Is it possible to get the best of both worlds?

[mwturn99]

Have you looked into Liege Fighter's (top picture)? What you're looking for sounds a lot like what I'm doing with my breeding experiment. 2nd picture is a cross between a Liege and a Phoenix. He doesn't really look much bigger than a Phoenix but a GOOD 2-3 pounds heavier. Liege feathers sit tighter to the body so they hide the extra mass. My cross is about halfway between the 2 breeds in size. I've read that breeds that handle the cold better usually have a smaller comb. Straight comb breeds are more prone to loosing comb and wattles from frostbite.
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Wow that's a very pretty rooster!
My main concern with gamefowl though is that I hear they don't lay all that much. I know this has to do in part because they go broody. Is that the only reason, though? Excluding when they go broody, do they lay as much as a domesticated hen?

 

[Sic]

Is there a chicken with the oriental aesthetic of a gamefowl, that is simultaneously a great layer, a broiler, and cold hardy?
if no such bird exists, would cross breeding a gamefowl with a more domesticated chicken (for example AGB x Jersey giant) result in a useless bird, or a perfect cross? Has anyone tried this?

Kraienkoppe fill this need fairly well, not a massive meat bird, but tender and tasty nonetheless...

 

[Nashv755]

Wow that's a very pretty rooster!
My main concern with gamefowl though is that I hear they don't lay all that much. I know this has to do in part because they go broody. Is that the only reason, though? Excluding when they go broody, do they lay as much as a domesticated hen?

I never counted for yearly egg production and mine are free-range so never sure if they've stopped laying or hiding them lol. If I remember right, Liege supposedly lay around 150+ large eggs per year. The goal with mine at the moment is to get the long Phoenix tail with more of the Liege's size and build since Phoenix only get around 5lb max. Then improve on the egg laying to be a dual purpose breed. My Liege hens go broody but at 8-10lb tend to brake a lot more eggs than they hatch. Even when just making a delivery to another brooding hen.

Light plays a part in egg laying as well. That's why egg production slows down in the winter. Chickens are kept in windowless buildings at production egg farms. So they control the light year around and promote them to all molt at the same time. The problem with that is hens are only born with so many eggs so causing them to lay more. They will stop laying sooner in life. I've never thought about it until now but I wonder if game breeds are born with the same amount of eggs as layer breeds and have more years worth of laying because they don't burn through them as fast.

 

[cubalaya]

I think I'll take your advice. Cubalaya seems like the best breed for my interests! I've been looking at online sellers for cubalaya, but all I can find are cubalaya bantams. I'm not interested in bantams since I'll be using them for meat too. Where can I find a high quality, dual purpose cubalaya? I'm just afraid all the sellers in America only breed for ornamental purposes, and not efficient genetics

try sandhill preservation

 

[mwturn99]

OKAY GUYS I FIGURED IT OUT!!!
Chantecler chicken is the one!!
It's very cold hardy, a dual purpose breed, and comes in beautiful partridge!
My only trouble is that all the hatcheries I can find online sell roosters that look like this..

however, this ugly rooster simply will not do. It may be very versatile, but I'm looking for something gorgeous
I found a post from way too long ago on this website, and the guy had a chantecler that looked like this:

This rooster is absolutely stunning. This is what I'm looking for.
So how the heck can I find a breeder that has beautiful chanteclers like the one above?

 

[Amer]

OKAY GUYS I FIGURED IT OUT!!!
Chantecler chicken is the one!!
It's very cold hardy, a dual purpose breed, and comes in beautiful partridge!
My only trouble is that all the hatcheries I can find online sell roosters that look like this..
View attachment 3628468
however, this ugly rooster simply will not do. It may be very versatile, but I'm looking for something gorgeous
I found a post from way too long ago on this website, and the guy had a chantecler that looked like this:
View attachment 3628467
This rooster is absolutely stunning. This is what I'm looking for.
So how the heck can I find a breeder that has beautiful chanteclers like the one above?

According to the Standard of Perfection, Chantecler cocks are this color

They have the mahogany gene. I know where to find breeders of males like the one pictured above but but not the one you pictured.

 

[NatJ]

My only trouble is that all the hatcheries I can find online sell roosters that look like this..
View attachment 3628468
however, this ugly rooster simply will not do. It may be very versatile, but I'm looking for something gorgeous

You could order a large number of cockerel chicks from a hatchery, then raise them up and see what colors they show. Hatchery birds are sometimes quite variable, so you might get one that does look more like what you want, even if the single photo on their website is not what you want. You could also try ordering from more than one hatchery, in case the different hatchery flocks have different traits.

Some people complain that chicks from Hoovers are not good quality (meaning, they often do not look the way the breed is supposed to look.) That might work to your advantage, if you want Chanteclers that are not quite the "right" color (as measured against the Standard of Perfection.)

I do not actually know which hatchery might have ones that are more or less similar to which photo, just thinking out loud about what you might be able to try.

 

[Amer]

You could order a large number of cockerel chicks from a hatchery, then raise them up and see what colors they show. Hatchery birds are sometimes quite variable, so you might get one that does look more like what you want, even if the single photo on their website is not what you want. You could also try ordering from more than one hatchery, in case the different hatchery flocks have different traits.

Some people complain that chicks from Hoovers are not good quality (meaning, they often do not look the way the breed is supposed to look.) That might work to your advantage, if you want Chanteclers that are not quite the "right" color (as measured against the Standard of Perfection.)

I do not actually know which hatchery might have ones that are more or less similar to which photo, just thinking out loud about what you might be able to try.

Agreed

 

[Red Mangrove]

If no such bird exists, would cross breeding a gamefowl with a more domesticated chicken (for example AGB x Jersey giant) result in a useless bird, or a perfect cross? Has anyone tried this?

I have a million game cross running around right now and they're typically the best of both worlds. My Game X RIR hang out with the pure reds and lay almost as many eggs, but they fly significantly better and evade predators far easier. I've have one gamered that has flown 30 feet into the trees before to mess with squirrel nests

Right now I have a million half Fayoumi outside and I notice they're growing at a significantly faster rate than any of my other pure or mixed breeds. I think they may be more ideal for breeding than traditional gamefowl, though I'm experimenting with both

 

[mwturn99]

You could order a large number of cockerel chicks from a hatchery, then raise them up and see what colors they show. Hatchery birds are sometimes quite variable, so you might get one that does look more like what you want, even if the single photo on their website is not what you want. You could also try ordering from more than one hatchery, in case the different hatchery flocks have different traits.

Some people complain that chicks from Hoovers are not good quality (meaning, they often do not look the way the breed is supposed to look.) That might work to your advantage, if you want Chanteclers that are not quite the "right" color (as measured against the Standard of Perfection.)

I do not actually know which hatchery might have ones that are more or less similar to which photo, just thinking out loud about what you might be able to try.

So theoretically if I do this, and it indeed works, I get the perfect color of chantecler I want; does that mean that it technically isn't a chantecler? And if the color of it isn't correct, how likely is it that there are other features of the bird that isn't correct, such as egg laying or their pea comb?

Would having so many cockerels together be a bad idea? Would they free for all fight to the death? Or would they be docile?