of strong wild phenotype, red ears:

I'm going to let the ones that have the strong wild look to them mature out to see how they turn out.

I recently gave one of my higher grade culls to a friend. I never heard the bird crow before. Now that the stag is lord of his own flock of domestic layers, my friend let me know about his crow that she found quite unusual. Turns out he's the first of my birds to have a wild crow. Meaning its high-pitched like an Old English game bantam's and it cuts off the last syllable. Just further confirmation to me that the more they breed into each other, the wilder genes come to the forefront.

 

[Don 27]

Pics from today:

Number 1:

View attachment 2447564

Ragnar:

View attachment 2447552

View attachment 2447560

View attachment 2447561

View attachment 2447553

View attachment 2447554

View attachment 2447555

Unnamed stag of strong wild phenotype, white ears:

View attachment 2447557

The yellow on his comb is residue from eating Seminole pumpkins.

Unnamed stag of strong wild phenotype, red ears:

View attachment 2447565

I'm going to let the ones that have the strong wild look to them mature out to see how they turn out.

I recently gave one of my higher grade culls to a friend. I never heard the bird crow before. Now that he's lord of his own flock of domestic layers, my friend let me know about his crow that she found quite unusual. Turns out he's the first of my birds to have a wild crow. Meaning its high-pitched like an Old English game bantam's and it cuts off the last syllable. Just further confirmation to me that the more they breed into each other, the wilder genes come to the forefront.

Beautiful birds .. And Very interesting observation, reminds me of what happened to the domestic birds in Hawaii .