indian red jungle fowl

[I didn't do it]

hi i have a back yard irflock of about 13 chickens i i want to get some more. I am thinking of get some indian red jungle fowl. i was wondering if this would be able to live in a coop and pen for most of the day (i let the chickens out for 3 hours a day 7am-10am). also are they setters.
thanks lenny

 

[Llysse]

You can check out information about different breeds at this link: http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

The jungle fowl is not listed, unfortunately, but my guess is that it would be similar in temperament to birds like Old English Game... not very tolerant of close confinement. Birds like that like to roam and forage, generally speaking.

You could try them with less space, but if the birds feel they don't have enough space or they're too crowded they can start picking on one another (or maybe they'll just always be looking for ways to escape!).

 

[prariechiken]

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/NDG/BRKRedJF.html

Here is a link I found, you will find more links on this site to some peoples sites who can better answer your questions. DOn't look to me to be any more challenging to raise than gamebirds or gamefowl. Great lookin fowl.

 

[Napalongtail]

IRJF, Are good setters. However you will never get them back in until dark! Also they hate to be cooped. You will have health issues as well keeping them with your regular flock. If you do some more research you will find ALOT of controversy over these birds. Some say raise them away from other chicken breeds, some will say to keep them in wire floored pens only, and others will say they are GREAT birds. I am in the last catagory. But they are in all honesty not very hardy. Those that are IMO are best let to free range. They are indeed flighty ,but where I live that is a good thing they are the first to FLY back to the coop at the sign of hawks and eagles over head. They are also the first to let themselves out and hide eggs and set nests when no one is looking. These babies are indeed hardy again IMO. Good luck if you do choose them they are very beautiful.

 

[I didn't do it]

hi thanxs for the coments. i think i am just gonna stay with the normal barn yard type of chickens.
lenny

 

[Downinmyback]

I bought ten JF chicks as a flea market last spring and i wish i had not wasted my money or time. I put them with my regular chickens and they are always starting trouble with the others. I have had three of my best hens killed by them.
After this i tried letting them free range and now i have only three JF left. The rest flew into a woodlot and i guess became supper for either hawks or owls. I have 2 roosters and 1 hen left that i have in a rather large pen and the two roosters are always fighting. I Google JF and found this out. They were the first chickens but they were not raised for food but for entertainment. Cock fighting seems to be the only thing they are good for as they are no bigger than a banty and seems to like to fight other fowl.
I hope this helps others before they venture into JF.

 

[Napalongtail]

DIMB I am so sorry that you have had such a bad experience with RJF's. I think it would be better said that if one is to venture into any of the pure jungle birds that they need to do their homework. They are beautiful, they need to be protected and they most definately need people to raise them that are responsible. I have had a few buyers and upon them sending me photos of their birds it was most evident that they were into fighting. I did not sell. My children can handle my RJF's and I would not have my farm with out them.

 

[Kaneke]

total newbie here

thanks for posting this, it got me thinking about these, so I looked up the picture of "Hawaiian chickens" at Feathersite, so now at least I know what my roo is ! (as a red jungle fowl, he's gorgeous, he's rather noisy ... but mostly he cackles like a setting hen ! mostly when he sees the local "parakeets" down on the ground foraging -- only crows a few times in the morning )

however, our "morning" is a bit strange since there's a 10,000 foot mountain east of us, between us and "sunrise"

I suspect the roo is an escapee from somewhere in the neighborhood, as the family over the back fence used to raise cocks for "you know what" illegal activity until they moved a couple of years ago

I'm still trying to figure out what these chickens are that we've "inherited" ... they just showed up one day ...

two hens with white-blond feathers down to base of neck, otherwise black (with hint of metallic green in the sunlight), small red single combs ... I suspected they were Easter Egg chickens (since that's what a friend sold our tenant) ... but these have yellow legs ! (have seen only one egg on the property, and it was white and the size I'd associate with bantams ... and it was obviously well aged)

one of those hens has two all-black chicks (appear to be one pullet, one cockerel) and had one miscellaneous blond pullet (which the wild cats in the neighborhood got) -- the two all-black chicks survived ... all three with yellow legs

the other hen is likewise streaky all-blond -- I guess you'd call it buff, but it's yellow buff not beige buff ... light platinum blond on neck with a little bit of darker barring; body and wings are almost pastel RIR color with light chocolate barring, tail is light brown with black barring and maybe a few black feathers ... again with yellow legs ... hard to describe because they won't let me get within 20 to 30 feet of them, except for the hen-with-chicks who can be downright friendly

all three hens are rather pretty ...

all free range birds -- I've been throwing out cracked corn, black-oil sunflower seeds, mixed dove food, and leftover cooked rice ... and they roam our half-acre tropical jungle, as well as the untended tall grass in the property next door

question --- tenant left rice in a cabinet and weevils got into it -- would that be okay for these birds ? they eat cockroaches and centipedes as a standard diet (Hawaii is paradise for pests as well as people) ... oatmeal in the same condition ??

they also snitch some of the dry cat food I put out for our official mouse/rat catching cat (NutroMax) so I'm trying to feed the chickens just before I put the catfood out, and put out no more than the cat can eat in a reasonable time ...
however I think the hens may have intimidated the cat since I've seen the chicks at the cat-bowl with the cat sitting back watching ...

I'm hoping to entice them into a coop so I can check to see if the hens are laying --- since even in 'winter' we have 12+ hours of sunlight, low around 60*, high in mid 70s ... and give them a bit more protection at night, because one of the wild cats definitely DOES climb trees, I've seen him up in the mango and he seems to sleep up in the macadamia tree

advice cheerfully accepted

Kaneke

 

[Kaneke]

and it's amazing how things can change in just one day !

the neighboring property owner decided to have his "vacant lot" weedwhacked, so the 4-6 feet tall wild grass is now lying in disarray over the 6-inch tall "stubs" of the clumps the grass grew in

and the little black pullet seems to have developed a salt-and-pepper colored neck literally overnight ... looks like white or beige feathers are coming in underneath the black ones ... so she may wind up looking like her mama

(I saw several "wild chicken" pictures with a similar feather pattern, but these hens are white where the pictures show buff-to-gold feathering, and these are metallic-sheen black where the pictures show brown with black lacings ... and as I said, these have yellow legs where the pictures of the wild hens show them with gray or greenish legs ! )

maybe I have Halloween-Candy chickens rather than Easter Egg chickens ?!?

 

[seagullplayer]

I bought some Red Jungle Fowl at an auction this week. I have only had them a few days. They remind me of some game hens I had once, but they are smaller bodied and at least right now a little tamer.
I can already see the rooster runs things, its six hens and the rooster. They are still rather young, the guy I bought them from said they should be lying by February.
I have made it a point to handle them each time I am in the barn so they can get use to me. We are just getting back in the chicken buz after a two year absence, so right now they are the only chickens in the barn.
My plan is to make a tractor pin in the spring and set them up in the field. The game hens I raised a few years ago where bad about hiding their nest, I allowed them to free range. I expect these birds to be much the same.
I wasn’t looking for this breed but they looked like great birds and I was in the market…

I also got an aracona hen with 12 chicks; they are in a cage for the time being, I’m glad to know about the fighting, I will have to be very careful when I let the chicks out.